The wife and I have lived in our house since 2007. It's up in the hills and in the backwoods. It's a tiny place but we love it here. We live in a 400sq ft cabin and there's no running water. In the beginning of November 2010 I decided to put a bathroom in the place. There was a small enclosed area inside the house that was used as a bathroom but it didn't really qualify as one. This small area had an incinerating toilet and an old metal shower stall with a camp shower bag hanging inside of it. We used it for quite some time and even showered outside a lot. We were doing some talking at the end of last fall about what to do to the house as far as improvements and the idea of having a fully functional bathroom was seen as the most important.
Now remember, there's no running water or septic. I had to make this all work but I really had no clue where to start. I had some ideas of using a 45 gallon plastic drum as a reservoir, hooking up a small pump, and keep the drum heated for showers. But it just seemed to be too much work to make happen. I had to improvise and be creative about how to go about building a shower and sink system. I fetch water in a town nextdoor to me. It flows out of a pipe which comes out of a concrete wall on the side of the road and it's spring fed. It flows 24hrs a day and it's as fresh as water gets. I fill up five 5gallon containers and it usually lasts 2-3 days. Need to dig a cistern well soon.
So anyways....
This is what I had to start out with. It really wasn't much at the time and it was an interesting three and a half years dealing with having only this as a bathroom!!
Here it was all completed. I took me about a month to build it. I spent a lot of time (as always) just staring and wondering what to do and how to go about it. Things came to gether one by one and I'm actually really happy with how it all turned out!! It's fully functional. I've got water flow for both the sink and shower with the help of the battery powered pumps (4D batteries to power the pumps, the pumps turn on with the red on/off toggle switch on the batter pack). I was going to make my own pump system but these things are only $30 at Gander Mountain. These camp pumps are freakin' great! I have changed the batteries once in the shower pump and the originals are still in the sink pump. In a year I've pumped water for the sink and shower with only 12 D size batteries! The reservoir for the sink is the 5 gallon bucket on the floor, and the reservoir for the shower is the red 4 gallon pot on the shelf. The metal rod with the cord attached to it is a bucket heater - in 30 minutes the water is hot enough to take a shower (in 45 minutes the water boils, it's a good bucket heater!). The toilet is the compost toilet. You do your business (number 1 or number 2) and you cover it up with the peat moss I have in the metal barrel next to the toilet. Toilet paper and everything gets composted. The receptacle is a 5 gallon bucket, when it's full you empty it out into the compost pile outside. In one year you have highly nutrient enriched composted soil for gardens. The toilet paper holder was my favorite accent of everything. It just popped into my head and I went with it - I figured it'd be a nice touch and a cool way to keep using pipes and not just limit their use for directing the hose for the pump through them for the water. Gotta turn the shower on and off while using it as you only have 4 gallons but it's definitely more than enough water. The wife loves the whole deal. It's been about a year since we've had this bathroom and it's cool as hell I was able to put this all together.
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Now remember, there's no running water or septic. I had to make this all work but I really had no clue where to start. I had some ideas of using a 45 gallon plastic drum as a reservoir, hooking up a small pump, and keep the drum heated for showers. But it just seemed to be too much work to make happen. I had to improvise and be creative about how to go about building a shower and sink system. I fetch water in a town nextdoor to me. It flows out of a pipe which comes out of a concrete wall on the side of the road and it's spring fed. It flows 24hrs a day and it's as fresh as water gets. I fill up five 5gallon containers and it usually lasts 2-3 days. Need to dig a cistern well soon.
So anyways....
This is what I had to start out with. It really wasn't much at the time and it was an interesting three and a half years dealing with having only this as a bathroom!!
Here it was all completed. I took me about a month to build it. I spent a lot of time (as always) just staring and wondering what to do and how to go about it. Things came to gether one by one and I'm actually really happy with how it all turned out!! It's fully functional. I've got water flow for both the sink and shower with the help of the battery powered pumps (4D batteries to power the pumps, the pumps turn on with the red on/off toggle switch on the batter pack). I was going to make my own pump system but these things are only $30 at Gander Mountain. These camp pumps are freakin' great! I have changed the batteries once in the shower pump and the originals are still in the sink pump. In a year I've pumped water for the sink and shower with only 12 D size batteries! The reservoir for the sink is the 5 gallon bucket on the floor, and the reservoir for the shower is the red 4 gallon pot on the shelf. The metal rod with the cord attached to it is a bucket heater - in 30 minutes the water is hot enough to take a shower (in 45 minutes the water boils, it's a good bucket heater!). The toilet is the compost toilet. You do your business (number 1 or number 2) and you cover it up with the peat moss I have in the metal barrel next to the toilet. Toilet paper and everything gets composted. The receptacle is a 5 gallon bucket, when it's full you empty it out into the compost pile outside. In one year you have highly nutrient enriched composted soil for gardens. The toilet paper holder was my favorite accent of everything. It just popped into my head and I went with it - I figured it'd be a nice touch and a cool way to keep using pipes and not just limit their use for directing the hose for the pump through them for the water. Gotta turn the shower on and off while using it as you only have 4 gallons but it's definitely more than enough water. The wife loves the whole deal. It's been about a year since we've had this bathroom and it's cool as hell I was able to put this all together.
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