A Cautionary Hot Tub Tale

The New York Times recently ran an article in its "Your Second Home" section extolling the virtues of hot tubs. Funny, this particular article should have appeared now, as hot tubs have loomed large in my life over the past two weeks.

I recently had lunch with two friends who shared their New Year's Eve exploits with me. Basically, they spent the evening in a hot tub with several other folks, some of whom were complete strangers to them at the start of the night. Copious drinking ensued, and my two normally sensible friends (one of them sensible almost to a fault) then engaged in behavior so shocking, I daresay that it would have made Bret Michaels blush (that's probably impossible to do, but it sure made me blush!). 

This is not the first time I have heard shocking hot tub tales. Not being a fan of the steamy cauldrons myself, it leaves me to wonder what is it about a hot tub that turns my normally level-headed friends into characters from "Rock of Love?"  

Just days later, we had a closing nearly implode because of a hot tub. We were the listing agents on a delightful Toccoa River access cabin that was set to close on January 22. The week leading up to the 22nd, the North Georgia mountains experienced an unusual cold snap that sent temperatures plunging to single digits at night. Our sellers came up to spend their last few days in the cabin the weekend before closing. Thinking they were averting a potential freezing problem, they drained the hot tub that was out on the deck. Unfortunately, they drained the tub, but didn't know that they also needed to drain the piping and the motor -- a mistake I could see myself making, as well. 

Instead of preventing a problem, they actually created a major one. The water left in the pipes and motor froze in the days leading up to the closing. When the buyers came to do their final walk-thru on the morning of the 22nd, they started to fill the hot tub to make sure it was working and water began leaking everywhere. The buyers immediately called the closing attorney's office and called off the closing until we could get the problem resolved. $800 worth of repairs later, the problem was resolved, and the property closed. But, it was a nail-biter for sure.

The New York Times and most other folks may consider hot tubs to be a second-home "must-have," but, as for me, I'll leave them to the more adventurous...and Bret Michaels.