Last night Susan and I enjoyed a Sunday soak as the sun settled dramatically into the still leafless orchard, and it occurred to me that I’ve never posted a postmortem for the icehouse hot tub installation. So, here it is. Better late than never!
Once deck construction was underway it was necessary to integrate the hot tub infrastructure. Mechanicals came first: electrical supply and shutoff to code by Brandon.
Brandon started installing the wiring for the hot tub…
It’s pretty exciting to be one step closer to our first soak in Rosslyn’s icehouse spa! Brandon and his assistant will be back first thing tomorrow to wrap up the preliminary wiring so that the slab can be poured later this week. Hot tub, wiring, concrete slab, and then… we’ll be one giant step closer to soaking our bones and celebrating. (Source: Hot Tub Wiring)
And then it was time for the slab.
Supi undertook the lion’s share of the slab with Peter’s guidance and plenty of hard work during the concrete pour from Tony and Calvin.
A couple of days later, the slab was cured and stripped. Ready for the next step.
Once the beautiful garapa decking was installed by Eric’s team, it was time to install the hot tub itself.
Ta-da! Hot tub installation complete? Not quite… As often, things tend to get out of sync. Punch list projects get pushed, and the order gets juggled. So even though the new hot tub was installed (and it was already beginning to get regular use), we still had a couple months of stone wall building to get the hardscape ready for cobblestone courtyard and planting.
Little by little it came together. Even the cobblestone courtyard!
Until this happened.
Before the severe storm arrived.. [and a] short time later, after the tempest touchdown, the serenity has been sullied. Teak furniture tossed. Hot tub cover, plants, etc. strewn about. (Source: Tempest Touchdown)
We’ve dealt with three of these cover lift-offs so far due to extreme weather conditions. But supplemental tie downs are now used any time Edie silly windy conditions threaten.
And most of the time it looks like this.
I took this snapshot of the hot tub before sunset from the icehouse deck… Looking northwest, over the sunken courtyard, across the “ice garden” meticulously tended by Team Teddi, toward the orchard and the hammock huddle, I yearned for a day’s end soak. But the heat and the humidity suggested otherwise. Perhaps sundowners?
Rotating another 45° to the left this second photo is almost the same view, but looking due west where the sun was settling into a dramatic cloud bank above Boquet Mountain. So serene. So calm. A welcome Wednesday wind-down. (Source: Day’s End Soak)
Here’s a perfect capture of one such moment, documented by Jen Cypress last summer when the vegetable garden and orchard were bursting with bounty.
It’s revitalizing just looking at Jen’s photograph. These sorts of edenic August days offer a reassuring counterpoint to midwinter hot tub conditions like this.
Monday snow day! Lots and lots of shoveling out after a pair of back-to-back snowstorms delivered a blizzard bonanza reminiscent of those “real winters” of yesteryear.
Even the icehouse has been carved out of the snow! (Source: Blizzard Bonanza)
You can be forgiven for failing to spot the hot tub in in the northwest corner of the icehouse deck. But it’s there.
And even during less snowy times weather wizardry can add drama to the hot tub.
Yesterday’s hot tub cover liftoff reminds me that seasonal shift is sometimes subtle and slow, sometimes sudden and violent. Tony alerted me upon arriving yesterday that the explosive windstorm overnight had wrested our 8×8 cover (weighing a not insignificant 25-30 pounds, by my estimate) from atop the hot tub and deposited it a good 15’ feet away. (Source: Hot Tub Cover Liftoff)
Submerged to our supersternal notches in swirling, whirling water, warm bubbles tickling tension from our bodies, our brains, the sunset’s narcotic nuances massaging my mood, I realize that Susan’s question isn’t simply curiosity, isn’t soliciting reassurance or confidence. It’s an acknowledgment of unknowing. It’s anticipated nostalgia. It’s less request to respond and more invitation to consider the open and unpredictable edge we’re approaching.
[…]
Aware that this moment and conversation are vaguely symmetrical with that long ago postprandial soak that proved pivotal in our decision to make Rosslyn our home, I consider that second thoughts may not be such a bugaboo. Regrets might be likely, even inevitable. We’re complicated. Our decisions are rarely clean cut. And our emotions aren’t tame, subservient, obedient. (Source: Second Thoughts)
Gigantic gratitude to everyone who helped make the icehouse hot tub a reality. Too many to list! Sometimes it takes even more than a village.
What do you think?