Well as you know if you have been following our blog that I held up September’s entry to make the most of the Swimming Pool construction. Well to say we were impressed with the company that did the pool would be an understatement. True to their promise the pool was finished when we arrived on the 21st October and they had started to fill it with water.
They had put an additional hose as well as the pool fill tap but it still took about 3 days to fill the pool, we did try dipping out toes, but it is October and the water was coming up from 100 metres down so it was numbingly cold, far too cold to get completely in.
The other things we noted that is two taps filling is just too much for one borehole and maintain a reasonable amount of water pressure to the house, fine when we are not about but not so good when we are. However just turning off the additional hose feed works well, the pool was still filling fine and we had good water pressure to the house. That’s all right and fine when you think about it, as you will only have to fill the pool every couple of years, or so we are told.
The guy that did the construction came to see us after the pool had filled to show us how all the machinery works. Hope we can remember it all!
We had a fabulous week at the house, which culminated the day before we had to go back to the UK with all the new furniture being delivered. Once again we had entrusted our needs to the wonderful Fillip at Casa Moveis Santareno, if you need his details, please just email me. He is based in Fundao but I know they have a showroom in Castelo Branco and I suspect elsewhere as well. I would most certainly recommend him. We just told him what we wanted, size, shape etc and left it with him and as you can see he really came up trumps.
All the way through this project we have where we can supported the local industry and shops rather than the big chains, not always possible, when we could we do. Casa Movies Santareno’s pricing is spot on, they are about the same price as the bigger chain stores, maybe just a little more expensive, but everything is made bespoke and fits so the quality is far superior to the chain stores. So don’t ever be frightened to go into that little store, that opens up as you go in and discuss you needs, it works.
The next job is the garden and the watering systems for the garden and of course the fruit trees, we have had quotes for both from two different people. As they were two very different types of companies, one far more a gardening type the other more agricultural we have decided to split the job. So the bit around the house, where we need clover/grass and flowers as well as a watering system, is going to the gardening man. The gate, track and bridgework along with the watering system for the fruit trees is going to the agricultural guy. Paulo, our project manager is starting to make contact with them so we can hopefully get it done and established before the dry weather returns in 2016.
The final job before we left for home was to make sure the swimming pool was all covered up and sorted for the winter.
