I've always fancied having a pool in the garden.  Even when I was a child.  When we moved into our current house I started researching the idea.  On our budget an indoor pool would be a non-starter so I started looking into DIY outdoor pools.

The appeared to fall into three categories:

• Inground liner pools.  These are constructed using concrete blocks and a liner. This was originally the approach  I was going to take.
• Pre-formed inground pools.  These seemed to be much easier to install, but were a lot more expensive and outside my budget.
• Above ground pools.  When I was originally researching the project, only one of the brochures which were sent to me showed above ground pools.  This seemed to me to be quite a sensible approach - they made the idea of a swimming pool a lot more affordable.

Then our circumstances changed. I left my job, went back to university and  we had absolutely zero budget for a swimming pool.   It is only recently, as I have completed the studies and started to work again, that we could possibly afford a pool.    The naturist area is almost finished and is crying out for a pool, so I started the research all over again.  It was noticeable that now, most of the brochures showed aboveground pool kits.  Suddenly the project started to look affordable and I was told that above ground pools had increased in both quality and popularity.

     At the moment we are still saving hard. We hadn't quite reacehd our total but the time was right and we have ordered a pool which should be delivered in January.  We intend installing in March 2003.  I'll cover the whole project here on this  page  to show dificulties, problems, solutions and the whole process  to help anyone  else who is considering a similar project.  I'll  give details of the  company we use and follow the relationship with  the company.

Thanks to all those people who have (or have had) similar projects and who have got in touch.  Anyone else?