The budget would be in the region of £100,000. Yes you guessed it, I get a new pond and Clare gets a new house. We shopped around, me looking for a big garden and a pub close to hand, and Clare looking for an old house so I could practice my DIY skills.
One week before we moved in the owner of our new house said I could clear the area where my new pond was planned. One week and one full skip later, on Friday at 2pm, we moved in. Being a good and thoughtful husband (to be) I got out of bed at 7:30am to unload the digger I had hired for the weekend. With no time to waste I started to dig. I looked up and around, to see if there were any curtains twitching, to find I had an audience from every house that could see into my garden. What must be going through their heads? ‘He moved in less that twenty-four hours ago and he's burying his wife already'? That's enough of that let's get back to the pond.

I dug down to about three feet and hit rock, I drilled down fourteen inches (that's the longest drill bit I've got) and it was still rock. So, here is the first change to my plan and I'm only eight hours into my project.
I did want the pond to be one foot above the ground and four foot below, a total of five feet deep. I did originally want to block and render my pond, but that would mean at least eight inches of concrete. So what do I do? I had already sourced my filter so I gave Craig a ring and asked him if it would be possible to build a pond out of polypropylene. He did say he would give it a go. He had made some ponds out of it but they were more formal than mine.

One week and five skips later I dug a trench for the bottom drain. I had planned to have two bottom drains, but as it took me six and a half hours to do the first one, I gave up on the second one.
On Saturday, at nine o'clock in the morning, Craig arrived with the materials to line the hole. I helped with the work and we lowered it in and connected the bottom drain, then added a shelf for plants. It only took twelve and a half hours, so I called it day!

On Sunday morning Craig turned up with the filter made to fit the gap behind the pond.

The filter comprises of two vortexes, each 39 inches wide and 32 inches deep. After fitting the filter I put in a fifty-five watt U.V., followed by an Aquamax 10,000 Pump to return the water back to the pond two and a half feet below the surface. Then it was time to fit the skimmer. This was to be placed at the small end of the pond and then the water was to be pumped through the Aquamax 7500 and returned to the pond via a vent eight inches from the surface above the filter outlet.

At the end of the second weekend, it was time for a rest (back to work!).
During the week my father-in-law (to be) said to Clare that it would be really good if the pond had a window in it, so he could see the fish from the kitchen window. So I rang Craig to ask the question and he said, "don't be stupid", but then he said that he would give it a go. So on Friday afternoon we set to it, we put in a ten millimetre thick window. The rest of the weekend I laid bricks for my first time.
On weekend number four I laid the decking and filled the pond. I checked for leaks and to my surprise there were none! I didn't put my Koi in the pond until after the Winter, as I just had to test the window to see if it resisted the frost.