My stomach is tied in knots. What have I done? I can't even cop out and say it was a spur of the moment decision. I slept on it, and really thought about it. After all of that reflection, number crunching, and self-bargaining, and with one Croatian teenager enthusiastically asking, "Can we go now?" we went back to the spa dealer, and picked out a newer hot tub. The one I have is nearing the end of its expected life span, at somewhere around 17 years. The control panel needs to be replaced for the second time (my dad did it once, if I remember what he told me correctly), because it keeps pulsing the jets, one second on, one second off, non-stop. Last night I just turned it off at the breaker, and today when Mr S-P returned from a camping trip, he disconnected to blower so he could continue to sit in the warm water. I've had to replace the heater core once already, when we first got it. And to top it off (pun intended) the lid is long past its expiration date, with the leather cracked and hard, no longer sealing the top well enough to keep heat in during the winter. That generation of tub, with the thinnest layer of foam insulating the basin from underneath, is not energy efficient. It probably adds $30-50 in electricity every single month, especially in the winter. New tubs draw less power overall, and the cavities underneath the molded fiberglass basins are entirely filled with spray foam. They said I should expect no more than about $12 a month in electricity with a new spa. That cost savings factors into my decision to buy.
I begged for a hot tub from the moment we bought our very first house, in 1998. Obviously, way back then, I had no idea how to diagnose the medical issues I have had forever, I just knew that I wanted one because spas feel great. We had a door to the deck that came off of our master bedroom in that first house, and I thought it would be perfect to be able to soak in a hot tub and then stumble a few feet in to bed. We never bought one then, and it's probably for the best, since we moved out of that house less than two years later, and rented it out. A spa would have been destroyed by renters. We moved so often after that, it just never made sense to get one. At our last assignment, in Charleston, my BFF had a hot tub, and we went to Bonfire at her place most weekends. On those times the tub was open and running, it was glorious soaking in the water. I knew I had to get one of my own after we moved.
Two years ago, my dad moved out of his primary residence near Atlanta, and off-loaded a whole lot of stuff. (This is when I acquired the Chinese rug that appears in so many of my photos, the one that he bought when I was a toddler and he was deployed during the Vietnam War. I have loved that rug forever, and was so happy when I inherited it.) When I asked him if he was willing to give me the hot tub, he agreed, as long as I would come get it. We flew down, rented a U-Haul, and brought back the spa, the rug, and a whole bunch of other stuff that was either useful or had sentimental value from my youth (or both). Mr Smith griped the whole way there and back about how frivolous I was being, and he made sure that I paid for the plane tickets, truck rental, gasoline, and hotels out of my own savings, because this errand was my folly. It took less than a week of having it on site before he realized that it was so useful, and he was in it every single night, and some days too. To this day, he is in it at least an hour almost every day, rain or shine, snow or wind. He uses it often enough that he forced himself to admit publicly that I was right to insist.
Unfortunately, when he's not around to lift the lid, I don't use it nearly as often as I should. It's good for my stiff muscles, and the forced relaxation is good for my emotional state as well as my blood pressure. But the lid is so heavy, I can't always get it open by myself. If I push it all the way off, I absolutely can't pick it back up to re-cover the water. This keeps me from getting all the good out of the tub that I should and want to. I've been telling myself for months that I should just spend the money and buy a lifter, that it would be worth it, but I held back. Today, while negotiating with the salesman, he said he would throw in the lifter for free. It might be something they only tell people they charge extra for, but it still made me feel good about the deal I struck, and it made me glad I was open about my medical issues while we were chatting.
I picked out a floor model, and it is bigger than the one I have now. I didn't have measurements of my patio when I went to the store, and I'm regretting that a little. The new tub is 78 inches square. It's going to monopolize my little patio. It was after I filled out all the paperwork and got approved for financing and whatnot that I saw the exact same series of tub, in a slightly different dimension. There was one that was 70 x 84 inches, same colors, finishes, gadgets, but with no chaise lounge, just upright seats all around. I have to talk to the delivery manager in the morning, and I don't know what to tell her. Do I go back and get the one that is 8 inches narrower, that fits my patio better, or do I stick with what I bought? The square one is slightly more expensive, but I doubt it would make a significant difference on the monthly payment amount to switch down. I have to get this sorted out by morning, when I make arrangements for financing and delivery (it was late on a Sunday when I signed the agreement, and their bank was no longer open). I really don't know what to choose, and I'm afraid that either way I'll feel like it's the wrong choice. Oh, what to do?
The aging control panel that started the whole thing this weekend...
You have to sit in them to know which one you want. Just like in a mattress store.
Neck and shoulder jets, and something something rare earth magnet therapy?
78" x 78", with the chaise. This is the one, unless I decide the other fits the patio better. (See the "foot blaster" in the center? I'll be using that a lot.)
I love how the filter compartment looks like a fireplace or A/V console in the corner.
This should be way more efficient than our current tub. It's the biggest electricity expenditure in the whole house.
No comments:
Post a Comment