build diary 21
After an agonizing 10 months, we’re finally done with the pool build. The reasons for the huge delay were threefold. First of all, we had our wedding in May 2023, which true to form, we organised all by ourselves. With friends and family visiting Bali for this special event, we wanted to really relax and spend as much time with them as possible. Secondly, we were starting to feel a bit burnt out from the last three years of building. They say that if something takes too much time, you loose interest - which has definitely happened to some extent. Building the pool by ourselves after having built an entire house was not really something we felt excited about but it needed to be done. As we’ve never built a pool before, we also felt quite overwhelmed at times, especially when it came to the final rendering stage. So the third reason for the delay was that we just didn’t quite know how to achieve the polished concrete look that we were going for, even after doing intensive research on the internet.
The pool is ready to be poured after months of preparation.
Wooden contraption for the metal chute that would transport the concrete from the mixer into the pool.
The metal chute carrying wet concrete from our neighbour's block into our pool.
Taking the plywood formwork off.
After the pool had been poured, we removed the plywood formwork and were finally able to see the extent of the work that was still coming our way. The pool floor and walls needed to be waterproofed, the steps needed to be made, and the entire inside of the pool needed to be rendered. We simply couldn’t do this alone. So after building the steps and a few attempts at rendering, we hired a local team of workers that finished the job for us. It took four guys almost an entire week to get the pool to ‘filling stage’, which made us realise that we probably never could have done this alone.
Sayut working on the pump room ceiling that will support the deck extension.
The Ulin pool deck which meets seamlessly with the existing decking of the house.
Looking back, the pool build was probably the hardest thing we’ve ever done, harder even than building our own house. At least now we can talk about that time we were crazy enough to build our own pool. Would we do it again? Maybe…