Wednesday, October 5, 2011

More On The Solar Bathroom

I still have tons of old wood from the barns that blew down during the storms before summer. I intend to use as much as possible because it is free wood just like I did with the wood shed.
Even though it is about 100 years old, full of nails and hard as a rock to put a screw in, it is still free.

Saying that, I was able to salvage some pieces of walls with tongue and grove siding on them. I have three pieces that are about six and a half feet tall and ten feet wide. I will use one as my floor and the other two for the front and back walls
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I was also able to scrounge up enough blocks laying around to set for the base. These blocks still have to be leveled. I set them out where they needed to go with more under where the bathtub will be.
The bathroom will be 6'6"X10'





I had to work late so that was all I could do before dark.

14 comments:

  1. Very interesting. Will keep up on your progress.

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  2. You are the Salvage King. (bowing to you) I have a relative who still has wood siding from when they built their house some 20 or so years ago. Raw, unpainted, uncut just like it was delivered from the lumber yard.

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  3. Keep in mind I'd like a heated toilet seat.

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  4. Awesome! I am planning to salvage more stuff from my neighbor's burn pile today. God I love free.

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  5. Looks like it is coming along pretty well.

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  6. Thanks for the comments.

    John - It will only get better.

    RB - I can never have enough free stuff.

    Mudbug - Thanks

    Stephen - I was trying to figure out if I had room for a wood burning stove for winter.

    G - Happy hunting and I hope for the best for ya.

    A - I wished it would get done quicker but with a full time job I have only limited amounts of time to work on it.

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  7. My experience with old hard lumber is to pre-drill it to reduce splitting (if it becomes a problem) I love old lumber, adds character.

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  8. i love salvaged stuff and jambaloney being the garbage picker that he is - well you know!

    he has been picking up old windows on garbage day here for months now - we must have 40 decent windows, all different sizes but we plan to wall off half of our porch/deck with windows and make a greenhouse - i can't wait till we get to that project!

    anyway - you are doing an awesome job my friend! i can't wait to see the next installment of the solar bathroom series!

    your friend,
    kymber

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  9. IMPRESSSIVE!!

    I love recycling - you are going whole hog with this project - a real inspiration!

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  10. Looks good! Just out of curiosity (I may have read over it somewhere) are you going to have a cistern or some other rain water catching tank as your water source?

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  11. Duke - Most of it has to be pre- drilled or, you are correct, it will split out. If the screw does start sometimes it just stops and strips out. Pre-drilling is the only way.
    I do agree on the look.

    Kymber - I wished I had a supply of old windows. The couple I did get I turned into a photo album be placing pictures behind each pane. Thank for the complement.

    jam - Thanks buddy, I hope it comes together soon. I want to use it before winter.

    coley - Thanks for the question. I will have it on two sources. The well will be plumbed into it so I will have water on demand and it will be heated by the sun. When the well goes down I will turn a couple of valves and it will be fed from the two 1500 gallon water tanks I harvest rain water with. A 12 volt on demand pump will be placed in line and when I need water, all I do is flip the switch and the pump will come on drawing the water from the tanks up into the solar water heater. The batteries for the pump will be charged by solar as well.

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  12. I've had to work with old yellow pine quite a bit...rebuilt old log cabins, one eight sided barn, a sawmill, my grandmother's one room schoolhouse...I love this kinda stuff..looks like a challenge...GREAT!

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  13. Scott - Like I always said, anyone can take nice store bought straight lumber and build something that looks good, but it takes skill to take old twisted and busted up wood and build something nice with it.
    Thanks for the comment.

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