Hot tub and Dining Room Remodel

When Oceana and I decided to move to Lake Byrd, one of my requests is that we get a hot tub. Half of the year it’s too hot and humid for a hot tub, however, the rest of the year it would be great. Such as the weather we’re having now (60s at night, dry during the day). A few weeks back we found a smaller tub online and picked it up. We’ve decided to put it on the front porch so that it will be under cover and screened in. For the time being, we just set it on the front porch and shoved it out of the way. Now that the back bedroom is done, it was time to get it installed. Finally!

No access below

Before we put the hot tub in place, one of the things I wanted to see was if the floor framing needed beefed up or not. To do this, I would need access to the crawl space below that part of the porch so that I could see the framing. The problem was that in this area, there was a block wall on all 4 sides – meaning there was no access. So, I got out the chipping hammer, ear plugs, and a respirator and I made an opening.

Joist hangers

Once inside, I reviewed the floor framing and then looked at some span charts to see what weights the floor system could hold. Since it’s a smaller hot tub (only 80 gallons full), the weight of the hot tub and occupants would fall right at the top of what the floor system can hold, but it still works. That’s good news – I don’t have to reframe the floor! I did opt to add some joist hangers to one side of the floor framing though, but that was simple enough.

New water lines

The tub we got is kind of a hybrid between a huge bathtub and a small hot tub. It has a regular tub fill spout like a bathtub would have, it even has a handheld shower wand. However, it’s also got around 20 something jets, an air bubbler, and a heater. Normally hot tubs aren’t plumbed in with water lines. However, since this one has the tub filler spout, it gets tied into the water lines. For that, I ran red and blue pex lines over to the tub area and then brought them up through the floor. While I was at it, I ran a line outside and added a new hose spigot inside Oceana’s garden area. I tied the new water lines into the main water lines and all was well.

Electrical

Next up was the electrical. For this I ran a new 220v circuit from the electrical panel to the porch. Oceana helped feed the wire from above while I belly crawled it across the crawl space and over to the porch. I then set a disconnect box on the porch wall and wired up the hot tub. Lastly, I installed the breaker in the panel box. Done and done! We filled it up (which took quite a while) and then fired up the heater. It slowly heated up the water but after a few hours, it was a nice scolding hot temperature!

Benefits of a hot tub

The first soak in the tub was awesome. Relaxing. But I found out there was one other benefit that I was unaware of previously. The next morning I woke up and my hands/fingers weren’t swollen and tight. They were loose and moved normal. I work my hands hard and I’m used to them being really tight in the mornings, so this was a welcome change. This is the first time in a long time they’ve felt this good.

The dining room remodel

With the hot tub installed, it was time to start on the next big project – the dining room. The dining room remodel is going to include complete replacement of the ceiling, removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room, and repairs to the wood flooring so that it can be finished. The first step was protection. We’re fixing to make a mess, so ideally we contain that to just the dining room. Also, I’d like to keep as much dust and junk out of the floors as possible. For this, we covered the floors with a roll of cardboard like floor protector. Then we covered the openings with plastic.

Demo

Once the protection was in place, I went up into the attic and started filling garbage bags with the old insulation. That stuff is real nasty. I caught a face full while doing the A/C work, and it was terrible. In order to spread it around the least amount possible, I found that using a dust pan to shovel it into trash bags works quite well. I then kicked a hole in the ceiling and dropped the full bags down one by one. After cleaning out as much of the insulation as possible, I kicked down the rest of the drywall ceiling. It made a terrible mess – which is why we had all of the protection up. I climbed down and then pulled down the rest of the large pieces of drywall.

Clean up

After the drywall was down, Oceana and I got to cleaning up. We filled quite a few trash bags with the insulation and drywall debris. After picking up the big stuff, we got the floors vacuumed and called it a night. We left the plastic in place covering the doorways since there’s still a bit of work to do. Teak is suspect of the plastic. It moves in the breeze and makes weird noises. He’ll sit across the room and just stare at it as it blows around. However, he’s pretty well figured out how to navigate through it, which is impressive. He’ll use his paw to pull back a corner so that he can walk through.

Odds and ends

Oceana’s had one of her old friends stay with us this week. She stayed for a few nights and was our first guest in the newly finished back bedroom. It was nice to see her again. I think it was just over a decade since Oceana and I saw her last. Teak is doing well. He’s over 20 lbs now. He looks bigger with his fluffball fur. But you get him wet and he looks like 20lbs again. He’s learning more new tricks. He basically taught himself to jump. He was jumping around and Oceana said jump and from then on he started doing it on command. This puppy is smart. That’s all for now. Thanks for following along!