Our Pond Is Waking Up…..

If you have a pond in your yard, you have noticed it beginning to wake up. The fish are moving, the perennial plants are beginning to sprout, and maybe the water has turned brackish with water borne algae. Yech!

Our pond is about 30 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep. This is the second pond in our life, and I wanted make certain that it wasn’t the maintenance headache that was our first pond. I wanted it to be as natural as possible, and healthy in function and appearance.

There are many, many websites that proffer solutions/designs/systems for the perfect pond. There are water scrubbers, filters, recyclers, all kinds of contraptions on which one can spend thousands of dollars. The one design that I never see is the one I placed in my pond as I built it: an under-gravel filter, just like those you see in aquariums. This item, coupled with a pair of ultra-violet filters, keeps the pond very clear. A healthy pond still needs lots of water plants and marginal plants to compete with algae growth, but I think the under-gravel filter system does the most for the overall health of my pond. The best part is that it is inexpensive, just a recycled 3/4hp 220v hot tub pump and lots of PVC pipe.

It is a bit complicated to go into all of the details here, but if you are interested in knowing more about this approach, give me a call. A pond is a beautiful amenity to add to any home, as long as it looks good. Poorly planned, or unattended, it just becomes an eyesore. So plan ahead and you’ll have something you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Hot Tub? Do It The Right Way…..

Did you see the Saturday, Nov 10, ‘07 article in the Seattle Times about hot tubs? “If you don’t want hot tub, no need to get soaked”. We have experience with hot tubs, both owning one and selling houses that have them, and there are a few things you should know before you invest in one for your current home, or buy a home that already has one.

Numero uno: portable hot tubs do not enhance the value of your home. They hold no value for prospective buyers as they are often an imposing presence in a back yard, whether they are on the ground or on a deck. It is difficult to effectively landscape or decorate in a way that makes them less of an eyesore than they are when new, much worse after the wood siding has faded.

We bought a portable hot tub for our old house on Education Hill in Redmond. After addressing the hassles of pouring a patio on which to place it, and routing 220v power to it (very difficult when your house doesn’t really have a crawl space to accommodate such retrofits), we enjoyed our new hot tub enormously……..for about 3 months. We even purchased one of those expensive “Sunbrellas” to keep the rain off.

While it was enjoyable, it was a hassle to enter, requiring a small step ladder because the height of the thing.

Anyway, after 3 years of intermittent use, mostly the kids playing in it in the summertime sun, it conked out. I don’t recall how it came about, but that is when I met Damon Fletcher, owner of Elite Spas Northwest http://www.elite-spas.com/. He tried to get it going, but advised that it would continue to fail, as these types of tubs are not designed to last very long. I asked what the right type of hot tub entails, and learned more than I bargained for.

Damon advises that the most important consideration when contemplating a hot tub is the setting.

One mistake I made in placing our first hot tub was putting it under a huge tree. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but became a total nuisance keeping the hot tub cover free of leaves and other tree debris.

Planning for our new hot tub, I thought sinking it all the way into the ground would be the way to go. “Not really, and for a number of reasons”, said Damon:

1. Unless you want to install a railing, which can be unsightly, it is awkward getting in and out of such tubs;

2. The equipment, specifically the plumbing connections, are almost unserviceable;

Instead, Damon advised that the tub be sunk about 18″ into the ground, leaving the edge at about bench height for seating, and making it easy to get in and out of the tub by first sitting, then swinging your legs over the side, and slide in.

The site for our new, gas-fired hot tub was a big new patio with an area blocked out for excavation and setting the footwell of the shell of the new tub. Once the tub was in place, it was simple to build a support frame up from the patio to the edges that also became the framework for a nice continuous cedar bench that surrounded the tub. Next we built a large cedar trellis near the South side of the tub. The idea was to grow some vines on the trellis that would give the hot tub some shade during the Summer when we would drop the temperature and let the kids use it. Also, we mounted some outdoor speakers on the trellis.

Another amenity added was an ozone generator. This item eliminated the need for chlorine, taking over the sanitization duties, and eliminating the unpleasant chlorine odor.

All in all we ended up with a functional, attractive, affordable and fun amenity in our back yard.

To enforce this idea of creating an amenity vs having a portable type tub dropped in your back yard, consider the observation of the person that bought our house 10 years later: they had a hot tub at their old house that they NEVER used. It was an expensive portable that was plopped down on a patio beneath an existing deck. They absolutely loved our hot tub, the way it was set up, the lighting, the music, the surrounding landscape, and they used it almost every day.

All this thanks to the direction, consultation, installation and equipment provided by Damon Fletcher of http://www.elite-spas.com/

We have planned our next hot tub project to be installed beside our swimming pool at our current residence. Just saving up the cash to get it done.

 So before you get psyched up and buy that “special” on a hot tub at Home Depot or Costco, think very carefully about how it is going to look in your yard. For the same investment, and a little patience, you could get a nice set up that will be enjoyed for years as part of your overall landscape, will enhance the value of your home when it is time to sell, and you won’t be stuck paying someone $100 to get rid of it.