Got my new tiger river installed today

[dkersten]

Finally!  Got the deck finished last week, and finished out the electrical and the hot tub platform this last weekend.  The tub got in on Monday, but silly me, I forgot to schedule delivery, so I had to wait til this afternoon to get it delivered.  Delivery was a snap, pulled up in the alley, came through the back gate, dropped it on the platform, hooked up wiring, installed the coverlift, and filled it up.  Got the water in, and the starter chems in, and snapped a couple quick shots with my cameraphone before heading back to the office.

Its the Tiger River Bengal model with the silver on gray.. went great with the new gray composite deck.

Now I just have to wait the 8-10 hours for it to get hot.. its killing me to wait too..

Here are some pics:

[gores95]

Looks fantastic!  Enjoy the tub and let us know how the first soak was!!

Marc

[In Canada eh]

Looks great!

Enjoy the new tub

[patty]

Looks great.. like the step!!  Did you build that out of composite?

What composite did you use?  We just built an extension to our deck out of Choice decking.    Our tub should be arriving in about 2 weeks and the wait is killing me!

[drewstar]

That's a nice looking install.  I'd love to see more of the deck area.

congrats and enjoy!!!!!!

[hottub.pool_boy]

Congrats! Look is great!

If you find it difficult to get in and out from the upper deck. build up the lower platform so the top of the spa is 18"-20" above the upper deck. That makes it chair height and easy to get in and out.

[imp etc]

Finally!  . . .

Now I just have to wait the 8-10 hours for it to get hot.. its killing me to wait too..

Congrats, and nice zone!

So . . . was bliss achieved?

[windsurfdog]

How did you get that tree to grow so fast in that hole you put in the deck?
Looks very nice and the tree treatment is very special...enjoy!

[dkersten]

I will try to get more pics this weekend with more detail on the deck and such.. I have a couple here at work.. one from about a year and a half ago after I had finished about half the yard, and then a few from last weekend when I finished the deck (for now).  

At about 10pm last night the temp was about 99 so I decided I was gonna go for a dip.  Me and my wife and son jumped in and it was great!!  I did get bored of the blue light right away, and am already thinking that it would be nice to have a bigger tub with more seats and more options.. hehe.  Unfortunately the entire project tapped me out pretty good and it will be spring before I can do more.  Once it settles in that I spent almost 12k on this project, I will be very happy with what I bought.. The thought if spending 8 or 9k on a tub before this made me sick to my stomach, which is why I limited it to 6k.. so once I realize how much I spent overall, it will reinforce that I spent more than enough and dont need anything bigger.. sometimes logic doesnt play much roll when it comes to toys..

The deck is Lowe's brand Choice Dek.  The step is 64" long and about 10" high, and is just made from 2 12" choice dek boards and some 2x8 scraps.  The deck sits 22" above the hot tub platform, so 11" of the hot tub is above the deck.  I had no problem getting in and out, so I think it will work nicely.  The cover lifter is a covermate II, which has a gas pneumatic assist for opening, and is made for hot tubs that are in small gazebos.  The dealer had not used one yet, and they were very impressed with this one.  My kids can open the cover very easily, so I am happy.  They charged me $265 for it.

Overall, I offered them $5600 on the tub, with the ozonator installed, and that included the gfci box, the tub, cover, ozonator, and delivery, installation, and setup.  They also gave me all the chemicals to get started.  

The main deck is about 20'x19' with a triangle cut off one corner that is 12'x11'.  Overall its about 320 sq ft I think.. I spent about $1700 total on the deck, and another $380 on the platform for the tub.  The tub platform is roughly 9x9, and is made from 2x8's on 16" center with a total of 9 concrete pier blocks under it.  It is attached to the main deck on one end and to two of the 4x4 posts from the fence on the other.  Overall I think it could support about 7000 pounds, which is more than enough.  

I scraped the back yard clean about 2 years ago, and poured a walkway from where the deck was going to start to the back gate.  I installed the irrigation, cut in the edging, and laid sod down, then installed drip for the trees and future plants and laid down weedmat and covered that with 6-10" river rock around the outside.  I built a cedar fence in the back, but couldnt go further til the neighbor and I worked out the fence on our property..

