Category: Katherine McDermott Artist

No, it’s not raining..though it’s dark and grey. It did rain yesterday for 4 or 5 hours…that was lovely. But, alas, after filling the hot tub, after the pump wet end repair, the pipes that were plugged (because they leaked) around the moto-massage, the exposed sand where I had pulled up brick to see underneath, started creeping wet toward the walls again. Heavy sigh.

Oh, shall I back up? We’ve had this tub (Sovereign by HotSpring Spas) for 11 years. It has served us well…husband in it multiple times a day to assist joints with movement. We noticed rather suddenly that moisture was creeping up the stucco on the outside of the…er…um..adobe walls. O drat..now what?

I sought the expert opinion of my favorite engineer, who scoped around the house in 50 mph wind and snow, to grimly turn to me and say, ‘I think it’s your hot tub, dear’ . drat again.

I pulled up brick and found soaking wet sand underneath. The brick didn’t show it because they had been well sealed. The adobe walls, on the other hand…um…wet. Thank God we bought the “stabalized” version, but still.
Great.

I pulled up brick from all four corners of the room. Wet. everywhere, wet. Heavy sigh. I told you part of this story in an earlier post, as endeavoring to remove the siding to get to the foam and sprayed insulation inside, was how I hurt myself.
(Wet sand from under the brick…….)

We found one leak, at the moto massage. Our spa guy plugged it, and we filled it and turned it on. Water sprayed from the pipe below the one we just plugged. Ok, we can deal with that. Right? Wrong. Within 24 hours of filling it, the exposed sand, which had nicely dried, began to turn dark brown with mosture again.

Resolute, I set about this morning to find the rest of the leaks. I thought carefully about how to leverage the siding off. And, thankfully, it worked. I’m typing, tired and sore, with raw hands, but my tender back is not screaming.

I pulled off the siding on three sides and started ripping out foam. If I found it dry, I moved down till I pulled my fingers out wet.

What you see is, is the window sill that I curled myself into, the wet brick between the window/wall and the edge of the hottub where I removed the siding and the foam.) The tub is very close to one wall, and I was sitting in the window sill (good thing I’m skinny and small and curl my self up to a ball and still work! I’d show you a picture of the process, but I was rather busy. this will have to do!)

Wet foam found, I climbed around to the other side and started digging. wet and wet and wet. soon water poured out and soaked me, literally. Oh no! NO! NO! Alas, no. Shaking my head and soaked through I hauled myself out of the space I was in. The foam was wet and red, because my fingers were bleeding by now.

Good grief. Enough. I quit. I’m done. I’ll let the Spa guy come and tell me that I’m right. Then, if that’s the case, out it goes. Out, which is tough and tragic. Tough, because the french double doors and the door frame have to come out to get it out. Tragic, because, as I said, husband used it EVERY DAY. Tough, because we don’t have the budget to buy a new one. Tragic there too. Tough because my hands are raw with no satisfaction.

It’s the big pipe that runs all along one side to feed the foot jets. And the other pipe below the one fixed. And the other one we fixed before that. Why they make tubs that way, (with sprayed in foam and insulation so the pipe struction is complete encased in hardened goo.) is beyond me. Yes, I get the insulation, and all that, but there must be an eaiser way. hot tubs spring leaks. everyone knows that. so make it easy to find and fix them. ugh.

The bright side is that the spa is draining as I type. There were no chemicals in yet so its happily watering the hillside. And, my heart is hopeful still though I see no reason to hope. Somehow, someway, something will happen to help me solve this. That, i believe with all my heart. I’ll let you know what happens. In the mean time, my scratchboard (see the facebook page) is calling me.,