Toshi's thread
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Hey @I Are Baboon any tips on hot tub purchasing? I just send out a round of website contact form solicitations to a few local (to Grand County) companies. Anything in particular I should be looking out for? This would be on the already-flat surface of my deck. At 7 cents/kWh off-peak power rates seems like I should go for electric heat +/- some sort of control box to minimize 22 cents/kWh peak (5-10 PM for all but Sunday) rates.
Turns out the two bike shops local to me don't do wheel building/rebuilding anymore, and one expressed skepticism that anyone would touch that hub motor anyway.
So fat bike rims they remain. I de-Tannus Armoured the flatted culprit wheel:
valve had ripped clean out of the tube somehow. too many torques from the electric?!
put in Mr. Tuffy liners (they're still around!) and a standard tube after redoing the rim strip and securing said strip down with double sided tape
Now it's all put back together, and I trimmed down that pain in the ass Tannus insert in case I need to turn to it again, in which case I'll use it just as a liner instead of the horrible tube-inside-middle-of-it business it's supposed to be run as
Electric bits all work after getting everything back together, too. Such a pain in the ass design: to remove or remount the rear wheel requires loosening one big nut, undoing a bolt for a retention device holding the left side of the axle in, unscrewing the derailleur, and finally releasing the right dropout torque sensor plate thing from the right side of the rear triangle with 3 other bolts. Oh, and undoing the connectors for the torque sensor and the drive/Hall sensor leads for the motor itself.
Possible specs for the 3-row Kia EV9 via a survey sent to some prospective buyers.
The two lower trims are RWD (thus half the horsepower). The higher AWD trims will be nice, no doubt, but at those price points Volvo and others will be at play, too.
electrek.co
The two lower trims are RWD (thus half the horsepower). The higher AWD trims will be nice, no doubt, but at those price points Volvo and others will be at play, too.
Kia just leaked what is likely a first look at the 2024 EV9 specs, here’s what to expect
The highly anticipated 2024 Kia EV9 will debut this year with a bold design and a slew of innovative features....
electrek.co
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e-assistedWHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR EARS?!?
IAB is ignoring me
anyway, I've gotten some quotes and shall do a bit of reading on these individual models. they all look very similar on paper and the quotes are all in a similar range roughly:
Vacasa used to have a program where they'd basically float the price of a hot tub and charge it against income from the house over a year. But they're not doing that now, hmph. They will take care of maintenance at least.
Great, now I'm hungry for stew.
and probably with prior renters' jizz remnants from hot tub sexing
although since the hot tub will be on the deck perhaps that will quell that behavior a bit, and the chlorine should make it all just random amino acids at that point... right?!
Related to my original hot tub query: anyone have any experience with swim spas? Colorado Custom Spa guy will get me specifics tomorrow when he's back in the office, but his initial reply while mobile when I asked about them was
"My swim spas start at $20k and go up from there. You can get a pretty decent sized swim spa for about $26k. If you just wanted to use it as a giant hot tub, the $20k one is a pretty great deal."
Mentally $20k is certainly within a rounding error from the larger non-swim ones, and I'd stretch for $26k if it's demonstrably better. Being able to swim in it would be awesome.
"My swim spas start at $20k and go up from there. You can get a pretty decent sized swim spa for about $26k. If you just wanted to use it as a giant hot tub, the $20k one is a pretty great deal."
Mentally $20k is certainly within a rounding error from the larger non-swim ones, and I'd stretch for $26k if it's demonstrably better. Being able to swim in it would be awesome.
You want to put a swim spa on a deck? That seems...unwise.
The other hot tubs we're looking at are already big bois… 550 gallons of water, etc.
if the vendor says no then I'll certainly not push it. But if they think it's ok
edit: Spa Man checked out the deck on the 23rd:
Caveat for the quote is that swim spas weren't in the discussion at that point.
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Current working info. Got quotes from Spa Man for the R8 and, for kicks, the very expensive Bullfrog "small" swim spa.
Since Spa Man is local to Grand County if I go Bullfrog I'll go with his outfit. The two TBD swim spa options from (Denver-based but will deliver and install to Grand County) CO Custom Spas are intriguing, though.
When we had 6 or 8 guys on a trip to North Carolina a few years ago, we got a place with a hot tub. It was in the winter and we believe it wasn't maintained to the highest standard, but boy howdy, by the end of the week the water in that tub looked like it came out of a swamp in Brazil.and probably with prior renters' jizz remnants from hot tub sexing
although since the hot tub will be on the deck perhaps that will quell that behavior a bit, and the chlorine should make it all just random amino acids at that point... right?!
We shocked the heck out of it mid trip, but there was no helping the colour of the water or the smell.
Yes, perhaps some beer was spilled in it and yes perhaps someone might have climbed in after a ride without shower first, but....okay yeah those don't help in the least.
