Even brand-new cabins are going to require on-going maintenance,
and it's a given if you buy a pre-owned. We'll touch on some of those things here, but if you want to get a
real discussion going, visit our forum here.
Stinky Water
Almost every cabin has had stinky water at one time or another. That rotten
egg smell is ghastly! People new to cabins are horrified, but take heart--it's a normal cabin thing. The water
heater is usually the culprit, though sometimes it's blamed because heating your stinky well water only makes it stinkier.
There are some easy, temporary fixes (say if company is coming), and some inexpensive more permanent ones.
On this site you can find some solutions which seem pretty honest to me, considering that in the end they're offering to sell you
their recommended fix.
If you've had to deal with
this problem, how about sharing your solutions? If you have more questions, hopefully someone else will come along to
answer them.
Cabin bathroom rules
Nearly all cabins have septic
systems. That means that anything going down your drains is going into a big hole in the ground within smelling distance
of your house. When you have the luxury of a municipal sewer system, you don't have a care in the world about where
that sewage ends up.
Most visitors to your cabin don't
have a care in the world about where things end up when they flush your toilet. It's up to you to politely but
firmly educate them about the liabilities and limitations of a septic tank. You know all too well that when your septic
tank is full it vomits up all kinds of vile bile. It overflows and seeps into the ground, and if it can't be seen,
it certainly can be SMELLED. Not a good thing when your entertaining guests.
But how to talk to intelligent grownups about bathroom rules without putting
a real damper on the visit? By necessity, your little talk has to take place almost immediately, especially if
your guests number more than two.
Well, some people put up clever,
funny signs, hoping the guests will see them and take heed.
Signs like this:
Seven pees to a flush
or
Seven squares to a wipe
I've never been able to figure out how you keep
track of those seven pees, and how you insert into the conversation that it's safe to flush the toilet now, but almost
nobody can come out of the bathroom and not talk about the signs. Then you can explain (in a fun way) about the septic
tank.
The same with showers:
Wet down, soap up, rinse off, get out
That's a little harsh, I know.
You can probably come up with something better. But the point is, for most of us cabin dwellers, the septic tank rules.
You feed it carefully or you pay the price.
(This is a great site for everything you ever wanted to know about septic systems. Now, I think I'm done with things
smelly. . .at least for a while.)
