Well, I typed out a whole message, pushed submit, then my internet went off and I lost it all. GRRR.... ANYway, lol... Diane, I received your package today. She sent me a really big and gorgeous garden statue!! I absolutely love it, thank you so much. It is beautiful, Diane. Here is a photo of it out in my yard: Diane, you have been such a great pal these past few months, despite how crazy busy you have been. And I cannot thank you enough for that. I wish we could've been pals longer, but I am enjoying the time that we have been pals. E-mail me sometime if you ever get a spare minute, and I will do my best to respond. I am still way behind on e-mails to others, specifically Susan, who I want to apologize to for not writing in so long. Seems like there is always so much to do, and so little time. I hope to sit myself down and write a good e-mail to you sometime. By the way Diane, here's a photo of the king frog statue you sent me last month, out on my back patio for now: Thanks again Diane, for such a great housewarming gift! ~Summer

Thanks for the cleaning info...definitely trying the Cascade. I get crud in the jet fixtures and was looking for a good brush to clean with...needs bristles on the tip. Anyway, I just wanted to add that if you are going out of town for a while and the tub will not be used...fill it above the jets with 4 c. of bleach and run it for 10 minutes, then just leave the water in it while you are gone...if you have a house sitter, they can just run it for a few minutes to move the water through the pipes, but its not necessary. This stops the slime from growing in the pipes and it is ready to use upon your return with just a drain and a quick cleaning. Unfortunately I learned the hard way about black slime in the pipes...it took so long to get rid of...argh!

Jodi, I'm assuming you probably have a tub where the drillings are through the tub wall rather than the rim? There are a lot of different handshower faucets (often called "telephone" faucets because the handshower resembles an old-fashioned telephone handset) that are adjustable to fit many different drillings. These are called "swivel arm connectors". For filling-up speed check the description for "____ gal/min @ ____ PSI" (for example, 8 gal/min. @ 60PSI" - that means that if you have a water pressure of 60PSI, the faucet will (should) fill the tub at the rate of 8 gallons a minute. Vintagetub.com has a nice selection of telephone faucets with swivel-arm connectors at reasonable prices and their customer service cannot be beat; for example, here is a nice one from Strom Plumbing, which is a well-regarded manufacturer. There are deck-mounted versions as well. To comment on some of the older posts, just in case anyone goes looking for info... This lovely little overflow cover gives you an extra inch or so of water depth. You have to caulk around the rim when installing it because it leaks if you don't. Obviously it works best if you use a twist-and-lift drain or (as we did) the truly idiotproof and easily repairable rubber stopper, it doesn't work with the type that has the lever on the overflow. Regarding missing feet: Vintage Tub now makes replacement tub feet - ship them one of yours and they will cast a copy of it. deabath.com has a large stock of old feet and may be able to find a matching vintage foot; they also cast matching replacements and MAY be able to hook you up with a set of four matching feet if all your tub's feet have gone astray. Cleaning around the tub: Plumber goofed the rough-ins (forgot to account for wallboard and wainscot!) and the tub ended up being about 2" from the wall on two sides. I used a Swiffer mop frame with a microfiber cleaning cloth to get underneath and around ours, because it would lie down completely flat. I had a long-handled scrubby thing that would also go completely flat and fit well into the tight space behind the tub. It really ended up being pretty simple. Now, for hauling that durn tub... two guys, both skinny as rails, moved my iron 60" clawfoot tub up a flight of narrow stairs pretty easily using a wonderful gadget called a Shoulder Dolly. I first learned about these because all the appliance delivery people and many movers around here use them. It was cheap and one of the best investments we've made, I can't tell you how many times we've used it and lent it out to many other people.

There are other protective measures to use besides water,if that is the reason for filling. Did they spray foam down before they set the tub? The water would be used to weigh the tub down until the foam sets up. We weighted ours down with kegs of nails, and just to be on the safe side, left them there over night, but foam sets up quickly. Look to see if yours was foamed, and if that's the case, im willing to bet that is the reason for the water, to act as a weight. I wouldn't want the water to set for that length of time,but maybe there is a solution you can add to prevent any staining/ringing.Call your plumber and get their take on it.Maybe it's a standard practice in your area that works, but i've never heard of using water for tub protection.