you would think that our family living without the garden and swimming pool for a year or so would be no big deal. but it was. none of the contractors had ever done a project like this before, and we certainly hadn’t. to recap: the goal was to remove the garden, dig an enormous hole 6m (20ft) deep and 20m x 20m (65ft x 65ft) large, build a sizable subterranean structure (on a hillside), and then replace the garden to its previous, pristine state. the hole was so enormous, the number of construction machines and large trucks so overwhelming, the loss of our tranquil retreat so complete, that we became worried that it would not be possible to restore everything to its previous state. just seeing earth distributed over the cement structure was wonderful. for the final result, please refer to …future blog posts!