I’m always trying to make being out at our property more comfortable for myself. Greg has no problems, he would sleep and go to the bathroom anywhere just to be out there. I need a bit more comfort. Our trailer camper is alright but Greg doesn’t want us to use the bathroom in there because we’d have to tow it out and empty it somewhere or come up with a solution to dispose at our property and he honestly just doesn’t want to deal with that. So we’ve been using a bucket with a bag in it. Not a fan. It gets very smelly, it’s small and not super stable. Obviously I’ve been using it but don’t love it.

Planning and Inspiration

I’ve been watching videos on YouTube of people building homesteads, tiny cabins and other structures. As well as being on Pinterest researching ideas for a bathroom – not just for now but for our cabin as well. From my research I decided a composting toilet would be the best solution for both the short term and long term in the cabin. Buying a toilet can be expensive so I found some DIY solutions. From there things snowballed. I then thought well before we build the cabin it would be nice to have a bathroom to put the toilet in. So I started looking at outhouses while going through those I found some with showers and thought jeez that would be nice too. Ultimately I found through Pinterest a website called Hey Wanderer. From there I found their YouTube channel and I just love it. It’s 2 best friends that bought land together in Tennessee I believe. They have been building their own place and homestead for 4 years. One of the things they built was a bathhouse and I loved it. That was what I knew I wanted.

Each time I talked to Greg about it he didn’t think it was necessary and it didn’t help my case that it kept growing. At first it was a toilet, then an outhouse and now a full bathhouse with a shower! He said if I wanted it I’d have to build it myself. I told him challenge accepted so I started watching building videos, gathering some supplies and ideas. We didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this – in fact as close to free as possible. So I sourced things as cheap as I could – which is what I’m also doing with the cabin.

The Materials

I got a toilet seat from an auction for $20. A urine divertor from Etsy that someone makes on a 3d printer for $40. I bought a shower curtain from goodwill for $5 to cover the toilet. We bought some plywood, 1×2’s, hinges, screws, latches, tubing and the clear roofing panels from Home Depot/Lowes for the toilet and build of the structure. Honestly this was one of the most expensive parts we spent $241.60. I knew I wanted the door to be a dutch door with the top being a window from our property and I figured I could build the bottom portion. So all I needed for that were hinges and handles. I found those at the ReStore for like $2 a piece (a store that has second hand building materials that supports Habitat for Humanity). I wanted windows. I searched auctions and Marketplace on Facebook but they were either too big or too expensive. I ended up buying a pair of shed windows off Amazon for $80. I got a few tiles pieces for the floor at the ReStore as well and literally paid cents for them. I thrifted some accessories, a bowl, pale for sawdust, a large metal spoon/scoop, a small mirror and a glass water container for handwashing I spent about $77 for those. I had bought a propane water heater off of MarketPlace for $150, we are going to use it in the cabin but figured we could put it in the bathhouse for now. It’s a bit more complicated than we’d like for the bathhouse – more plumbing involved so instead we purchased a different portable water heater off of Amazon. I had some credit card rewards I used so we only spent $132.78. This water heater comes with a small water pump that we need 12v power for. Greg has a battery but we need a way to keep it charged so of course now we need a small solar panel. We got a solar trickle charger just to keep it alive on Amazon as well for $32.69. I got a shower head at ReStore for $30. All of the lumber we used was lumber we milled or small trees we had to debark. So the grand total spent on the bathhouse is: $732.04. We will have to add some lighting and probably some more plumbing pieces like a valve so I think we’ll be close to $800 in the end. Initially I thought we could do this for a couple of hundred but since it kept growing it didn’t end up that way but I think it will be really nice to have and worth it.

Start of the Build

The weekend I decided to start building I convinced Jayse to come out and help me. Greg was determined he was not going to help – we didn’t need an outhouse and this was my project. He did help me gather the tools I would need. We did have conversations about a potential spot to put it and decided between where our camper is and the sawmill (also where we’re building our cabin).

