Life without mod. cons.

My first home (as I recall as we moved from it when I was only about five, in 1957) had no central heating.

Nor did the next although brand-new, and which we had to leave after only a year or so due to Dad's work move.

This brought us, in 1959, to a Council house also with no central-heating but about three years later still, our parents bought an Edwardian house that needed fully re-wiring and all sorts; and Dad installed central-heating in this. First with a back-boiler in an open, coal-burning fireplace; later, replacing the back-boiler with a separate gas-fired boiler augmented by immersion-heater for both heating and hot tap water.

All homes had mains electricity (via local distribution systems from the "Grid", not directly from the National Grid itself), water and sewerage, and gas.

They also had radio and TV coverage and could have had a telephone, but our parents did not have a television until some time in the 1970s, and a telephone not until a few years later still! (That was all before the development of portable radio-'phones.)

My first own house had no central-heating or telephone, but my parents paid for installing a telephone.

There was no technical reason there for my not having a TV, but I chose not to own one, and still have no TV. I use both land-line and portable 'phones: this comes to you courtesy of the former.

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What was it like? We always had the important facilities (water, electricity and gas), and could always listen to the wireless; but the homes without central-heating could be chilly in Winter!

All of the above, except radio. My Dad had rigged a radio up to a car battery so we did have radio. No indoor plumbing, electricity until I was 6 when Mom and my brother and I moved into town so she could teach as part of the war effort. No telephone or TV until I was 14, 15.

What was it like? Thought little about it. It was the way all the neighboring ranchers lived as well. In retrospect, I miss the solitude. The lack of background noise and other intrusions, other that the bleating of cattle, the calls of wildlife. That and some funny stories, like Pop going into the front room every Christmas to light the fire and warm things up before the rest of us went in to open presents and always building too big a fire so the candles on the tree drooped and couldn't be lit. Later I put two and two together as that was when Santa came.

Our central heating failed at Christmas and it was horrible, we had a gas fire but it wasn't pleasant. I like my creature comforts 😊

I still don't have central heating, and I have no plans to install it in my house.
But I have an open fire! 🔥

I've experienced all of those. It's not uncommon in this part of the country. Our apartment is all electric, you need electricity for all of those things, except water. The last time was in 2022, we spent a couple of days at my daughter's in a neighboring town.

Before that (before my daughter moved nearby), we spent the night at a hotel. At that time, I had an answering machine for a land line. After checking out of the hotel, we drove around the area, periodically dialing the home phone. We wanted to know if we'd need a hotel for another night. When the answering machine picked up, we knew we had power and we headed home.

In the northeast of the US, power outages are common.

Currently all of the above except phone service. I currently live in a cabin in the woods as a part of my job, but we have a central building with all of that. I love the lack of electricity because it's dark for sleeping and forces me to get off the internet. I do not like the lack of plumbing because if I really need to go to the bathroom, I need to run a lot further.

My grandparents' farm had no running water and their electricity came from a wind turbine powered generator. I stayed there for holidays in the 1980s and 1990s. We drew water for drinking and cooking from a deep well. I can remember being bathed outdoors in a horse trough 😊

none really...I've lost heat, tv, electric, but never plumbing....I don't have a land line for phone.

Central heating, telephone.

lived without electricity, telephone, radio signal for a week after a major hurricane

I don't recall if the water was flowing but I'm guessing we were not supposed to drink it if it was

central heat was not a problem, it was miserably hot and humid outside

a curfew was put in place as well

a crane company lifted a tree off of the roof

it sucked ... after a week we drove to a city two hours south to spend a night in a hotel and get showers, and when we got back home the power was back on finally 🤣