No running water? Schwarzenegger

[Subduction Zone]

Every few years we go without running water in my town for two or three days. It happened last year in the late summer as a result of a burst water pipe. Annoying but no big deal, right? The council handed out bottled water for free and it was only a couple of days.

Yeah, people acted like it was the end times. They not only stocked up on the free bottled water but on every bottle of milk, juice and pop they could get hold of.

I don't think my town would cope with genuine adversity.

If that happened regularly the one thing I would do would be to set up a rain barrel, just for toilet water. No need to flush potable water down the toilet.

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes, of course. I go plug my phone into my car during power outages. I was going to add a smiley face but it doesn't work from my phone to this site. There!

You're still addicted to electricity.
Welcome aboard!

 

[Jumi]

I have ran from the sauna, into a snowdrift and then back again. Now I have neither snowdrifts nor sauna

I don't go to sauna myself too often as I live in the city and don't like public saunas. Countryside saunas you get the authentic thing... you can go almost every day during winter and go play in the snow

ETA: I also had a cousin who from northern Minnesota where the Finnish population is quite large, vist another that lived in a suburb of Minneapolis. Of course it was a modern house fully plumbed. When he got home he was amazed and wondered how they stayed clean without a sauna. Showers meant nothing to him.

Yeah, if you have sauna then shower is nothing... you feel deeply cleansed after sauna.

The house that I grew up in relied on both an oil furnace that sat in the living room (talk about "central heat") and a Franklin stove. That is a small cast iron stove that one burnt wood in. I did more than my share of splitting wood and carrying it to the house. That was not that bad. If you were cold you got both some exercise that warmed you up and wood that would finish the job.

I didn't think I'd start to feel nostalgic about this, but somehow reading this thread I did start to feel some nostalgia...

 

[Jumi]

The closest I've come to living like that is washing myself in a sink with a broken faucet and little water pressure. As for the toilet, that was broken (tank broke in half due to freezing due to no heat in winter). As for what we did with the waste, I'll leave that to your imagination.

That sounds horrible to me, I think living in a tent with some gallon water bottles sounds superior to those living conditions.

Actually, crapping in the woods and washing in a stream would've been a luxary compared to that.

Yeah during summertime or in warm countries the latter isn't that bad, especially if there's a proper place set aside for crapping...

 

[Jumi]

I wondered whether his house was also wired or if that was a job for another time

If I'd have to guess they probably did the house at the same time. Probably they get at least some sockets and lights quite quick after connecting to a powerline.. at least they do things like that when electricity comes to countryside that I've seen.

 

[Jumi]

In the years 1950 to around 1955, (Born in 1947), we lived in a homesteaders shack in then very rural Oregon. We were the first to occupy the place after the original Homesteader died. There was no bathroom. We used a tiny little shed outside, in back, about 50 feet from the house. Water came from a spring that came out of the hillside, and was piped via a syphon a few hundred feet long down into a cistern above the house. Cold water only was piped into the house above a 19th century style "sink", and that drained through an open hole in the side of the shack out into a field and ran down the hill.

I used to visit a place as a kid on the countryside that sounds just like that, they did get an extension into the house that included a more modern toilet, but water was piped from a hill. Sometimes you had to climb up there to see why water tasted bad or if there was a problem. Of course when ground started to be below freezing there was no running water back then and you had to make some arrangements so the pipes didn't burst from freezing water...

 

[Jumi]

Later, I lived in neighborhoods in Chicago where the buildings were all built as cold-water flats, for the working class. They were built with a kitchen sink and a 'water closet' (toilet) both supplied with cold water only. The family members went to their neighborhood bathhouse once a week for their baths. Later, when their owners could afford it, they installed a hot water tank (usually in the corner of the kitchen so everyone could see it, as it was a symbol of prosperity), and a bathtub in the pantry (because the water closets were too small, and there was no other place to put them near the plumbing).

Yeah seen those hot water tanks in pre-WW2 houses. Often they're next to wood stoves (or as part of a sauna)... it's actually nice to store heat in water rather than just waste it.

As I worked on these buildings in later years it was fun to 'excavate' them and uncover their original layouts.

Must be interesting. Do you do asbestos tests before working on older buildings or is that just something we do in my country?

 

[Jumi]

Wife grew up in Philippines. Had to pump water by hand into a bucket and then carry it about 100 feet to house. Things have improved since then but it was hard for her as a child.

I remember at my grandparents house, I don't remember how many meters(or feet) the distance to the well was, but it was at least a hundred. You'd needed to get it by bucket from there and it was not that safe. It was probably made just after WW2 and the sides were maybe 10 cm(1/3 feet) tall. I don't know if it was even the best place for a well, someone had used a dowsing rod for it back in those days and made the well themselves without much technical skill.

 

[Jumi]

Hmm. I still use a wood stove to heat my "house". I do have running water and electric but it goes out several times a year. Sometimes for a week. No problem! Heat the water on the wood stove and dump it in the claw foot bath. Dig out the porta potty. Who needs electricity?!

Yeah, electricity is mostly for convenience. At least in temperature climates it's quite comfortable without electricity as long as you don't need any equipment that needs it or computers/phones.

 

[Jumi]

Every few years we go without running water in my town for two or three days. It happened last year in the late summer as a result of a burst water pipe. Annoying but no big deal, right? The council handed out bottled water for free and it was only a couple of days.

