Couple Buys A New House And Discovers A Roman Bath Hidden In One Of The Rooms

Three and a half years ago, Wisconsin couple Mark and Jenny Ronsman bought a house an were informed that there’s a hot tub hidden underneath the home office. That’s right – an actual hot tub, because why not right? The couple removed the carpet and found the tub but it was only during the lockdown that they’ve had enough free time to finally fix it up. And now they probably regret not doing it earlier.

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

In an interview with Bored Panda, the couple said that because the former owners rarely used the hot tub, they decided to cover it up and turn the room into an office. One of the owners even showed a picture of people in the tub although the tub itself wasn’t clearly visible. Upon uncovering the hot tub, Mark was shocked and overjoyed to find something so beautiful in the house. “I was also truly grateful to discover the previous owners took such great care that what they did could be reversed!” said the man.

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

One of the first things the couple did when they moved into their new home was remove the old carpet to reveal the tub and Mark said he was really surprised by how good everything looked. He said the tub was in great shape and the tiles held up perfectly. The man the went on to explain how he uncovered the sealed hot tub.

“After tearing off the cover, I then had to chip away all of the leveling material they used around the edges of the tub. Next, I put a new coat of sealant on the stone floors. After that, we spent hours upon hours getting all of the grout whitened and the tub sanitized. We also had to put weather stripping on all the doorways to better seal in the air,” explained Mark. “Finally, we added a security system so that an alarm will go off if someone enters the room without deactivating it. We have a small child and never wanted to have to worry about her falling in unsupervised.”

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

“While it was always our intention to fix up the hot tub, it really didn’t reach the top of our ‘need’ list until the lockdown, so that’s when we kicked it up a gear in terms of restoration efforts. We got a second opinion from a hot tub professional, and now we do plan to replace at least one of the water pumps for energy efficiency reasons,” continued the man. “Due to the power consumption differences between the old and new pump, the new pump will actually pay for itself in less than a year. So hopefully we can get that work done as soon as possible!”

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Mark is an IT systems engineer, Jenny is a college professor and together they have a 5-year-old daughter. The man said that the former owner wanted the house to go to a nice family – naturally, the Ronsman’s were the perfect pick. “Our in-laws live across our backyard, the street over, and the former owner just loved that, and how close it would make our family,” added Mark.

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman

Image credits: Mark Ronsman