Pool chaos

Friday:

Our big issue with getting this pool is the access up the side of the house. It is narrow, lined with plants, and with posts holding up the pergola roof over the little courtyard. We already had one post removed and the roof temporarily braced, which is what the original pool salesman thought would be required. But the site manager Angelo came and shook his head and said it might be a problem and the excavator guy Phil came this morning and measured and shook his head and told me we have to remove another post! So I called up my handyman and he rigged up a bracing system so the pergola roof doesn't fall down, it had to be done by Monday morning as that is when they want to bring the excavator in! I've been panicking this morning and making frantic phone calls. But it's done now. I'm very grateful to my handyman who made the time to do it today for me.

Oh, and there is only a "slim" chance it will be completed by Christmas. So looking a bit gloomy. It all feels a bit too much at the moment but we've signed a contract and removed all those trees so must push ahead now. There is seven weeks until Christmas but three of those weeks are taken up by the concrete curing after it's poured.

Saturday:

We had a morning tea today to meet new baby Samuel, a few family members came over here as the new parents wanted to get out of the house! I got to give him a cuddle and bottle fed him (no idea why the mother isn't breastfeeding and not the sort of thing I ask). New babies are so tiny! Still haven't met Lucy who was born a week or two earlier but we are going to see her tomorrow.

I agonised a bit about getting yummy treats for the morning tea that I wouldn't be able to eat (I plan to have some of Aiden's birthday cake next week but otherwise no junk until Christmas), but finally thought "why am I feeding people I love junk I know is bad for them?" We live near everyone now so seeing them doesn't require "special occasion" food. I did get a small pack of chocolate biscuits - which didn't even all get eaten - but the rest was a big variety of fresh fruit, and some cheese and crackers. Even the kids went for the berries before the biscuits!

Then in the afternoon we did some heavy gardening work, pruning back everything that might be in the way of the excavators path to the backyard. A couple of camellias turned out to have quite a heavy pest infestation, I think they will actually benefit from being thinned out so the inner branches get more access to air and light. And I was very careful to keep a pleasing shape on the Japanese maple. Now I just hope nothing gets too badly damaged by the equipment! This place is going to need a lot of landscaping and gardening after the pool is in.