The pool — shrunk, restored, and still waiting for its finish

The pool was part of the design from the start. It was also the part of the build that tested our patience most, and it still is.

Smaller, then not

Building costs rose sharply after the pandemic. Our first reaction was to make the pool smaller and simply rectangular. It was a knee-jerk decision, and when we thought about it properly we went back to the original design, with a surface area of 62.20m².

Changing our minds cost us more than if we had never changed them at all. The lesson is easy to write and harder to follow: make the big decisions once, calmly, and then leave them alone.

Why one end is shallow

One end of the pool is shallow. It is the end nearest the kitchen, and it is there so that people can sit on the edge, or in the water, and still be part of the conversation. For a house built around having people over, that mattered more than extra length.

The steel, and a long wait

The reinforcement was in by July 2024, and by September the shell was taking shape.

Then it stopped. The steel was still standing, waiting for concrete, at the end of the year.

Cape Verde is short of skilled labour. In recent years many experienced tradespeople have left for Portugal, drawn by higher wages, and that has stretched out every specialised job on this build. The pool is the clearest example. Finding the right contractor for the structural work took until March 2025.

The pour

The formwork went up on 3 March 2025, and the next day the concrete was pumped in.

It did not go entirely to plan. A mistake in settling the concrete during the pour caused one wall to collapse into the main pool. It was put right straight away, but the break left behind a leak that should never have been there.

The leak test

A few days later the rough shell was filled with water to check that it held. The first time, it did not: the repaired wall leaked. A few days after that the repair was reapplied, the second test passed, and the shell has been sound ever since.

That is exactly what the test is for. A fault is far easier to find and fix in a bare concrete shell than under a finished surface.

The finish

The pool will be finished in microcement: white, and flush with the tiled patio around it. As of September 2026 it has its first coat. What remains is not a big job, probably a week's work.

We are still waiting for someone to do it. It needs a different contractor from the one who built the shell, and one who will do it well. So far we have had a good many promises that never turned into a start date.

Running it

The water will be heated by the solar water heater on the roof, which has two circuits, one for the house and one for the pool. The pumps and filtration will sit in a technical area at the back of the house, where they are easy to reach when something needs attention. Between solar heating and solar-generated electricity, we expect the running costs to stay modest. We will use chlorine.

Wind and dust are ever present here, and both end up in the water. Regular cleaning deals with them.

What we would tell anyone planning one

• Settle the size and shape once. Changing your mind part-way cost us more than either version would have.
• Allow for the wait. Specialist trades are scarce, and the timetable is set by when the right person is free, not by when the concrete could go in.
• Leak-test the bare shell, and be ready to do it twice.
• Put the plant where you can reach it.

We will not publish a cost for the pool until it is finished. A figure for a pool that is not yet complete would be the wrong number to plan against.