But yeah, not sure what they were going to do to clean it. It was never mentioned or brought up by the owner or manager when we left. Maybe they didn't check it, due to it being the winter? It was rented via VRBO.
My eldest kid is 10 today. 
Unrelated to her birthday, she also got her Star Reading test results back today from 1/6/23. Her grade equivalent score on that test is 11.7: "Based on national norms, Mariko's reading skills are comparable to those of a typical 11th grader in the seventh month of the school year."
Not bad, kid
Unrelated to her birthday, she also got her Star Reading test results back today from 1/6/23. Her grade equivalent score on that test is 11.7: "Based on national norms, Mariko's reading skills are comparable to those of a typical 11th grader in the seventh month of the school year."
Not bad, kid
So the two he was thinking of turned out to be the Passion Activity 1 and 2.
Swimspa Activity 1 50
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www.passionspasusa.com
And they just don’t seem they be suitable for my house, which sleeps 13 if you will recall. 3 seats! It’s really a swim spa that has a few jetted seats as an afterthought.
I’m thinking the Bullfrog S150 might actually be the way to go: 13 seats! Swimmable. And since I could get it through the Spa Man, who is based in Grand County, ongoing local support without summoning people from Denver.
Model S150 Swim Spa | Bullfrog Spas
The Model S150 swim spa by Bullfrog spas has preset or customizable fitness programs, resistance training, and low-impact water-based workouts. Learn more here!
www.bullfrogspas.com
It is expensive but the swim feature really is compelling imo. Plus it’d also just be a really big hot tub. I’m thinking pull the trigger on it +/- their own captive financing after I close on my EQB purchase (and by that time have a much more solid handle on how the interior renovation process is going with its associated finances).
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Can’t sleep so time to post. I’ve also been getting justified pushback on my NASIOC mountain house thread re the deck and the swim spa’s weight.
Ok, I will grant to you all that the deck’s worthiness for the load does need some formal investigation beyond the sales guy’s eyeballing it. So I will get that done.
I also got a quip there summed up in Watz’s recurring :lol: reaction to my various plans re the ridiculousness of the finance side of all this I think I can rationally justify that by my projected expenses dropping over the next few years (thus allowing for quite some debt service given that I am afloat as it is at baseline even with maxing out all the ample tax deferred spaces available to me, etc.).
Monthly expenses going away in the medium term:
- $1,600 for kid 3’s preschool, ending or going down radically via Denver Preschool Program subsidies May 2023, gone completely May 2024 as public kindergarten shall be up next for her by then
- $314 for the 0% interest 12 mo loan on the treadmill, January 2024. 0 interest is 0 interest.
- just under $2,700 for our combined student loans (fuzzy figure because they’re variable rate and rates have been floating up, thus they go up by a dollar or three each month as of late), Dec 2024.
- $941 for the 5 year self-loan from my 403(b) that I utilized in my financial shenanigans to swing the initial 10% down mountain house loan in May 2021 (since refinanced via magic increased appraised value after some improvements to a conventional jumbo @ 2.375%), April 2026.
So those are the big ones I can think of. I think given their magnitude trading a bit of interest now for pushing off expenses beyond their horizon (where I can pay them off quicker than term if not at good rates) seems perfectly rational, especially since much/all of the house improvements will be reflected in increased appraised value. Recall the most recent appraisal for the mountain explicitly called out its weird-ass layout as depressing its value.
Cliffs Notes: trading debt maturing soonish for more debt maturing later so not really loading the cart down more contrary to appearances.
I looked under the hood and the last 11 stringers on the proposed hot tub side are doubled up. But there’s no dedicated header beam on the house side, just these brackets bolted in. I would feel more confident in this setup with another header and posts abutting the house wall and supporting those doubled up stringers.
If the deck proved unsuitable then I suppose I could put it on the other side under the deck. There’s a door already there and cleaning up this space a bit would make it nicer. Would need stairs up to the paver level then the hot tub stairs alike.
Looks like I found an actual engineer that’s game. He’s based in Denver and appears to be the sole proprietor of his little outfit. Aiming for Feb 17 at the house.
Sent him the under deck photos and specs on the S150 to start.
I've got my reservation for a non-launch edition. "Estimated Delivery Date: Between Late 2023 and 2024", which probably is optimistic even so.
Sol White, 250 mile base battery, all the solar panels, all (3) wheel drive, Codex interior.
Sure looks like a ski bag will fit from the back left corner of the hatch up between the passenger seats. With 3WD it'd be amazing to roll up to ski with this.
I’d replaced my garage door opener with one that had a battery backup two years ago, so that it’d work during a power outage. Well, we had a power outage a few weeks ago and it didn’t work.
turns out its built in 2019 battery was dead, and the logic board was faulty to boot.
one third party battery replacement and one DIY warranty replacement logic board later and now it works under battery power with no 120V input. Sure was cold working up on a ladder in the garage today!
turns out its built in 2019 battery was dead, and the logic board was faulty to boot.
one third party battery replacement and one DIY warranty replacement logic board later and now it works under battery power with no 120V input. Sure was cold working up on a ladder in the garage today!
