Garden Leisure GL863L

A Low-Maintenance Backyard Retreat in North Nashville

Here’s something you probably don’t expect to hear from a pool company: Sometimes, you shouldn’t build a pool.

That was the case with this homeowner in North Nashville. When he first reached out to us, he liked the outdoor spaces Nashville Dip Pools was building. He’d been referred by a friend, spent some time on our website, and could absolutely see the appeal of having a pool in his backyard.

But there was a problem. Actually, there were two.

1. He travels for work (a lot). Most weeks, he’s gone three or four days.
2. He wasn’t sure how long he planned to stay in this particular house.

So although he wanted an incredible backyard, the idea of investing in a pool and then coming home to another thing that needed cleaning, chemicals, and regular attention? It just didn’t make much sense for him.

Then he asked us a question: Would we consider designing the backyard around a hot tub instead?

The answer was yes. But there was one catch. We didn’t want to simply drop a hot tub onto a concrete pad, call it a day, and move on. If we were going to do it, we wanted to design the entire backyard around the way he actually planned to use it.

And that decision turned an otherwise pretty forgettable builder-grade backyard into one of the more interesting outdoor living projects we’ve done.

The Backyard Didn't Need More Stuff. It Needed a Purpose.

When we started, there wasn’t much going on back there. Patchy grass. Poor soil. Weeds. Basically, the kind of backyard you walk past while heading back inside. It was a blank slate, which can be both good and bad. The good part is obvious: We had room to work.

The harder question was: What should this backyard actually do for the homeowner?

For him, the answer was pretty simple. He wanted somewhere to decompress when he got home from traveling. He wanted somewhere friends could come over and hang out. And he wanted all of that without creating another weekend job for himself. That became the filter for almost every decision we made.

We Didn't Want the Hot Tub to Feel Like an Afterthought

The hot tub needed to feel like it belonged in the backyard - not like somebody bought one on Friday and figured out where to put it on Saturday. 

So we built a large wood deck around it and treated that deck as an outdoor room. We added privacy walls on both sides. That mattered because, at the time, the lots next door were still vacant. It would have been very easy to look around and say, “Privacy isn't really an issue here.” But eventually, those lots are going to have houses on them.

We'd rather solve that problem while we're designing the backyard than have the homeowner call us a few years later because he's suddenly making eye contact with his neighbor while sitting in the hot tub.

We also built a stone countertop into the deck so there would be an actual place for drinks, food, and whatever else comes outside when people are hanging out. Again, little decision. Big difference.

The hot tub stopped being the destination. The deck itself became somewhere you'd want to spend time.

Then We Gave the Backyard a Second Place to Gather

Walk down the steps from the deck and follow the pathway into the yard, and you reach a completely different space: a large wood-burning fire pit area.

And when we say large, we mean roughly 20 feet in diameter. This wasn't designed for two people to sit around a tiny decorative flame. The homeowner entertains. He wanted enough room to pull up a bunch of Adirondack chairs, put real logs on a real fire, and have a group of people spread out comfortably.

For the base, we used pea gravel over landscape fabric. Is pea gravel the fanciest material you could possibly put around a fire pit? Nope. But here's why we like it in an application like this. It's relatively affordable. It drains. And when you're dealing with a wood-burning fire pit, you're going to have ash, leaves, little pieces of bark, and everything else that comes with actually using the thing. Pea gravel is forgiving. You don't feel like you need to sweep or wash the area every time somebody has a fire.

We surrounded it with a stone border to give the space some definition, and the homeowner finished it off with Adirondack chairs and an oversized bronze wood-burning fire pit that can handle substantial logs.

The result is almost like having two backyards. Up by the house, you've got the more intimate deck and hot tub. Farther out, you've got the big gathering area around the fire.

One of Our Favorite Decisions Happened During Construction

Originally, the fencing around the property was going to be much more traditional. Privacy fence along the sides. Privacy fence along the back.

