Hey Anthemguy, sounds like you may be moving to Vegas by your name. Both kim-in-LV and I are here to help a bit. I'm not a plumber but have had a pool here for 15 years. Spas integrated with the pool are expected here. Make sure you can heat the spa separately for winter, you will not be doing any winter swimming. We swim til late Sep only. I have a heater for the pool, but don't really need it. I put a solar cover on in the spring when air temps are 80's and can warm the pool in about a week from 60's to mid 80"s. I use the solar cover all summer at night to stop water loss, we can lose an inch overnight with wind. If the pool gets too warm I just leave the cover off for a night, it will cool the pool at least 5 degrees. If you are going to some other desert location than Vegas, we need some of those Phoenix/Tuscon folks to advise. My girlfriend came from Phoenix and they used to throw ice blocks in the pool in summer. Hope this helps, Barb

My take on spas.... I'm a stunt woman and my husband is a stunt man.....we do physical stuff like falling, fights and car stunts so we pretty much require a spa to take care of my sore muscles. We have thoroughly enjoyed our spa and even if I wasn't a stunt woman I would still have a spa. It's kind of funny when we have a party and they're are a few stunt people here, they always seem to be in the spa instead of the pool, lol. Our spa has 6 jets but, 10 people can comfortably sit in the spa. It's a large spa but, didn't cost me anymore than having a regular sized round spa. Had we put in more jets, that would have been a different deal. One side of the spa doesn't have jets which is great because sometimes I just want to feel the heat. I use my spa daily and if not in the day it's used at night. During the summer it takes 10 minutes to heat and during the winter about 30 minutes even if the temp. is at 55 - 60 degrees. Although I'm in So. Cal. and the winters are mild here, our pool water will still go down into the mid 50s. You don't have to heat the spa to enjoy it during the summer or during the day. I use it for the jets. I'll warm it up to whatever desired temperature I feel I need, if I heat it at all. It's nice because it's above the pool with a nice spill over so when the pool starts cooling down, we'll get a little heat spilling over into the pool. I have an above ground Cal Spa which was great when I was using it but, I personally don't like the smell of the chemicals which caused me to not want to even go in it. My bathing suit smelled and so did my skin. I even put fragrance in the spa and it would temporarily help hide the smell of the bromine chemicals. I basically lost interest in that spa. I've tried to sell it...and I can't even give that spa away. I've offered it to several of my friends to come get it. My pool spa doesn't smell of any chemicals what so ever but, I do have a SWG which helps. So with that being said.....If I were to build another pool someday (and I'LL BE THE BUILDER!) I wouldn't go without a spa.

Back wall, you understand except I would go to the level of the the top of the rock on the right (picture #2). Request a 9" overlap, drill a standard anchor and use a "D" ring or short spring on the strap. At the drop off by the skimmer, put a small pillow to fill the space and keep critters out. Long straps for the front of the spa with standard anchors and springs. Note that th cover manufacturer make declare it non-safe because of the tangle foot trip hazard potential. The cover will hold a snow load Put a layer of vinyl under the cover where it meets the spa except for the wall. It will prevent chafing, ensuring neither the cover nor the rock surface is marred, scuffed or torn. Another pillow for the other side's rocks. WRT to the PB's suggestion of draining/we do it with public pools all the time, public pools don't have the jungle you have. The potential for difficult to remove stains like tree sap, acorns, leaves, etcetera, is high.There is also a potential for cracking but that is small. I don't recommend closing the pool and not the spa. The spa will need to be drained to winterize it's bottom drains. Raised spas can freeze solid. I know I wouldn't want to jump in a full and cold spa with air blasting out the drains. I don't ask those that work for me to do things I won't do either. Once the spa is drained and the drains are winterized, you can still refill the spa from the pool. This will lower the water in the pool below the tile or close to it, judging from the pictures. Only fill the spa to 12 inches from the tile line. This allows rain and snow melt to finish it when using a mesh cover (recommended to keep weight down). Put a step pump in the main pool to keep the water off the tile. Pool covers are much larger than spa covers. It is more important to keep the water level less than 15" from the bottom of the cover because a snow load will need it's support . Snow floats. Snow when wet is heavy. In early Winter and mid to late Spring, these weights happen and put a lot of stress on the cover. Having the water there keeps it from getting out of hand. Pools have a lot more surface area than spas. The materials used in fabricating them are the same. The smaller perimeter of the spa cover won't have to hold the same amount of weight as the pool's cover. Sorry, I tend to ramble. Scott

Our pool (put in by previous owners) does lose heated water because it just spills the hot water over the top. As a result, we only heat the hot tub when we have the spillover off. We hate, hate, hate the built in hot tub because it is so useless. We would much rather have just a water feature. We actually bought a freestanding hot tub. It has more jets, doesn’t have the annoying spillover issue. It is all around better.