26/07/2025
Kids sleep better on spa nights.
I never planned to add a spa to our pool project.
Spent weeks designing the 9m x 4m pool, measuring everything twice, researching equipment. The spa? Pure afterthought.
Then I watched my kids at a family resort, jumping between pool and spa for hours. Got cold in the pool? Quick jump to the spa for five minutes to warm up.
Back to the pool.
Over and over again.
They stayed in the water for hours instead of the usual one hour before getting too cold and wanting to go inside.
So we added the spa to our design.
What happened next completely changed how our family spends time together.
Now we use our spa four or five nights a week as a family, all sitting in a circle looking at each other. No phones in sight. No screens calling from inside the house... no dishes staring at us from the kitchen window.
The conversations that happen out there are different from any other family time we have.
Inside there's always something else demanding attention. Phone rings. You notice something that needs doing. Those meaningful moments get interrupted before they can really develop.
In the spa?
That doesn't happen.
Our oldest opens up more when we're out there. We play math games and spelling games where the loser has to jump in the cold pool. We talk about school, make weekend plans, discuss upcoming holidays.
And yes, the kids genuinely sleep better on spa nights too.
The spa didn't just add another feature to our backyard. It transformed how we use everything we'd invested in.
All the neighborhood kids want to come to our house now. Parents end up joining us after dinner while kids watch movies inside. We have drinks under the stars, surrounded by the landscape lighting that illuminates the trees around us.
I think the spa has increased our overall outdoor usage by a factor of 5 to 10 over what we would have had with just the pool alone.
A spa adds $15,000 to $30,000 to a project, so budget definitely matters. But if you can swing it... the family connection aspect alone makes it worth considering.
Sometimes the best investments are the ones you never planned.
What's been your experience creating spaces that naturally bring your family together? Comment below if you've found that one addition that changed everything for your household 👇
