Posted on 10/31/2023 12:14:51 PM PDT by DallasBiff
DIY Project: How to Build Your Own Modern Outhouse When an outhouse comes to mind, no one really thinks of it as being a particularly nice or good-looking space—but you can prove that notion wrong by building your own modern version
(Excerpt) Read more at dwell.com ...
But does it have a magazine rack, charger, heat and hot and cold running water?
Ha... a timely subject for me as I planning to build one for a cottage in the UP. It will not be that big but it also will be a bit more extensive than the average ‘outhouse’. It of course gets quite cold in northern Michigan but I’ve been wanting to make it easier to visit the place in the winter time without going through a ‘cottage de-winterizing process’ for short visits. There are two things that are property features that I want to take advantage of... The first is that the cottage has a septic system and I’m just going to run the discharge line directly into it. The second is that I have an artesian well which flows all year and is in no danger of freezing. When visiting the place, it would simply mean putting the water line from the well on a bypass to run into the outhouse for a sink and toilet.... just need to make sure a valve isn’t closed tight so that the water freezes. By insulating the outhouse (and making the size about 100 square feet), I think I can just run an electrical cord up to it and warm it up with a 1,000 Watt heater without any problem.
Just be careful with those hard stops while going downhill. You might want to keep your windows closed.
I miss our outhouse so much that my husband bought a split waste toilet seat so we can build another compost outhouse. I hate having a toilet in the master bath. It stinks even with the fan on! I miss seeing the stars on the way to the toilet.
When my city raised father met my country raised mother, he’d drive into town if he had to use the toilet if they visited my grandparents. He refused to use the out house. In 1981, I tore down and burned my grandfather’s outhouse. Even after they installed septic, he would use it when the weather was nice. I think he used it to be left alone.
At one point, for a few years, we had a three holer outhouse.
I went out to use it in the night, and since the moon was out, didn't turn on my flashlight to save batteries. After sitting down over the middle hole, I heard a gnawing on wood sound to my left.
I turned on the flashlight and looked into the beady eyes of a large porcupine. Was I ever glad I hadn't sat on that hole!
Went back to the house, got a .22, shot the thing, and it fell in. Smelled worse in there for a few weeks.
Morris had a bad foot due to an encounter with a land mine on a Pacific island during WWII.
The first day of hunting season, every year, Steve would take Morris to a deer trail next to an old apple orchard. Morris would sit on a metal 5 gallon pail turned upside down with a kerosene lantern under it and a blanket wrapped around him to keep warm. Most years he would get his deer there.
Anyway, late one fall evening we were in the camp when Morris had the need to use the outhouse. A few minutes later we heard a crash and a lot of cussing in French with some English here and there. We went out to investigate.
Steve's outhouse had rotted in the back more than the front, and had leaned to the rear. He had propped it up with a white birch stick. White birch rots faster than most other woods. The outhouse was now on its' back with Morris trapped inside. After Steve got done laughing enough to get on his tractor, he drove around in back of the outhouse and uprighted it with the front bucket.
Steve shut off the engine, leaving the bucket up to prop up the outhouse. Morris finished what he had gone into it for and emerged, showering Steve with many choice words in French and English. We all had a good laugh and returned to the camp.
Lol! That would have been something!! Outside of the occasional mouse or spider, never ran into much myself. I was born in 62 and can remember my grandmother cooking on a wood stove into the early 70s. They also had a party line telephone.
An outhouse?
I don’t need an outhouse to count my toes.
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