St. Tropez

"St. Tropez" is the pool design that we chose to have built for the summer. Whilst the summer months are quite short in this part of the world, I felt that I could justify the expense as temperatures in summer regularly exceed 86F/30c and it also doubles as an emergency water source in case of drought or fire.

The JCB broke ground early December 2011, a month later than the agreed start date!

The excavation took less than 5hrs to complete, I was truly impressed at the skill and precision of the JCB operator. You'll notice in this picture that the stair entrance is quite narrow, I later modified the design to expand this area into a shallow play area for kids.

Notice the layer of volcanic sand and ash less than 1m from the top soil ... I guess that means that the area experienced a major eruption from the nearby Villarrica volcano not that long ago!   

Finally, the project was moving so I thought .... But the builders disappeared, no materials were delivered as promised and along came Christmas and New Year!

Work resumed early January, which of-course turned out to be a very hot and dry month!

After negotiating the changes I wanted to the pool design, I had to go to Santiago for a week, so I missed the wire framing and early construction - fortunately work proceeded as agreed without me.  

Pool pumps are very noisy, so I insisted that the whole filtration system be located as far away as possible (max 10m from furthest skipper ), and be sub-terrainial to help muffle the sound. A steel hinged cover protects the pump house from sun, rain and curious intruders ;-)

Pool sun deck finished, now ready to paint .... if it only stops raining that is!

Pool painted and illumination lamps fitted .... just add water! It took around 2 days to fill using a standard hose pipe - at some point I'll connect the main water feed. It then took a couple of sunny days to raise the temperature from a frigid 17c to a more comfortable 24c 

Our son Ethan contemplating how to retrieve the 'duck' pool thermometer - ummmm bad idea, I knew I should have purchased the plain model!

Despite the delays, I'm very happy with our new pool ... my only worry now is whether I can get the safety fence built around it before our son takes an unscheduled swim!