Anyone want to vent about Austin? (Round Rock, West: power lines, Home Depot, job market)

[jwb123]

Oh, I thought of another thing to vent about in Austin... the need for a water softener!! Ughhhh!

[AustinTraveler]

I live in Austin and we don't need a water softener. Maybe it depends on who your water provider is. I know when I lived in S. Florida we definitely needed one. I don't like hard water or soft water. I want it to be just right.

[AustinTraveler]

Also, great discussion about Central Austin. I live in one of the neighborhoods mentioned and to me Central means the old neighborhoods close to downtown. It's the character of the neighborhoods, etc., and not so much the drive time. I must admit though that being so close to everything sure has it's advantages. The disadvantage is the high cost of homes and for most, the small houses. There are large homes here but you really don't notice it because they all look small from the outside. My mom thought our house looked like a doll house when I sent her pictures and it's over 2,000 sf!

[jwb123]

You don't have any issues with spots on your dishes, and feeling gross after showering?

I too want the water just right, and soft water tastes GROSS - but here you need a softener, or you damage your plumbing, in addition to your dishes, clothes and skin. We tried living a few weeks without one and it was horrible.

Perhaps it's just the suburbs - but I heard that Pflugerville is worse than Round Rock, and Cedar Park is the worst of them all.

[AustinTraveler]

Nope, no problems at all. Like I said, we had really hard water in S. Florida and had to get a softener. I agree, I didn't like either the hard water or the softened water!

[Trainwreck20]

Re: water. The city of Austin gets its drinking water out of Lake Travis (I think, may also get some from the other lakes...), which is fairly soft naturally. Many of the surrounding cities either use well water as their main source or as a supplementary source. Georgetown used to use a huge amount of well water and it was really hard.

Generally speaking, well water is hard and surface water is soft, although there are variations degree for both.

[AustinTraveler]

Hey Trainwreck,

I'm pretty sure the City of Austin gets its water from Lake Austin and Town Lake, not Lake Travis. Either way, it's definitely not hard.

[Trainwreck20]

Opps, I stand corrected. Town Lake is listed as the primary source of drinking water, although the LCRA says one of Lake Travis' functions is "drinking water storage". Guess they just let it go down to Town Lake to get dirty before we drink it.

[AustinTraveler]

Yeah, every time I'm out on Town Lake canoeing, I keep thinking about it being our drinking water. Kind of a weird feeling.

[AustinGuy]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

You don't have any issues with spots on your dishes, and feeling gross after showering?

I too want the water just right, and soft water tastes GROSS - but here you need a softener, or you damage your plumbing, in addition to your dishes, clothes and skin. We tried living a few weeks without one and it was horrible.

Perhaps it's just the suburbs - but I heard that Pflugerville is worse than Round Rock, and Cedar Park is the worst of them all.

Jenbar, I recently moved to a house in North Austin near Pflugerville, and I definitely have hard water.... hate it! First place in Austin that I've lived and had this problem.