You just need a PTO on the E-Bike.
Or just pull the disconnect handle and open the door like a peasant.
I like this battery concept, at least now that it’s working. I also upgraded because I hoped the retail belt drive one would be quieter than the contractor grade chain one that came with the house. And it is but this is largely irrelevant as most of the noise comes from the garage door’s tracks even with liberal lube, just as she said
Just seems that a convenience like this that requires this level of maintenance has a negative ROI on time let alone cost. Unless power outages are common, which doesn't seem like the case.
K.I.S.S.
The logic board should be a one time thing!
The replacement battery is guaranteed for three years. I think I bought it with a card that’ll kick that to four. Replacing it is getting on the ladder, one screw, two slide off/on tabs on the terminals.
Plus it’s not so much for my benefit—I can pull a red handle and lift a door—but for my wife's.
1) Structural engineer confirmed for 11 AM on Feb 17 up at the house.
2) Visited the Colorado Swim Spas showroom (64th, just east of I-25/off Washington St). It's a very, very big building. Impressive.
3) Got quotes for a TidalFit ActivePlus EP-12 and a Bullfrog S150 through them, with the TidalFit having bench seating options with some jets to be a bit more like the S150, which fundamentally is a giant hot tub with a swim feature.
I reached out to them to clarify whether the cover's included as that'd eat up some of the different in price potentially. The crane also is another ~$500 item not included. But assuming that's included and just not listed and the structural engineer gives the aok with additional shoring up for the S150, I'll take this quote and argue down Spa Man to its level. Support the local business actually located in Grand County/get support from the local business when problems arise.
edit: Covers are included for the S150 and EP-12. Cloud Control is $495. Adding in that plus the same $480 estimated crane fee (with 4.2% tax) as for Spa Man's quotes brings the CO Custom Spas S150 price to $37,981 so really within spitting distance of Spa Man.
For reference:
ActivePlus EP-12 layout with the bench seats:
Bullfrog S150 layout:
The Bullfrog looks like it'd be nicer to use as a hot tub proper: those 4 seats with the JetPaks (2 in bottom right, 2 in top corners), the splash pad at bottom left, and at least token jets for the people along the middle.
2) Visited the Colorado Swim Spas showroom (64th, just east of I-25/off Washington St). It's a very, very big building. Impressive.
3) Got quotes for a TidalFit ActivePlus EP-12 and a Bullfrog S150 through them, with the TidalFit having bench seating options with some jets to be a bit more like the S150, which fundamentally is a giant hot tub with a swim feature.
I reached out to them to clarify whether the cover's included as that'd eat up some of the different in price potentially. The crane also is another ~$500 item not included. But assuming that's included and just not listed and the structural engineer gives the aok with additional shoring up for the S150, I'll take this quote and argue down Spa Man to its level. Support the local business actually located in Grand County/get support from the local business when problems arise.
edit: Covers are included for the S150 and EP-12. Cloud Control is $495. Adding in that plus the same $480 estimated crane fee (with 4.2% tax) as for Spa Man's quotes brings the CO Custom Spas S150 price to $37,981 so really within spitting distance of Spa Man.
For reference:
ActivePlus EP-12 layout with the bench seats:
Bullfrog S150 layout:
The Bullfrog looks like it'd be nicer to use as a hot tub proper: those 4 seats with the JetPaks (2 in bottom right, 2 in top corners), the splash pad at bottom left, and at least token jets for the people along the middle.
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Related: in person the TidalFit EP-12 and especially -15 are just MASSIVE. What the hell am I thinking?!
/semi-joking
(The S150 is a few inches bigger than an EP-12 on paper but there wasn't one there in the showroom. EP-15 is clearly longer.)
I tried to capture the size with videos using the wide angle lens but they don't do them justice. They're really. really. big.
/semi-joking
(The S150 is a few inches bigger than an EP-12 on paper but there wasn't one there in the showroom. EP-15 is clearly longer.)
I tried to capture the size with videos using the wide angle lens but they don't do them justice. They're really. really. big.
It's going to be a giant waste of water when you're emptying/re-filling that monstrosity every time someone shags their missus in the pool. Or some kid takes a dump in it.
I don’t disagree but alsoIt's going to be a giant waste of water when you're emptying/re-filling that monstrosity every time someone shags their missus in the pool. Or some kid takes a dump in it.
A) if it happens during a guest’s stay then its Vacasa’s issue to solve
2. my kids won’t do that
iii: it should both drive up bookings/rates but more importantly be good for my family to use
四; I’m effectively on flat rate water. Probably just under their flat minimum. $408/quarter.
It will definitely drive up bookings/rates, 'cause everybody wants a hot tub. It probably won't matter, booking-wise, if it's a "standard" 8-person or that giant swimming pool you're considering.