Just A Little More On The Solar Bath House

I had all intentions of getting the plumbing roughed in on the Bath House this weekend, but after looking in every nook and cranny I came up short on the parts to get it done.

So I changed direction a little and started on the Batch Water Heater Housing. It took every bit of cull lumber I had left, but at least it is framed up.

The tank is positioned at an angle so in the winter I will be able to drain it. Plus during use the hot water will stay at the top of the tank and when the cold water flows in at the bottom through the old drain hole, it does not mix with the hot making the whole operation more efficient.

The top of course will be glass and the inside will be insulated with foil back foam board. I have all that on hand through savaging here and there, but I am lacking one more piece of OSB to box in the sides.
New, the OSB is only $6.95 for a 4X8 sheet, but I bet I can find one damaged and about half off somewhere.      

More On The Solar Bathroom

 I built a little sitting bench near the bathtub. This will come in handy when I am trying to put my socks back on.

And got the composting toilet finished. The bucket to the right holds saw dust to scoop over the stuff that is left in the bucket. All it needs now is a toilet paper roll holder.





I changed up the sink design. Instead of using the big fiberglass sink I showed in earlier posts, I am going to use a steel bowl.
I punched out the drain hole today and I am in the process of building the cabinet it will sit on.
I figured if those big fancy houses have those high dollar glass bowls as sinks, then my Bath House will be just as fancy with a metal one.

I Found It On The Bathroom Wall

It's back to work today just like every Monday and while I was doing my very important work (pulling the weekend splinters from my hands) A thought hit me.

On a recent post of mine, Kymber commented about starting a new Occupy Movement in my 3/4 built Solar Bath House. At the time I thought it was funny and gave the thought a nice chuckle. A while later I was in deep concentration on my work (the splinter was really deep) and thought why not. Why not have an Occupy The Bath House Movement.

I called up my good friend and fellow blogger Stephen to bounce the idea off him and to see what he thought. With all his stored up wisdom he responded with "Why not". That was good enough for me.

So here it is, Occupy The Bath House Wall Movement has begun.
For a small $10.00 donation to help with the completion of the Bath House, you can have your name on the bathroom wall.
What better way to promote your blog than to have your blogs name on the outside of a Bath House that has already had thousands of hits and for only $10.00
Of course space is limited and three have already said they wanted their names to go down in history. All you have to do is hit the little yellow Donate button in the right sidebar of this blog and when you order your name, put what you want it to say.

Note: The ten dollar donation will get you a 2" tall name. For every ten more dollars your name will grow an inch.

How fun is this? If you don't like it you can always blame Kymber.

 

Are You Talking To Me?

Don't you just hate those days at Church when the preacher is talking directly to you?

For the first part of the morning service it seamed the preacher was talking to the wife and I was elbowing her, snickering and saying "This is for you dear". Then all the sudden the tables tuned and then he started hitting on what I needed to hear. I felt her elbow in my side and heard the same thing back to me "Now this is for you".
The room was filled with about 60 people and the preacher was talking right to me. It would not have been so bad but he was pointing right at me. Weird huh, but it was just what I needed to hear.

Today was a slow day and all I got done on the the Solar Bath House was the little flower box in front of the window and......

 I Plumbed in the bath tub and got it set in place. Remember, this is an old horse trough so cutting in a drain took some thought and careful planning. One slip and the whole tank was ruined.

 I also plumbed in the drain pipes for the bathtub and sink. Being this is gray water I have it going over to some little trees I have in the garden area.








The evening ended with some family members coming over and sitting outside for a night cap. It was nice to sit down for a while and just be again.

Oh, check this out! Last night was the first time I had ever been in a Earthquake. It was awesome once I knew what it was, but at first I was scared. I thought someone was trying to get in the house and when all the kids came running I knew the end was near. I grabbed the pistol and headed outside. I am really glad nobody was standing on my front porch because at that time, I didn't know what was going on. After it all settled down I felt silly carrying around a firearm, but at least I was ready.   

Anyway, I enjoyed the thrill and stayed up waiting for the aftershocks, but ended up falling asleep. On the other hand, the wife said can do without them.

Now I can check and earthquake off my list.

Head Down And Focused

This Solar Bath House is eating me up. Every spare minute I have is going to it. It is not like I am in a hurry or anything, I just have a hard time leaving something unfinished.

Usually a project does not take me more than a couple of weeks once I start to build, but this one here seems like it has been going on for months now. I think it's because I am getting older. I don't move as fast as I once did and my focus has changed a little from "Got to git it done now" to "What's the hurry".

In my twenties I was able to cut free hand just by eye balling. Now I take the time to use squares, chalk lines and marks to guide my way.
I also find myself studying on a problem a little longer than before. Instead of, like in my youth, I would build it as I went now I work out every little detail before proceeding.

I do think the quality of the end product is much better now that some wisdom and knowledge has finally come into my life. As a matter of fact the wife mentioned it just today. She told me that if would have known what I know now back when I built our house on the old farm when I was just 18 years old, it would have been a palace. That made me grin.
I guess that was her way of saying she loved what I built for her back then and she also loves the way I am doing it now, maybe even a little more.

I door is made from an old fence panel beefed up some around the edges.
Oh, if you are wondering why there is no trim under the window it is because I am going to build a flower box there and if you look real close you can see I used some old fence gate hardware for the door handle and latching system.
Yes I still need to find a pane of glass for the window.

