Do ya see that?!?! Guess what that is?? That is ME in our spa!! YAY!!!

Last fall, my neighbor across the street, J, asked if we wanted her spa. They were getting rid of it in order to do some new landscaping in their back yard. I asked Kurt before he got home from his deployment, and he basically said, "Hell yeah!!"

So around Thanksgiving of last year, Kurt organized the Trip Across the Street From Hell for the spa. He got it up on two dollies with boards laid across them and enlisted the help of J, her husband, her son, her neighbors (who have since rented the house out to someone else), and two random teenage boys that happened to be walking by. Or in the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on your view.

J bought them pizza for their pains, so it wasn't ALL bad.

After busting one dolly, pushing the heavy spa through Psycho Woman's front yard (and insanely long grass), removing two sections of the fence in our backyard, and realizing the hole cut into our backyard was slightly too small for the ginormous spa, we managed to get it situated. Then came the wait.

Kurt needed to wire the spa into our household wiring system, as well as install a big ol' GFI outside. But the problem was, we had a ton of other things to do. Then came the inspection period for his ship, where he was working 80+ hours a week and not even coming home most nights. When he was home, I didn't really want him spending all his free time outside on the spa.

Finally this spring he's gotten a chance to work on the spa. He's got it wired, and the GFI installed. He filled it and drained it, cleaned it and dumped chemicals into the water. He had minor issues to work out with the wiring, and then everything worked like a champ.

Until the heating element died for no reason.

So we got another heating element, as well as more chemicals for the water because our alkalinity was wacky as well as the water hardness.

I always thought we had hard water because I get these white deposits anywhere water sits too long, and I figured that was calcium deposits. But every time Kurt took a reading on the spa water, it read very soft. Apparently we have soft water, but with a large amount of lime in it, which is what the white deposits are. Who knew???

Last night Kurt managed to get everything working all at once, and the water was nice and toasty warm. The only slight setback was the chlorine level was high, but we thought nothing of that since neither of us have very sensitive skin. So we piled into the spa with two frozen Mike's Hard Limeades and relaxed into the warm water.

After spending about a half hour in the water, it was time to get out. We realized the chlorine was coating our skin but didn't really think much about it. It was already late (almost 11pm), so we decided to shower and get into bed. While in the shower I realized my hair wasn't get squeaky clean like it normally does. But I was tired and forgot about it.

Once we got out of the shower and dried off, we realized we still smelled like chlorine. All night as I tossed and turned in the bed, I smelled chlorine wafting off me. Even still I can smell it, and it's been giving me a minor headache.

Moral of the story: Pay attention to your chlorine levels!!!