A secondhand house usually comes with a surprise. This certainly proved true for Mark and Jenny Ronsman when they found a hidden hot tub in the house they bought three years ago in Wisconsin. The former owner of the home disclosed to them about the hot tub hidden away in the office room. This piece of information definitely helped speed up the couple’s decision to buy the house. However, given their busy schedule, the couple never had the time to attend their home’s covered up bonus. Until now.
The house’s previous owner is now enjoying her golden years. The hot tub’s hasn’t seen the light of day for a while now. She said that as they got older, the tub got used less and less. So they decided to turn the room into an office instead! To prove that her story is true, the previous homeowner showed a picture of her with some friends in the tub. However, the picture didn’t provide much insight about the hot tub’s actual appearance.
Meet the Ronsman couple
“I’m an IT systems engineer and my wife Jenny is a college professor. We have an amazing 5-year-old. The dear old woman who sold this house sold it to us because she said it was important for her that the house goes to a nice family. Our in-laws live across our backyard, the street over, and the former owner just loved that, and how close it would make our family.”
The Ronsmans found and restored their home’s hidden hot tub
Soon after the couple moved into their new home, they immediately set out to uncover the hot tub. Mark was more than excited to tear away the carpet that covered the home office floor. After that, they found the tub smack in the middle of the room, carefully covered. “I was truly shocked and overjoyed that something so beautiful was in our house!” Mark shared. “I was also truly grateful to discover the previous owners took such great care that what they did could be reversed!”
Mark found the hot tub in great shape
“Thankfully, the tub was in really great shape. The tile was absolutely beautiful. After tearing off the cover, I then had to chip away all of the leveling material they used on the edges of the tub. Next I put a new coat of sealant on the stone floors. After that we spent hours upon hours getting all the grout whitened and the tub sanitized.”
“We also had to put weather stripping on all the doorways to better seal in the air. Finally, we added a security system so that an alarm will go off if someone enters the room without deactivating it. We have a small child and never wanted to worry about her falling in unsupervised.”
Their restoration effort on the hot tub is pretty extensive
“While it was always our intention to fix up the hot tub, it really didn’t reach the top of our ‘need’ list until the lockdown, so that’s when we kicked it up a gear in terms of restoration efforts.”
“We got a second opinion from a hot tub professional, and now we do plan to replace at least one of the water pumps for energy efficient reasons. Due to the power consumption differences between the old and new pump, the new pump will actually pay for itself in less than a year. So hopefully we can get that work down as soon as possible.”
The Ronsmans’ perfectly preserved hot tub is surely a delightful addition to their investment. It’s certainly going to help their property value hike up for when they decide to move on (but we’re pretty sure they’d rather keep this gem of a house). This hot tub will certainly be their home’s crowning jewel! Soaking in a hot tub is proven to help improve the overall health of a person, that’s why owning one is seen as a luxury by many. What do you think of their restoration project?
Source: Mark Ronsman