Hot Tub

            A new chapter unfolds; Barb decided she wanted a hot tub almost a year ago, they certainly relaxing albeit expensive.  This fact was only a temporary impediment to 'Barb and here we are ready to get one installed.  Now I'm not against the presence of the hot tub, nary I say I delight in the relaxation offered by the jets of warm water.

            The availability of a hot tub while on vacation is one of the things I look forward to.  After an invigorating day of down hill skiing, the hot tub will soothe those tired muscles and quickly turn one into a quivering mass of jelly.

As you can see, the intermediate results of our labor. Barb too spent some time on the working end of a shovel in preparing the ground for the concrete pad forms.  I certainly wish to thank David, my brother-in-law for his help in the project.  Hew spent a number of hours with a wheel barrowing the concrete and doing finishing work and along with Barb while I toiled away at the "salt mines",    Cingular Wireless and a good deal of electrical work along with friend Steve.

Because I had decided to run electricity to my shed (it's nice to see out there at night) as long as I was running conduit, I had about 150 feet of trenching to rip out of the ground.  One of these manual trenchers weighs some where around 200 pounds and your have to pull it along.  After 45 minutes of straining muscles, back wrenching and twenty blisters on the hands, I had my one foot deep trench.

As you can see by the picture of the pad we made it about 8 X 10 and five inches thick.  Most suitable to bear the load of the tub filled with water and occupants weighing in somewhere around 2500 pounds.  A pleasant side effect of the electrical installation was to provide me with another outdoor electrical outlet; a place to plug in the weed whacker of the hedge trimmer and even a radio while lounging in the hot tub.  The wife will enjoy listening to the St. Louis Cardinals; a longtime baseball fan.

  We had about two weeks to wait before the delivery after the preparations.  The anticipation was like the ketchup commercial.  

            It's finally here!  Not that the installation went with out a hitch .   That would be expecting too much from the gods of Murphy's Law.  A quick run to the store to procure one more piece of wire for a ground (we really should have been told us) it seems as the tub requires two hot wires, a neutral and a ground.  And just for good measure, we found out when the installers came to do the hook up, the breaker box should not have been wired for normal 240 volt installation. See the wiring diagram...Warning, you must read schematic diagrams

            At last all elements of the project have come together to give us joy and relaxation!   The first night, the weather was perfect.  Not a cloud in the night sky, the full moon skimming the tree tops and a the dazzling presence of Mars bigger and brighter that it has been in 50,000 years provided an exquisite setting of serenity and privacy. 

            Behold, I present our hot tub manufactured by  LA Spas Home Page.   Here's a link to the model, a Natural.  Take note of the pictures.  From the perspective of some, a sign of decadence, moral decay. To that I say pooh pooh, let the decadence begin and while you’re up, could you re-fill my champagne glass?  Welcome to middle class living in the 21st century.