Tomorrow they are calling for rain. Now that I have a dry place to work I think I might start on the bathtub.       

It's Coming Together

I feel a little inadequate because I am not posting about politics, dooms day or the occupy movement. I have not posted about Israel and the Palestine problems nor have I posted about the candidates running for the Republican nomination. I have not posted about the control the Jews have over our money or the fact the rich keep getting richer.
I had an email today from a reader who asked why I have not given my Redneck point of view on any of these subjects.
It is not that I don't keep up with it all or I don't have an opinion. It is not because you can find the information plus other opinions on just about every other blog.
I just don't really care to listen to and read about it all day and then write about it. I have my own opinions on every subject listed plus some and plan to keep them to myself unless asked face to face over a cold beer.
That's all I got to say on that.

Now on with the post:
I guess the weather felt sorry for me yesterday by making me jump through hoops so it kindly cooperated with me today. After work the first thing I did was look to the sky. No clouds, so I knew I would be able to get something done on the Solar Bath House.

Per popular demand, I redesigned one of the walls and framed in a window. I did not want a window, but many of y'all did.
I found four of these windows at a junk sale a while back. They were leaning against the back wall of the building and I asked how much and he said $20 each. Of course I did not pay that much for them and as a matter of fact, the o'l boy finally gave in and just gave them to me.
I played dirty on this one. He had to move this huge dresser and could not do it by himself. He asked if I could help and then I asked how much for the windows again. I got the free windows and he got his dresser moved. (Don't judge, I would have helped him anyway)

For the siding I used 6" fence pickets. Yes they are new, but I did not buy them at retail. I got them at a little over half off by going to a wholesale outlet. I think they ended up being about $0.60 each.

I plan to finish the building completely before I install all the solar stuff and the furnishing. Plus I need to run the plumbing before I can finish the inside walls.
I should be able to get all the trim and the door done this weekend.

This little project is taking way too long. I should already be showering in it by now.                       

Good Production

I felt I made some good production on the two projects I had going at the same time this weekend.

First off Friday night I did get the oldest girl's car put back together with the help of three other friends and everything looks and sounds good. Now I just have to clean it up and out then try and sell it.

 On my way home Friday I stopped off at the big box store to get a price on shingles. You are not going to believe this, but a bundle of shingles was $25.00 and that was for the cheap ones.
Frustrated and trying to figure out what I was going to do because I could never afford or see myself buying shingles at that price I walked to the back to check the price on tin.
Guess what, there was a pallet of culled items stuffed in the back under a shelf and guess what was on it, yup shingles. With one eye on my prize I found a manager and took him back to the pile of cull items. He pulled everything out and this is what was there, 3 1/2 sheets of OSB decking, 1X6X8 Facer boards, a roll of tar paper, 10 bundles of shingles, a bunch of 1X2's and 1X4's, 10-6" fence pickets and some more 2X4's.  

He priced it all out to be almost $400.00 dollars. By this time I was sweating it and I asked him how much for the whole thing and to make it cheap or he would have to take and put it all back. He said "Give me $30.00 and it's yours". I himhauled around for a second trying not to look too eager and said, "Well, I guess so".

The youngest girl was happy to get up and do the roofing for me while I started on the siding. I am using 6" fence pickets lapped 1". I like the look so I will go with it. These were in the cull pack as well.  

I used a couple of the warped up culled 2X4's to frame in the where the toilet is going.

The 1X6 culled facer board looks great. I also used old scavenged 4" fence pickets for the soffit. You can barely make it out in the picture. If you don't know what the soffit is, it is the underside of the overhang.

A huge storm blew through Saturday night making Sunday a wasted day. It was so muddy that no work was able to get done. The mist and light showers did not blow out until mid afternoon leaving me pretty much looking out the window all day thinking of what I could have got done.

The winds lastnight were horrible and when the youngest girl got up she asked "Well, how did my roofing job hold up?"
"Like a champ" I answered back.    

Robins Junque Art

This is for Robins Junque Art. Thank you for hitting the follow button and welcome to Modern Day Redneck. Feel free to comment on anything and like I have always said, I will respond as soon as I can.
Thanks again and welcome to the family.


I did do a little work on the Bathhouse last night but it got to dark to take any photos. It would have been boring anyway. All I did was build the eves and overhangs in the front and sides. Tonight I will finish the overhang in the back.
Next up is the roof decking and shingling.
Y'all have a good day.

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
.

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.

Getting Started With The Solar Bathroom

 If anyone tells you it is easy to strip an old water heater, they just lied to you.

I got started on the outdoor shower and the first thing I chose to do was to get the tank ready. I took an old water heater and stripped it down to the bare metal tank. The foam was a challenge to get off because it was glued to the metal so I used a sawzall with a long flexible blade to cut big chunks out of it and then came back with the saw again and ran it all over the tank taking off any that was left.  

The youngest girl took 60 grit sandpaper and a palm sander and really shined it up for the final step of painting it all black.

This tank will go into a insulated wood box with a glass top tilted at a 30 degree angle to the sun.




My next step is to start on the main structure itself. When completed it will have a bathtub, shower, sink, with cold and hot running water and a composting toilet.
This my friends will be a real mans bathroom.