Greg was already at the property when Jayse and I got up there. He had created a large path from the sawmill to where we were putting the outhouse. One large enough we could ride a four wheeler between them.

First thing we had to do was clear the land and level where we were putting it. Jayse and I got to work. I was raking up debris and he was shoveling stumps out and moving dirt. We were pilling the debris and Greg was burning it. Once we got the ground nice and clear we worked to level it, we had to move quit a bit of dirt from one side to bring up the other side. We measured out the area and found we had enough room to comfortably put the outhouse – which I had decided would be 6’x8′. 3 feet for the bathroom and 5 for the shower. Greg had to come over and inspect our leveling and said it was good enough.

This is what the area looked like before we cleared anything.

After that we had to go drawknife some log poles to get the bark off. Greg said that doug fir would be the best to use so we had to dig through our pile of logs to find the doug fur. Once we drug those out Jayse and I started drawknifing off the bark. We had brought up some saw horses to put them on but they were wobbly and it was really not enough space for Jayse and myself. So I moved over and propped one up on the utv. Jayse had a difficult time with his and by the time he did 1 I had done 3. In the end I drawknifed 4.5 to his 2.5 🙂 Greg wanted a good slope on the roof for rain and snow to slide off. We decided on 8 foot back wall and 10 foot front wall. It needed to be tall enough in the back to put a shower head that is taller than Greg. Luckily we had some logs long enough for that. We did three poles along the back and 3 in the front with one in the middle so I could put some boards up between the toilet and shower.

I tried to get a video of myself peeling the log, I was holding the phone in my mouth – it didn’t work so well.

Once we got the logs peeled we had to haul them up to where we were building. Then we could start the bottom frame. We had to get our lumber from what Greg and I had been milling over the last few weeks. That was a chore, hauling sometimes 16 foot long boards that were still wet down this path Greg created. Jayse and I worked together on the bottom frame. We used 2×4’s we had milled. We put the log poles in the corner on the inside of the 2×4’s. We used 4″ long screws to put it together. The ground wasn’t perfectly level so we did have to do some leveling on the bottom frame and poles.

It was at this point Greg looked at me and knew right away I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t really even know how to use the power tools. He just said I’m going to have to help you aren’t I? I told him maybe he could just help me figure out how to use the tools and then I could go from there. Instead he ended up helping until the end, LOL. Thank goodness or I’d still be working on it.

That first day we got the floor framed, the poles up, the decking put on the floor, the roof framed and a few pieces of the wall siding up. Jayse was stationed at the saw horses and cut most of the material. Greg gave Jayse the measurements and him and I installed the floor and some of the siding.  Most of my time was going back up to the mill and bringing down more material. It was a exhausting!

The view from the bathhouse.

This is where the bathhouse is located, you have to climb a good amount of stairs to get there.

Once it started to get dark we called it a day and ate some dinner. After that Jayse and I left to head back home and Greg stayed.

As Jayse and I were leaving we had a beautiful sunset.

The Toilet

The next day I worked on the toilet. I had all the tools and figured I could manage it. I had learned the day before how to use a few of them and just jumped in. I used the toilet seat as my guide for the top portion. I traced out a pattern on the plywood. I grabbed a bucket and made sure it was wide enough for a bucket to go in and out and then I grabbed the jig saw and cut it out. I used the pattern I just created to also make the bottom. I just didn’t cut out an opening. I used the jig saw and cut that out as well.  I had to run to the store and buy a couple of 1×2 boards. We were going to use some we had milled but I didn’t bring any back with me and I wanted to get the toilet done. I also needed another chunk of plywood for where I’d mount the urine diverter and toilet seat. I was able to put the whole toilet together by myself. It did take me most of the day. I was so into it I didn’t think to take any pictures or video but the camera on our house captured me working since I was out front.

Another beautiful sunset that night.