Yeah, people acted like it was the end times. They not only stocked up on the free bottled water but on every bottle of milk, juice and pop they could get hold of.

I don't think my town would cope with genuine adversity.

That's very much the way it is today. Lots of people say it's just a consequence of urban living, but I think countryside across the world is also becoming less self-sufficient. There's much comfort, so it's always the end of the world when something trivial goes wrong...

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

That sounds horrible to me, I think living in a tent with some gallon water bottles sounds superior to those living conditions.


Yeah during summertime or in warm countries the latter isn't that bad, especially if there's a proper place set aside for crapping...

Yeah, it was awful. It was a broken down slum my mom and I were tricked into moving into. All our pet fish died of temperature shock the first night there since it was winter and there was no heat. My turtle almost died, too. So yeah, camping would've been like a 5 star hotel. Anyway, I'm just saying that lacking modern conveniences and technology doesn't necessarily mean you're suffering or deserve pity. That's just how we lived for pretty much all of human existence.

 

[PureX]

Yeah seen those hot water tanks in pre-WW2 houses. Often they're next to wood stoves (or as part of a sauna)... it's actually nice to store heat in water rather than just waste it.


Must be interesting. Do you do asbestos tests before working on older buildings or is that just something we do in my country?

They were unnecessary in most cases. We only ran into it a couple of times. It wasn't used in any of the original construction (1900), but once in a while someone had their pipes wrapped with it. So whenever we found old, wrapped plumbing, we had to have it tested. Lead pipe was more common. Chicago still has a lot of that. We also could run into live gas lines in the walls and ceilings from the original gas lighting. That got exciting on a few occasions!

 

[Ellen Brown]

I used to visit a place as a kid on the countryside that sounds just like that, they did get an extension into the house that included a more modern toilet, but water was piped from a hill. Sometimes you had to climb up there to see why water tasted bad or if there was a problem. Of course when ground started to be below freezing there was no running water back then and you had to make some arrangements so the pipes didn't burst from freezing water...

It's at 45.278951, -122.845257 and the roof is collapsed, so it is all gone except for one wall. My brother and I last visited out there two years ago. That hillside is all covered with mansions now. I grew up there, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." I used to sit in the woods or in a field and marvelled at nature. And it was there that I was often beaten savagely. Frequently he would threaten to kill me... You try to forget the bad things and remember the good ones.

 

[ChristineM]

If I'd have to guess they probably did the house at the same time. Probably they get at least some sockets and lights quite quick after connecting to a powerline.. at least they do things like that when electricity comes to countryside that I've seen.

Could be.
EDF are responsible up to the power regulator, after that, consumer unit and wiring is up to the homeowner. However i dont know about new connections

 

[Jumi]

Could be.
EDF are responsible up to the power regulator, after that, consumer unit and wiring is up to the homeowner. However i dont know about new connections

We have similar laws/regulations in place. Though the wiring in my country requires a professional electrician, so homeowners can't do almost any of that themselves. So the responsible party might be the company that sold the installation service, if something goes wrong. I've sometimes watched shows where people install lights on their own, such things would be illegal or borderline illegal in my country... still folks in the countryside do what they want sometimes.

 

[ChristineM]

We have similar laws/regulations in place. Though the wiring in my country requires a professional electrician, so homeowners can't do almost any of that themselves. So the responsible party might be the company that sold the installation service, if something goes wrong. I've sometimes watched shows where people install lights on their own, such things would be illegal or borderline illegal in my country... still folks in the countryside do what they want sometimes.

Sorry, i was not clear, it is the homeowner who is responsible for engaging a qualified electrician. The rules are very strict in france.

 

[Jumi]

Sorry, i was not clear, it is the homeowner who is responsible for engaging a qualified electrician. The rules are very strict in france.

I believe how things work in our countries are quite similar in this. There's even jokes about Finns following regulations where it's close to OCD...

 

[ChristineM]

I believe how things work in our countries are quite similar in this. There's even jokes about Finns following regulations where it's close to OCD...

Yes quite probably, the jokes in france are about bureaucracy.

 

[Jumi]

Yeah, it was awful. It was a broken down slum my mom and I were tricked into moving into. All our pet fish died of temperature shock the first night there since it was winter and there was no heat. My turtle almost died, too. So yeah, camping would've been like a 5 star hotel. Anyway, I'm just saying that lacking modern conveniences and technology doesn't necessarily mean you're suffering or deserve pity. That's just how we lived for pretty much all of human existence.

Words can't describe how much I hate such people who sell something unhealthy and disgusting houses. I've seen a lot of lawsuits on them, in my country the problem is people selling with hidden problems with mold but when caught they tend to suffer for their scams.

Yes, people of today live like kings of the past, most of us much better. Living in tents is not so bad, though I prefer wooden housing myself.

 

[Jumi]

They were unnecessary in most cases. We only ran into it a couple of times. It wasn't used in any of the original construction (1900), but once in a while someone had their pipes wrapped with it. So whenever we found old, wrapped plumbing, we had to have it tested.

Interesting. Most of the tests are unnecessary here too, but there's people selling it as a service and you're not allowed to start work unless it's tested so they make some nice spare change on asbestos testing.

Lead pipe was more common. Chicago still has a lot of that. We also could run into live gas lines in the walls and ceilings from the original gas lighting. That got exciting on a few occasions!

I can imagine. Was the gas for kitchens? Is it still common to use gas lines in apartment buildings in the US?