We Got A Hot Tub!
We (finally) got a hot tub. It almost feels like a rite of passage when you move to Vermont, subaru, mountain bike, canoe, hot tub, lol. Seriously though, after our first official mud season last year (it’s rough) Craig and I got in the car and drove to the nearest hot tub dealer. I don’t think I could do another long, cold Vermont winter without one. As are most things with the pandemic, hot tubs are really hard to come by. At least the kind that we wanted (jets, comfy seating, cover with a lift).
When we went to look last spring, almost everything was backordered until January 2023 (at least). Our options were a bit limited, but we settled on a Vita Spa Grand. It fits 6-7 people, has tons of jets and I am not exaggerating when I say we’ve used it almost every day since it was delivered.
The nice thing about our house is we have a big back yard and it’s (mostly) flat.
A lot of the yards around here have tons of trees or are built on a hill. There is a slope where we wanted to put the hot tub, so we decided to hire an excavator to dig out and build a retaining wall. He also built the pad for the hot tub with pavers and buried the electrical lines with a conduit. While he was at it, he put in some drainage along the house to help move water away from the foundation. It was an expense but since we rarely hire contractors for anything I was ok with paying for it. The job would have been a big undertaking for Craig to do on his own (without big machinery).
After the hot tub was delivered we quickly realized we needed more privacy from the road.
Craig decided to build a fence using cedar boards (5/4x8x10). It’s perfect because it gives us total privacy but when you’re in the hot tub looking out all you see is trees and sky. It’s the best of both worlds. It took him about 3-4 days, putting the posts in was a lot of labor. The fence was not cheap because cedar is so expensive right now. Looking back we probably could have picked a different lumber but options were limited and this will last a really long time.
We’ve had it now for about a month and we are VERY happy with our decision. It was an interesting process for us because the work we’ve done on our houses has always been to improve or make updates. This was the first time we spent money on something “just for fun.” We really wanted a hot tub and decided to go for it. It has been a fun thing to have for all of us to enjoy and I can’t WAIT to go out there this winter with snow on the ground after a day on the mountain and look up at the sky while I soak under the stars. That’s Vermont living.
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