NOT EVERYONE is a morning person! Well, the gent who let me borrow his trailer is one of those. NO ONE should be that chipper at 08:00. To make matters worse, he and his 4 friends had just come from the gym and were all hopping about like the frogs that we dispatched the day before! UGH!

“Wow! That’s a big tub!”, My helper exclaimed!

“Can the 6 of us move it to the back yard?” I ask.

“SURE!” They all agree.

It was almost sureal. These 5 muscular men hefted the tub like it was nothing. I was very impressed and considered joining their gym. The tub was im my back yard in moments. A date was set to have them all over for beers and as I was so thankful for their assistance, grilled steaks too boot! I did, after all get the tub very cheaply!

Having friends that can do certain tasks is a wonderful thing. Having “In-Laws” is even better. They can be abused without bribe or reason! My next call was to my sisters husband. This guy can run power like a pro! I needed power. He would be in Savannah the next weekend. HE HE! I didn’t have to pay an electrician. This was going to be a piece of cake. And I got this tub so cheap too!

Before this day, I had no idea what a GFCI breaker was. What’s a disconnect? 6 guage wire? 8 guage wire? 50 amp breakers? Non metalic sheathing? Whatever this stuff was, it sounded expensive to me. I waited for my Bro-in-law to arrive. Unlike my friend and his buddies, Bro-in-law arrived late in the afternoon. We didn’t hit Home Depot till 17:00. by the time I had everything on the list ($450.00 later, good thing I got this tub cheap) and returned home, it was dark out. Power and darkenss. Nope! Not me!

The next morning we got started around 09:30. Bro-in-law looks at the breaker box on the side of the house and discovers that we can run the line from it to the disconnect box with the GFCI breaker beside the tub. GREAT! But I had the silly notion to ask how we would get the line to the disconnect.

Ok. So I discovered that you can only abuse an “in-law” so much. The 50++ feet of 6 guage 3 wire line had to be run under the house from the breaker box. I was the one who had to run the line. Now remember, I am still running gun shy from the water deal. But, as he had the knowledge of power and I didn’t, I needed him. So, under the house I had to go! AGAIN!!!!!

6 guage 3 line power cable is about 1 inch in diameter. It is stiff and very difficult to work with when it is in its sheilding. Bro-in-law fed several feet of the cable into the hole we drilled in the foundation of the house. I prepared for my task by getting my grungy clothes (Not making that mistake twice) and dressing for the job. In truth, there was only one of us looking forward to the trip beneath the house. Peanut, our faithful beagle. As soon as the grate was removed from the entrance, the dog was under the house. I eased my big body into the hole and under the house, flicked on my head lamp and made my way across the crawl space to the cable.

Peanut was, AGAIN, busy somewhere digging up the remains of Jimmy Hoffa. I could hear dirt flying under the house but was fixed on getting to the cable. As I reached the wall, I pulled on the cable and began to turn my body to make the trip ALL THE WAY TO THE OTHER END OF THE HOUSE to fish it through the hole we drilled for the disconnect box. Crawling along on my belly while pulling this cable had me sweating in minutes. I felt like I was pulling a car that was in gear. It would move freely for a foot or two then stop. Move, stop. It was all I could do to keep going. My Bro-in-law had to push the cable into the hole to keep it from snagging on teh brick and shredding the shielding. That would be bad.

It was taking forever to get from one side of the crawlspace to the other. I had finally reached the halfway point when I noticed that the possible Grave of Jimmy Hoffa was directly in my path. The other issue that I faced is that althought I could see dirt flying from the hole, I could no longer see THE DOG! She had dug deeply when we were there fixing the water. I had not realized just how deep she had gotten.

I could either crawl around the hole or I could go over. I bellied closer to the hole. Sure enough, the damn dog found somehting, but I was in no mood to stick around for the discovery. I needed to get this cable to the far side of the house. I pushed myself directly over the hole. Well, that didn’t work out as I thought as my arm, pulling the cable, was rather fatigued and caused me to do a face plant in the dirt.

I couldn’t really fit into the hole completely so I eneded up using my face to push my self up enough to get my arm, the cable and body into position to move forward. I did find out what the stupid dog found too! A HUGE ROOT! I need to take care of that before my foundation gets ruined. Once I righted myself and made it over the hole, the rest of the crawl was uneventful. Exhauting, yes, but nothing of note occurred. I fished the cable through the hole and made my way back to the entrance to the crawlspace.

“What the heck happend to you?” Bro-in-law enquired looking at the blackend dirt upon my face.

“Damn dog!” was my only reply.

I was tempted to leave the dog under the house and brick her in “Cask of Amontillado” style but knew she would probably dig out the foundation and cost me all the money I had saved on the hot tub so far. I am not liking this hot tub much right now!

Connecting the calbe to the main breaker box and the disconnect took ¼ the time I had spent under the house. And I was going to feed this guy for doing this? Man! Did I screw myself in this deal! So all that was left was to connec the line from the disconnect to the tub control pannel. Even I could do that. It was just three wires and they were even labeled on the pannel. GREEN, Black and White. I sat under the hot tub and proceeded to connect the power as it showed on the sticker on the pannel. It took me a few more minutes than it would a pro, but I was saving money.

Now came the time to clean the tub, reconnect everything and fill her up! At this point, I am ready to start enjoying the fruits of my labor and would need the hot tub soon enough. But this thing had to be scrubbed first. I left no nooks or crannies to chance. Bleach and brushes were my new weapons. Funny, the dog nor my Bro-in-law were anywhere to be found. Again, the black water and grime started to fill up. The drainage port was still clogged. I had to pull hoses and clear them as well as re-attache ports and jets. This was taking forever but at least it would be 100% claen.

A FROG!!! It was a frog blocking the drainage port. The tub is squeaky clean. It was time to begin filling her up and getting everyting connected. 3 hours later, the tub is filled and all the hoses are conneced, the control pannel is hooked up, the GFCI disconnect is hooked up, everything is ready for me to turn the power on! I call out to my Bro-in-law that he can throw the main breaker. So far, so good. No smoke from the disconnect. WHEW!

I flip the breaker on the disconnect and immediately the pumps churn and the water begins to bubble. Excitement fills my heatr. I have a working hot tub and it cost me 1/8th what the dealers were going to charge! I felt so smug. I was unsufferably pleased with myself. I was thrifty and wise. As the sun was just setting over the horrizon, I felt that I had completed a great task. Tonight, we would celebrate with drinks, steaks and merriment! The temp gauge read 65 degrees. Perhaps this evening, we would even enjoy the hot tub. Now that would be a coup if ever there was!