rocks and stone

steps or a swim up bar?

Never a dull moment around here.  The other day the stone workers came to deliver 2 rocks and a bench.  The rocks were to be steps in the pool.  First one guy came and said to drain the pool.  Mimi was dubious but we did drain it about half way down.  Then the truck came with these enormous rocks.  They are the local stone and incredibly heavy.  We weren’t really expecting something this size.

What we need you see, are a couple extra steps in the pool.  I can get out but it is two really high steps and I thought they might not be that easy someday.  I think we were expecting a couple small chunks of stone.  The idea is that if they don’t have to break into the concrete of the pool it will be a lot better, cheaper and avoid any potential leaks.  So, heavy stones that just sit on the existing ledges and give you a couple extra steps to get out.  Simple right?

So, the truck gets here and I go out to open the front doors.  I notice that there are a lot of people standing around looking at the truck from the doctor’s office a couple doors down, so I walk down there.  Turns out the big guy, there is always a ‘big guy’ whenever anything heavy has to be hauled around, had dropped one of the rocks on his finger.  He was standing there holding his hand up, blood dripping down his arm, the end of a finger looking much too short and like it had a gob of hamburger on the end.

I told him to go around the corner to the Red Cross but he said no.  I went and got some peroxide and gauze and when I got back the job boss was there.  Again I suggested the Red Cross, it is only a few doors around the corner and they have a small emergency clinic.  This time I heard the big guy say he didn’t want to go because he didn’t have his papers.  Alan insisted and they went off around the corner.

OK, now the big guy is gone and the head guy and two remaining little guys have to get the rocks in.  The head guy is big, but he is the head guy and they don’t usually haul stuff.  It was clear the two little guys were not going to be able to do it so he had to help.   Major drama over that but it all got settled and the 3 of them start the process of getting a huge rock on a dolly, getting the dolly over the several drops in height on the way to the back yard.   It took quite a while, I was rattled.  If they dropped one of those rocks I’d have a crater in the floor.

By this time it was almost dark.  Mimi and I are looking at these friggin huge boulders in the yard and these guys are considering dropping them into our now empty pool.  No way, we’d have a leak for sure.  Mimi is telling me we don’t want them at all and I’m trying to figure out what to do.  Finally we tell them to just leave them in the yard until tomorrow, it’s too dark to do anything.

Next morning, we still think the rocks are too big.

Now the guys reappear with a new big guy and a couple more small guys too.  I tell them that I want to talk to Henry about it before they put them in the pool.  Henry is in Canada.  I can’t imagine these rocks ever coming back out of my pool once they are in there and I am not at all sure they will fit.   Finally they agree to wait until next week when Henry returns.  Whew! another decision averted.

the bench

Now they have the bench to bring in and take upstairs to the guest bathroom.   It is a stone bench of the local marble and it too is massive and heavy.  It’s gorgeous though and I have no hesitation about pointing out the stairs.  It was crazy watching them haul that thing up and around our switchback stairs.  The strain was evident but they got it up there.  Then we had to decide how to secure it.  The floor in the shower slopes and so it rocked a little just sitting there.  It was finally decided to use mortar on the bottom to keep it in place.

Of course, stone guys don’t do concrete so the albanil had to be summoned and he did a good job.  I had been concerned that the mortar would show but it is not really noticeable and the bench is stable now.  It looks great, I don’t have a pic of it in place yet.  This is all the result of changing the shower in there to fix the drainage problems.  The dry well that was supposed to drain everything from the front of the house doesn’t drain very well.  So, we made the shower larger, got rid of the plant space and the whole thing now drains into the septic.  That meant a huge space for the shower and it seemed to call for a place to sit down.  This is how these things all start, a simple idea and a complicated solution.