Build Diary 20
One of the last things to do after finalising the inside of the house was always the landscaping in the backyard and of course, the pool. Now that it’s dry season again, there really is no better time to get started with those outdoor jobs, and the pool is the first one. The dimensions we have planned are approximately 7x3 metres, spaced half a metre off the existing decking near the bedroom and running parallel to it. This is to allow enough space so as to not compromise the foundation pylons of the house, but also to give some room for a small deck extension towards the back palm trees. The pool will mostly be free standing on the lower terrace so that the top of the pool, the new deck extension and the existing decking are all on one level.
The garden before starting work on the pool.
Although we are attempting to do as much of the work ourselves, some things are simply too strenuous, such as digging out the actual soil to make room for the foundation. So we hired a small team who got the job done in just two days, which is simply amazing. Working only with their hands and a shovel each, they certainly have our deep respect.
The next step was to start thinking about the supporting steel for the foundation and walls. We ordered sheets of steel mesh and steel bars from our usual local supplier, who was supposed to drop it all off at our house, however due to the narrow access road in our village, the sheets didn’t fit through and so had to be dropped off near the Community Hall. This posed another small problem for us, as the sheets are awkward to handle due to their large size. In typical Bali fashion, a couple of locals quickly offered their help, however after carrying just two of the ten sheets up the hill and to our house, they all of a sudden disappeared and never came back. This is by no means unusual and not expecting them back, we carried the remaining 8 sheets ourselves. Two in the morning and two in the late afternoon to avoid the heat.
Something very similar happened with a huge truck full of rocks that we had ordered for the ponds we’re planning on building. Looking back, it was probably bad communication somewhere along the way, because although we had enquired about the rocks, we hadn’t ordered or paid for them. So once we got notification that delivery had been made to the Village (this is where all large orders of building materials get dropped off before they get put onto smaller Utes), we needed to accept our “order” and have it dropped off at our neighbour’s land. Long story short, a few months later, the rocks were still in exactly the same spot, as we couldn’t find anyone who could carry the rocks into our garden - so once again, we took on the task ourselves and over the course of a few days, we moved a few tonnes of rocks, one wheelbarrow at a time.
Moving a full truck load of rocks from our neighbour’s land into our garden.
All the rocks are temporarily placed in the pond near the motorbike shed.
Since there are also two new building projects happening right next to us (one either side of us to be precise), we needed to quickly come up with some ideas on how to ensure our privacy. One of these ideas was to build a gate between the bedroom and living room, which is hinged on one side so that it can be opened when the windows need to be cleaned. Luckily, we still had an old steel panel that was supposed to be the roof panel for the walkway between the bedroom and living room, so it fit perfectly. All we needed to do was cut some Kalsi planks to size, screw them to the frame and paint it. We will probably also finally build a fence facing the Jungle side of our property, using the same materials ensuring durability. In the meantime, we quickly constructed a makeshift fence with sheets of plywood.
Another couple of unfinished jobs included the closing-off of the bedroom wardrobe as well as the cladding of the kitchen island bench. For this, we used pre-grooved Kalsi board that has become available in Bali since we started building our house. This was a huge bonus since it saved us the effort of having to hand groove the sheets ourselves, which was an insane amount of work.
