About a month ago, a local FB message board had a used hot tub posted for sale on it. Probably 30 people commented that they were interested – including me – and #17 (a good friend of mine) ended up actually following through and purchasing it. We are talking an old hot tub (circa 2004 I think?) which was very well maintained, and my hot tub loving heart was quite jealous of my friend. We had looked into getting a tub in the past, but new ones cost around $10,000 for a new one, and that’s just crazy talk for us financially, so we moved on quickly from that discussion.

Fast forward one week, and said friend was texting me asking if we were interested in purchasing this beauty from them, because they had realized what a large undertaking it would be to trench a 220v wire across their driveway and around their house and build a deck to put the tub on. The $575 tub was turning into a project that would cost them too much time and money, so they were going to have to pass on it at this time.

One guess what I said? 🙂

Related, why did I think that all of the hurdles above wouldn’t also apply to us? #SMH

*****

Fast forward another week, and there is a LOT of grumbling happening from my husband’s corner. He was initially totally on board and said yes even before I did, BUT, when we said yes…

• We thought we could put it on a few paver stones in our back yard, but after a lengthy discussion (aka 38 emails) with a guy Charlie plays hockey with who works at the hot tub store, we realized we’d need a concrete pad or compacted & leveled ground with a 2″ gravel base and pavers on top of that if we wanted. After a comment from the hot tub guy along the lines of “don’t you know a concrete guy? haha”, I was finally able to convince Charlie to pour a pad for it, even though it’d be in the back yard and they’d have to wheelbarrow all of the mud because I didn’t want to pay $800 for a pump truck. Labor + Materials = $
• We thought we would pour a small 10 x 10 pad (1.23 cubic yards), but the truck minimum is a 4 cubic yard charge, so then I talked Charlie into pouring the entire back corner of our yard if we were going to be paying for the concrete anyway. We also had concrete stamps and leftover color taking up room in the garage annoying me on the daily, so Charlie even used up some of those extra materials and did a gorgeous color & stamp on it! $
• We thought we had 220v electric easily accessible to the back yard already, but we actually needed to pay an electrician to have it pulled along the west side of the house from the north to the south side and to actually hook up the tub. More $.
• We (briefly) thought about moving the tub ourselves, but then quickly thought better about that and hired the professionals to do it. They called themselves the Brains and the Brawn, and I had a wonderful lunch break one day watching them install the hot tub in my back yard. Worth every penny. Thankfully Charlie’s hookup got us that deal for $300 instead of $450, but yes, more $.
• Are you sensing a theme yet? LOL
• It turns out that the initial setting up of a tub takes a few hundred dollars of cleaning solutions and chemicals as well. Who knew? $
• We also need to invest in a new cover sometime soon, but that’s another $450, so we’ve put that on the back burner for now. Ha!

Before & After, in my completely non-picked up yard. Ha! 

I honestly have yet to add up what this $575 hot tub actually cost us (it’s worth about $4k and we didn’t spend that much on the whole shebang – hot tub & patio included – so I feel okay about it either way), BUT, I will say that since we got it up and running last Saturday, we have been in it literally every single day. EVERY SINGLE DAY. My husband has quit groaning because he is realizing how much he loves a soak after a hard day at work pouring concrete, the kids are already becoming pros at holding their breath underwater for long periods of time, and me? I’m just loving getting some tech-free time with (or without) my family, both morning and night.

Yep, I have a feeling that this will be my new “cheap” version of therapy. 🙂

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