Before we can begin building the pool, a certain amount of destruction is required. Specifically, we need to: Demolish the red brick paving above the pool area. Remove the sleeper retaining walls currently in the pool area. Transplant all of the vegetation to other areas of the garden. I’m not a big fan of the red bricks and especially so given that the other side of the house has wooden decking. Wooden deck + travertine paving + red brick is one too many materials.

Building an automatic water manager for a vertical garden wall.

Installing a Mobius ActionCam to take periodic photographs of the site. We will assembled the stills into a time lapse video at the completion of the pool construction project.

It struck me recently that this endeavor would not have been remotely possible pre-Internet, or even pre-YouTube. The ability to track down tutorials, instructional videos, and professional forum discussions on topics as diverse as structural engineering to how to stop a wedding (I kid you not).

Fiberglass pool shells come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but are broadly similar in their construction. They generally consist of a number of layers of fiberglass and other materials and a final “gelcoat” finishing layer that is the finished surface of the pool.

Fiberglass pool or concrete pool? Concrete pools are built directly in the ground onsite. Concrete (or more often shotcrete) is set on a framework of steel reinforcement and then plastered or tiled. Concrete pools are endlessly customizable and can be built to suit any site.

So I’m building a pool. More precisely, I’m building a pool, a deck, supporting retaining walls, storage cupboards, privacy shield, garden beds, and lighting,

Toyota Prius - courtesey of Pawel Golsztajn I own a second generation Toyota Prius, and while it’s a great little car, it has one fatal flaw - the 12V auxiliary battery. Unlike most cars, the 12V battery in the Prius isn’t used to power the starter motor for the combustion engine. That is powered by the main hybrid battery. The 12V battery is used to power the vehicle electronics during the start up process. Once the vehicles computer system is booted up, the hybrid battery takes over.