Transforming our pool area -

We put our pool in around 18 years ago and at the time we had the area around the pool filled with concrete. We then had a stencilled finish put on the concrete in a colour that blended with the sandstone coping. Unfortunately the concrete was a very expensive disaster. The coating started chipping off after about two years and it faded badly. We lived with it for a long time while we tried to work out what to do.

As well as the concrete issue the area was very hot as there was no shade and basically we swam and then got out of there!!!!

Transforming our pool area began with the decision to remove the concrete all together. Tony is very confident working with timber so he wanted to put in a deck covered by a roofed timber pergola.

These are the before shots. The concrete doesn’t actually look that bad in these photos but it was!!!

The work begins on our pool area transformation

The first thing Tony did was remove all the concrete. Now saying that sounds like it was easy but it was NOT! It was a huge messy job. The conifers got sprayed with concrete from the cutting machine and ended up dying which was really disappointing.

Building the deck

Tony is a surveyor so he is very confident with designing and drawing plans for all of our projects. Transforming our pool area included a deck and also a covered pergola. Tony loves timber decks but initially I was a bit concerned about the ongoing maintenance and I didn’t want a dark timber deck. We ended up compromising and constructed the deck using Tallowwood which will go grey. Something I didn’t think of those is that the deck did go grey and looks beautiful except in the areas in the middle of the pergola which don’t get any rain or sun!! It would have been better to build the deck and the pergola but leave the roof off until the deck had sufficiently weathered. Anyway you live and learn and we still love it so thats what matters in the end.

As well as building the deck we decided to go for a colour change on the house. We started in this area and I ended up working may way around the whole house. Over the years I have become a pretty good painter. I have painted the exterior twice. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of patience but it does save us money that we can use for other things. Tony likes to tell people that I like to paint but that is definitely not true. I like the results and I like to save money but I DO NOT like painting!!😂

The finished product

This area has now become somewhere we use all the time in summer. It’s comfortable as well as practical. We now have a great day bed that gets some morning sun for a little sun baking but in the hot afternoon it’s shaded. There is a comfortable sofa for watching TV and having a cuppa with friends. We now even have an area for our exercise equipment (which gets sporadic use!😂)