I had to reframe half the porch and build a deck inside it to raise the level to that of the main floor of the house, then installed a set of french doors that exit out the porch to the deck.  Then after siding the bottom half of the house I build the deck.  This weekend I have to finish the outside siding because the weather is starting to turn ugly already.  Here are the few pictures I have here:

This is from last summer, before I stained the fence.. this is a year after I did the basic landscaping.  I was building the playhouse for the kids, and the shed when I took these.. the 40 year old fence was still up between my neighbors and my house, and the deck location was all just pea gravel at that point.

Here is a shot from my deck looking onto the back yard.. the hot tub location is to the right of the picture.

Here is a shot of the deck after this last weekend.  The decking under the hot tub is not composite, just treated.. I figured that I didnt need to spend $300 on decking that I will never see, so I did the substantially cheaper treated decking.  The step is free floating.. not screwed down..

one more image from the weekend.

[tanstaafl2]

Looks great! And a nice back yard as well. Makes sense to me not to use the composite under the tub since it is mostly out of sight anyway.

[drewstar]

Sweet.

If you ever get bored and are looking to keep yourself busy, I can pay you  in food and beer.  

I think you did very well on your deal with the tub. Enjoy it. You earned it!

[dkersten]

This spring I will finish the deck with a railing, perhaps some benches along the back fence, and add some lighting.  I plan to build a gazebo roof over the tub, which will still give us a view of the stars, and protect the tub from the trees that are directly overhead.. this will also limit the snowfall on the tub cover..

Inside the porch, I built a redwood deck, which I will seal up.  I will finish out the second half of the porch (only did half of it this year) which will finish the insulation making it useable in the winter as a semi-outdoor space.  The redwood deck inside is great for dripping wet bodies.  I will put up a changing screen, a little bench, and a cabinet for chems and towels, so that we dont have to go into the house dripping wet to change.  On the deck outside, I will get a couple outdoor lounge chairs and a propane fire pit so that we can enjoy everything in the spring and fall as well as summer.  I ran an extra 110v line out with the gfci box so I can do some lighting and/or music out there when the gazebo roof goes up.  

The wife is already thinking a small sauna next to the hot tub, but I dunno on that one..

I figure the rest of the project will take about another $4-5k (minus sauna of course  )

Dave

[drewstar]

Funny. I like the blue light in my Caspain. It's seems more natural and soothing than some of the other light colors I've seen.  It also matches the light in my pool as well as coorindating very well with the bug zapper lights.  

I wonder, is the lens is  blue, or is the bulb? In the light of day the lens, to me,  looks white.   There have been discussions here in this forum about chaning out bulbs to a multu colored unit that are available on E-bay for about $40.  I do not know if they are compatable with the Tiger River tubs.  ?  ?

[dkersten]

I was going to look into the possibility of multi-color lighting in the tiger river tubs.. I sure dont want to spend a lot to do it, but it would be cool..

I think what is missing is the "wow" factor.. I guess its a reaction to spending a ton of money.. I think subconsciously I am expecting more "cool stuff" for the amount of money I spent.. I dont really know how to express it in words.. Even though the amount of money I spent on the tub is low by comparison to most models out there, to me its a lot of money for a luxury item, and should have so many amazing features that it would take months to try everything out.. Of course, once you climb in and get relaxed, you realize its just a comfortable tub of hot water with a light and some jets.  Its an odd feeling especially when you already know exactly what features you have, and thought you had come to terms with that.  

In all honesty, if I could afford to drop 3k more I would be over at the dealer right now wet testing more expensive models and scheduling to get it swapped for something better.. But the odd thing is, I am happy with the tub.. I am really looking forward to going home tonight to soak before heading out to a friend's house for poker night.. yeah.. life can be rough some days cant it?..

Dave

[Chas]

You can buy a color-changing light from your dealer - Tiger Rivers are made to accept it as an option. It needs to be the HotSpring/Tiger River type, the generic ones will not fit and the voltage is wrong.

Should be less than $200 - if it's more, email me and I'll ship one to you. You can install it yourself.