June 7 - the hot tub arrived

The driver found us but didn't think he could get the truck through the pillars but Matt was able to back his truck up to the back of this one and we just slid the hot tub from the larger truck to the smaller one. Okay - it wasn't quite that simple but that's basically how it happened.

Matt was able to easily drive into the back yard and back his truck pretty close to where the tub needed to go.

At about 650 lbs there was no way we could handle it so we used the excavator and lashed some straps around the tub and lifted it up. Then Dorian simply drove the truck out from under the tub. Matt gently set the tub on the ground until we devised the next step of the plan (which, yes, we were making up as we went along).

Once we got it on the ground, we removed the straps (which also were wrapped around the palette that the tub was shipped on. We got the straps just around the tub, lifted it with the excavator again and slid the palette out of the way.

With some guidance from Dorian and Trevor (the electrician) on the left and Johnathan (on the right) Matt (driving the excavator) was able to set the hot tub exactly where he needed it to go. I have a video of that feat but I'm having trouble uploading it. I'll keep trying.

The tub is in place and Matt takes the excavator out of the gazebo.

Then we discover the flaw in my deck design. We had ordered the hot tub to come with a Sirius Satellite Radio and it did. I had assumed the radio controls would be on the top of the tub (with all the other controls). I was wrong. The controls are on the side. Matt is opening the cover to the control panel in this picture. The issue is that the tub is sunken into the deck which is being built around it. If we continue with the original design, we'd never be able to access the control panel for the radio.

Matt stands next to the tub contemplating how to redesign the deck to accommodate the newly discovered radio.

We put the cover on the tub and called it a day. Our timing was perfect. Twelve hours later the remnants of tropical storm Andrea hit (and is "hitting" as I type this). We're getting drenched.

Watch a video of the hot tub being set in place.