From books to hot bubbly baths

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on August 10, 2007

If Elements Hot Tub Spa had been across the street from her house when Emily Dickinson was still alive, would she have been writing verses like "I felt a funeral in my brain"?

After all, as her contemporary, the famous writer Mark Twain, is said to have observed after visiting hot tubs in Germany: "After 10 minutes you forget the time. After 20 minutes you forget the world."

It took more than a year and a half of planning, permit-gathering, construction and renovations, but a pair of book lovers (and former bookstore owners), Jeffrey and Diana Krauth, have opened a hot tub emporium at 377 Main St., practically facing the Belle of Amherst's house.

The Krauths owned Beyond Words Bookshop in Northampton for 26 years before getting into the hot tub business across the river.

"The harder we worked, the harder it became to be in the book business, and we had done that long enough," Diana Krauth said.

"People say they miss Beyond Words a lot, and we're happy to be involved in the community again, offering something that we feel is uplifting and nurturing," Jeffrey Krauth said.

The Krauths and two of their three children were having dinner at the former La Cazuela restaurant in Northampton, when they dreamed up the idea of bringing hot tubs to Amherst. The restaurant and their frequent trips to Santa Fe, N.M., were the inspiration for the Southwestern ambience at Elements. The spa's five hot tub and sauna rooms, each based on one of five elements - earth, air, fire, water and spirit - are painted in muted Santa Fe colors and the gas fireplace in the foyer has a distinctive Southwestern look.

"Amherst is a whole different world from Northampton," Diana said. Although she has a hard time articulating the difference, even to herself, Northampton seems more commercial to her, while Amherst reminds her a bit of Cape Cod.

"We thought, 'Amherst is kind of cool and we don't mind the commute, what would we do? What do we love?'"

Well, the Krauths love books and they love hot tubs. Books, Amherst has plenty of. Hot tubs, it didn't.

"When we said, 'Let's do another business,' we wanted to do something that we felt good about, that was a real contribution to the community," Jeffrey said.

The couple looked all over from Route 9 to the North Amherst library, but found there was not a lot for sale in Amherst that was commercially zoned. They initially settled on the former Valley Bicycles shop up Main Street a bit closer to Emily Dickinson's house.

"It would have been a really good set-up, but the neighbors didn't like it," Diana said. The Krauths would have been renting, as well, an imperfect arrangement since they would be doing so much renovation work.

When their present location, the building where Fenton's Athletic Supplies and the V.I.P. Barber Shop had been renting for 35 and 40 years, respectively, came on the market, the Krauths snapped it up for $145,000.

The basement had water in it, and the infrastructure needed a lot of work. "It was a long permit process," Diana said, "It's a long complicated process and Amherst is trying hard to streamline it. They will get there."

"Basically, we took the building and totally gutted it and started from scratch," Jeffrey Krauth said. They maximized every inch in combining the barbershop and Fenton's. "We had to upgrade to the standards of a spa," meaning the ventilation, for one, had to be perfect. "It's different than a shoe store," he said.

Diana designed the spa with the help of Integrity Development and Construction Inc., of Amherst, the general contractor.

"It was really her vision and her design working with their designer," Jeffrey said.

Diana was aiming for a "cozy, warm and comfortable" atmosphere, but there were state building codes with which to conform, the width of hallways and doorways, for instance.

"Every room," as a result, "has a bit of grand feeling," in her view.

The rooms are carefully arranged according to their themes. The spirit room, for instance, is eggplant-colored with a towering amethyst geode, cedar infrared sauna and iridescent tiles on the shower.

The air room, which is outdoors with a tall brick wall insulating it from the parking lot, has a pot of delicate pink cosmos, "an airy flower," Diana said.

Two of the rooms are completely accessible with handicapped lifts.

An indoor and outdoor tub have Hoyer lifts to convey disabled people in and out of them. For safety reasons, there is a two-person minimum requirement in all of the tub rooms.

Elements also offers massage sessions and Reiki, a Japanese "laying on of the hands" technique.

Music of the customers' choice can be piped into any of the rooms or they can bring in their own CDs or ipods. Elements provides the shampoo and towels. Bathing suits are optional.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.