Just today (nice of them to notify me at all, I suppose :rolleyes: ) there was a hang-tag on my front door saying I will have no running water tomorrow from 8AM to 3PM.
I realize for many people where no one is home during those hours, it’s not a big deal. But I’m a SAHM.
So far, I’ve planned to:
Shower myself and my 8YO tonight (instead of tomorrow morning)
Do dishes before I go to bed tonight (I typically would let tonight’s dinner dishes sit in soapy water until morning)
Fill the water filtration pitcher to capacity before I go to bed
Set my alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual so I can run an extra load of laundry before water cuts off at 8AM
Depends on the size of your water filtration pitcher. I’d have several pitchers-worth filtered (or at least drawn) for cooking and suddenly-necessary clean-ups in addition to at least 16 oz per person.
Can I ask you bathtub-fillers how you keep the water in the tub? I’ve never in my life had a bathtub that would stay filled with water, whether it had the traditional stopper thingy that you could see not quite closing all the way or the invisible, somewhere-in-the-wall stopper thingy that never quite closes all the way.
What are y’all using?
Oh, and to the OP: unless whoever is doing the work is 1000% more punctilious than every other situation I’ve been in like this before, what “no water between 8 and 3” actually means is more like “sometime between 8 and 3 your water will be off for about 30 minutes.” (Not that it’s not best to prepare for the worst, of course.)
In my old neighborhood, they would routinely shut the water off do do repairs on the sprinkler system, or the water lines etc… the water would be off anywhere from 4 - 8 hours.
FWIW, the neighborhood had one metered main coming into the neighborhood, and in order to do any work on the water systems they had to shut it off to the whole neighborhood.
To the OP, consider filling up a few more pitchers of water for cooking and whatnot, that way you don’t have to haul off to the store for extra if you run out. Personally, I would hold off on the laundry just in case they pop the water off early. If it’s that important to wash, run it before bed.
I work from home, and this week I had to work at my dad’s house while my bathroom got gutted. The workers were like 2 hours away from being done after 4 days, and the water company knocks on my dad’s door to tell him the water would be shut off for a while until they fixed a line. I literally had no where to do my business today!
Anyway, my dad filled up a bunch of pitchers and one bucket before they shut the water off. Since there were two toilets in the house, we each got one flush during the day.
The only thing I needed his saved-up water for was washing my hands after going to the bathroom. I put some soap on my hands, rubbed it around and then dunked them in the water to rinse them off.
You do teach your kids to wash their hands after the potty, right?
If your bathtub built-in stopper doesn’t properly seal, it’s either covered with crud and hanging up, or it’s misadjusted. In plumbing parlance, it is called a trip-waste-overflow assembly. Typically, one removes the screws at the overflow plate where the toggle or turn handle is located, and then carefully lift out the operator rod and basket. Clean crud off the basket, reassemble and test. Adjust by lengthening or shortening the threaded rod.
Actually, if it is at an apartment complex, find out if all of the water in the entire complex is shut off at the same time. Frequently, it won’t be and you can use a restroom at the complex. I use the one at the apt. complex gym if the water is off.
Well, I did run the laundry last night.
It’s a free-standing house, not an apartment complex, so I wouldn’t bet money on my neighbors having running water when I don’t.
I don’t have a bathtub, unfortunately, just a shower stall.
I have filled up a couple of extra pitchers and such with some water.
ZipperJJ, yes, I do teach my kids to wash hands after potty.
Fortunately, my youngest, who is 8, won’t be here during those hours because she’ll be in day camp. My older one, 17, will sleep until about 11AM (she’s not a morning person), get dressed (I reminded her to shower last night) and then we need to go get her registered for the upcoming semester of college, so we won’t be here for much of the time, either.
I don’t really have house plants (I did make sure the cats’ water dish was full), and here in Maryland in the summer time, God waters the gardens.
You are quite possibly right. But still, as you said, doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
OK, I’ve maybe got another 15 minutes of water (worst-case scenario) so I’d better hustle my butt out to the kitchen and do the last of the dishes!
Or, it could mean “sometime around 8 - in some time zone of the world - it’ll get shut off… and sometime around 3 - in some much-later time zone - it’ll get turned back on”.
Re the bathtub: mine held water pretty well when we filled it up before a projected hurricane. If yours doesn’t hold water well, you could try putting an upside-down plastic container over the drain area, which might help make a better seal. You’d probably need to put something heavy on top of that to keep it from floating away.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a tub drain which would accomodate a plug, assuming you mean the old-fashioned rubber stopper-type plug. Drains with visible lever-activated stops, of course, don’t; every tub with the invisible somewhere-in-the-wall type have had a strainer over the drain.
I have actually thought of something like that.
Worth looking into. Thanks!
Ha!
But, no.
Not a bad idea for the OP’s situation. Seems like that would get in the way for a bath, though.
