Manouk and Michiel's Ducktub Bjorn

Model: Ducktub Bjorn

‍Since: December 2020

Lives in: the Betuwe

Together with: friend Michiel and dog Floyd

Enjoying the hot tub and slowly warming up the pool, win win win

Manouk and her boyfriend moved from Amsterdam to the Betuwe in May 2020, during the pandemic. For the first time in their lives they have a lovely garden, a very large one too. Manouk: "We also have a pool in it, but this is a natural pool. We don't heat the water ourselves and no chemicals go into it. It only heats up because of the sun. So you either have a cold bath or you have a fresh bath when it's very hot. This is very nice in the summer, but we actually wanted to use it longer. Heating the pool proved difficult anyway."

"When I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across Welvaere . I showed the hot tubs to my boyfriend and we were actually both sold right away and made an appointment to go see it in Nijkerk. It works great now because when we have used the hot tub for a few days, we run the hot water into the pool. With this we slowly raise the temperature of the pool a bit. It works very well!"

The barbecue and hot tub: perfect combination

Manouk and her boyfriend use the hot tub once or twice a month. They always schedule it so that they then enjoy it four/five days in a row. "If we have some people over at the weekend and the barbecue is on, we like to turn on the hot tub as well. We mainly sit in it just the two of us, but when visitors know it's on, they usually bring their swimwear. They always really like that, throwing wood in the stove and into the water themselves."

Plenty of favorite moments

If the hot tub has been on on Saturday and the water has cooled a bit the next day, they often throw in some wood the next morning to warm it back up a bit. "I find the morning very chill. We then fire it up not too hot and then sit there in the morning sun with a cup of coffee. That's really lovely. But if I had to pick a favorite moment, it would be last January. Then there was so much snow. Very nice to sit in the warm water then. It felt very Finnish!"

Beautiful view of an orchard full of pear trees

Manouk and her boyfriend's hot tub is in the back of the garden, next to a canopy with a seating area. They live on an orchard, so behind the hot tub are all beautiful pear trees. "We also have two pear trees in the garden ourselves and it's right in between them. In the spring it's beautiful among the blossoms. I also hung those dimmable lights above it, it's become a really nice little corner with lots of privacy, so that's nice too!"

The garden was already beautiful when they bought the house. A botanical garden full of tall plants and little trees, such as an apple tree and a peach tree. "We want to make the garden a little more tropical now, so we get that vacation atmosphere a little bit. That's work in progress. In terms of inspiration, we do look at beautiful examples, in a magazine or on Pinterest, but we don't recreate that exactly. It's really for inspiration."

Vacation tunes and yummy smells complete it all

When the hot tub turns on, it is almost never without the Welvaere aromas. "We use the eucalyptus and pine forest aromas. Pine forest then a little more in the winter and eucalyptus especially in the summer. We smoke that right in the showroom, those scents really complete it."

"A music is always on, too. In the summer we often have a reggae list on to get the vacation atmosphere in. My friend has also turned on some of that Norwegian music to get into the scandinavian atmosphere, but that wasn't such a success."

Photos by Jasmin van Santen Photography.