The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: A mom on July 31, 2014, 09:41:34 AM
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We own part of a house out of state in a dry part of the country.
Here is thewant to turn off the water, because there are a couple of plantings that we get watered occasionally or they would not survive. Is there a way to install some sort of automatic watering system that would water only those plantings while leaving no water available from outdoor spigots? I know nothing about this kind of thing, because I live in a part of the country where if it stops raining, the lawn turns brown, and that's it. No irrigation.
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Set up hidden camera. Have neighbor arrested.
Seriously, though, I'm sure there's some kind of locking device appropriate for the outlet?
https://www.google.com/search?q=water+spout+lock&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS532US537&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2oLaU-uzFM7poAST8oDwCA&ved=0CFoQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=920
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1. If no one lives there, who are the plantings for?
2. If your'e in an area where the grass turns brown due to lack of artificial irrigation, that's a good indicator that a crisp green lawn is not the right kind of yard for the region.
3. Hire a sprinkler company to install an automatic sprinkler system. This is very expensive and anti-mustachian. But it won't require an outside spigot.
4. Who mows the lawn? Leave all the outside spigots off by default and have them enter the house/crawlspace to turn on a spigot (or connect the hose inside) to water the lawn/flowers and then turn them off when done.
5. Install one of those trail cameras that operate for weeks at a time and only take pictures when movement is detected. Check on it every few weeks and when the culprit is caught on film, take it to the police to press charges.
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Thanks for the replies everyone. Just so you know, we aren't trying to keep a green lawn, just keep alive a couple of trees with sentimental value. Maybe those spigot locks with a key for the waterer would work. I'll look into it.
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Unless your sentimental trees are on being watered by an automatic sprinkler, I'd just manually turn off the water to the property. Turn it back on when you go over to water.
Also, I second the idea of photographic evidence of the theft.