Winter Tap Dancing

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As I was walking, neighbor D stopped her car to chat for a moment. She commented that it was going to get very cold – eleven degrees! That didn’t shock me, since I had walked a day or two ago at that same temperature. 11 F is -11.667 C. I said I would watch it and be ready to do my tap dance – dancing around the house setting all the cold water taps to drip water. Just a steady drip will prevent the pipes from freezing and bursting.

We never did that in New York, because our pipes were in the basement, along with the heating unit for the house. It wasn’t exactly warm down there, but it was never below freezing. In North Carolina there are vents scattered around the walls in the crawl space beneath the house. It could get quite cold, because the heat pumps are outside and not adding heat to the air. D said they will run a small heater in their garage under the house. That will keep their floors from being quite as cold as mine. I think a mug of pumpkin spice hot chocolate will be my reward after doing the tap dance.

I added the photo above just because it looks cold. Lise and Toke took it on the lawn at Biltmore.

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Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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20 thoughts on “Winter Tap Dancing”

  2. Funny, I just mentioned dripping all my faucets and running a few loads of laundry to warm up the pipes to you in another comment – here it is dipping to a “real feel” in the single digits again tonight. Whatever works to keep the pipes warm – years ago a neighbor down the street’s pipes froze. I didn’t know this guy, but he and his wife divorced and he got the house and got a new girlfriend. He was visiting her and staying at her house and we had a very frigid cold spell. The pipes in his house burst and his waterbed froze as well. He had left the heat low as he was gone. I know he had to have a remediation team come in and do damage control and he moved shortly thereafter.

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  5. That picture is gorgeous. So glad that place wasn’t destroyed totally in the flooding. I know you love it. That hot chocolate sounds amazing and you deserve it after going out in those temps!

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  6. At my childhood home, the previous owner had put water pipes in an exterior concrete wall. We had to use heaters and let it drip when it got really cold. I was lucky enough to see interior pictures of the house a few years ago on Zillow when it was up for sale. The owners had incorporated that laundry room (which had the concrete walls) into the kitchen so replaced (or perhaps studded out) the concrete for something more manageable. The picture is beautiful!

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  9. This reminds me of my childhood when we had to let the water faucets drip because of the cold. It is a good reminder since we will need to do that if it gets that cold!

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