But as the project came together, the homeowner looked beyond the rear property line at all the mature greenery and basically asked: Why would we cover that up? Good question.

Because once you put a solid privacy fence across that rear property line, all of those trees visually disappear from the backyard. Yes, they're technically still there. But they don't feel like they're part of your property anymore. So we changed course.

We kept the traditional privacy fencing along the sides, where separation from future neighboring homes mattered. Along the rear, though, we transitioned to a four-board fence. It still creates a clear property boundary, but your eye moves right through it toward the greenery beyond.

That one change made the backyard feel significantly larger and more open. And it's also a good example of why we don't love designing outdoor spaces in a vacuum. Sometimes the best decision becomes obvious only after you're standing in the yard looking at it.

Why a Hot Tub Made More Sense Than a Pool

For the spa itself, we installed a Garden Leisure GL863L six-person hot tub with a Tuscan Sun acrylic interior and black maintenance-free exterior.

It's roughly 91 inches square and 39 inches deep, so it has enough size to comfortably entertain without dominating the deck.

There are plenty of bells and whistles: 63 stainless steel swirl jets, padded headrests, LED lighting, fountain jets, and multiple pumps. But honestly, those weren't the features that mattered most to this homeowner.

The important part was what happens when he isn't home. Remember, he travels several days most weeks. So features like the dedicated circulation pump, filtration system, ozonator, UV-C water sanitation, insulation, and maintenance-free exterior became a much bigger part of the decision.

The goal wasn't to eliminate maintenance completely. No hot tub (or pool, for that matter) is truly maintenance-free. The goal was to make ownership reasonable for somebody who isn't standing in his backyard seven days a week. That's a big distinction.

And it's exactly why this solution made more sense for him than installing a pool simply because, well, we're Nashville Dip Pools.

The Best Product Isn't Always the Right Product

This project taught, or maybe reinforced, something we believe pretty strongly.

A backyard project shouldn't start with: “What can we sell you?”

It should start with: “How do you actually want to live out here?”

Those are two completely different conversations.

If we'd started with the assumption that every customer contacting Nashville Dip Pools needed a swimming pool, we probably would have designed the wrong backyard for this guy.

Could a pool have fit? Sure.

Could he have afforded one? Yes.

But would it have matched his lifestyle, travel schedule, future plans, and appetite for maintenance? Probably not. The hot tub did.

And because we weren't spending the entire budget and footprint on a pool, we were able to think more broadly about the rest of the yard. Put all of those pieces together, and you get something very different from simply buying a hot tub. You get a backyard.

And Yes, He Actually Uses It

This may be the part we like most. Since finishing the project, the homeowner has told us how often the backyard gets used for parties and gatherings.

That's the real test, isn't it? Outdoor living spaces can photograph beautifully and still sit empty 95% of the year. This one doesn't. When he's home, he has somewhere to soak and decompress after traveling. When friends come over, there's room to hang out on the deck. When the weather cooperates, everybody can move down to the fire pit. And when nobody's there? He's not staring out the window thinking about the giant list of backyard chores waiting for him.

That was the goal from day one.

Does This Mean Nashville Dip Pools Is Becoming a Hot Tub Company?

No. Pools are still at the heart of what we do.

But we're also not interested in forcing a pool into every backyard simply because the word “Pools” happens to be in our name.

Sometimes a dip pool is absolutely the right answer. Sometimes it's a hot tub.

For some homeowners, we can see this expanding even further into spaces built around wellness - a sauna, cold plunge, hot tub, pool, or some combination of them.

The product can change. The question shouldn't.

What is going to make this homeowner actually love and use this backyard?

For this North Nashville homeowner, the answer wasn't a swimming pool. It was a private, low-maintenance place to relax when he was home, plus enough room to invite a bunch of friends over when he wanted company.

So that's what we built. Different from most of our projects? Definitely. But it still feels exactly like the kind of backyard we want Nashville Dip Pools to be known for.

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