Something I Haven’t Figured Out

Alright, take a look at my plan for the bathroom:

Bathroom

Floor Plan #4

Where am I going to put my towel??

I prefer towel bars, but I don’t have the wall space for even a hook within reach of the shower. The door’s a sliding door, so I can’t put anything on the back. And there’s no easy way I can change the bathroom layout.

If I was building a normal house, I’d definitely have a bigger bathroom. I’d have a bedroom with a full height ceiling. There are downfalls to road height and width restrictions. There will inevitably be some tight spaces. But when you think of the freedom of having a low-cost, mobile house, I think it’s worth it.

Maybe they make hooks that fold flat when not in use…

“Out of limitations comes creativity.” – Debbie Allen

Elevation Drawing #5

Alrighty, so here’s the next one:

Bathroom

The bathroom’s about 3 feet deep. Coming down into the space is a rafter tie.

The shower is on the right, and I didn’t add more details because I’m not quite sure what I’ll have yet. I would like to have a small tub (no lying down obviously) for the rare time I want to have a bath, but I’ve searched and searched and I can’t find the right thing to fit the space. I’ll probably end up with just a shower with a curtain. I also want to make sure to have a faucet, even if there’s no tub, because there will be no where else in the house big enough to fill a bucket! Or with enough water flow in case of an emergency.

The mirror (with medicine cabinet behind) and sink are center of the doorway. After I drew the two little cabinet doors under the sink, I thought, well, those look really skinny. So I might make it just one door or even a cute curtain.

That’s a vent on the wall to the left. I don’t have an attic to vent through, so the fan will be in the wall and go outside that way. Then there’s another cabinet for more storage.

And then my fancy Separett toilet. I know that money will be tight as I finish the build, so I might start off with a simple bucket toilet until I can afford the Separett. See my post on toilets here: https://lovelylittledream.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/toilets/

There are still more drawings to come!

Toilets

There are actually a lot of choices out there for toilets to use in tiny houses. But pretty much all of them require you to think a little more about your waste than a normal flush toilet. With a flush toilet, it’s out of sight, out of mind. With toilets in tiny houses, you’re rarely hooked up to a black water system so the toilet requires a little more work. Here are the options I know of:

RV. RV toilets still use water like a flush toilet, but they are foot pump operated and you’d need a tank. You’d also have to empty that tank. I don’t know of any tiny houses that use an RV toilet.

Incinerating. I don’t know much about this one because I’d rather not burn my poo, but apparently there’s no smell. However, they’re expensive (upwards of $1500) and they use a lot of energy. I’ve seen an incinerating toilet in one tiny house online.

And composting, the most popular and diverse. These can range from around $10 to $1800. I’m planning on buying The Humanure Handbook and reading more on the subject, but from my understanding, your toilet is a container. Basically you add sawdust or another filler to help the composting process and to cover smells. Then when the container is full, you take it outside and add it to a compost pile and it will turn into soil after about a year. Some people just use a bucket, some wood, and a toilet seat. Then there’s Loveable Loo and Nature’s Head. Some models involve a hand crank and bigger toilet so the composting can happen inside. Some involve a vent. Some people buy a urine separator. I personally like the Serparett toilet, which is a little different because you don’t use a filler. It’s of course one of the most expensive ones, but compare the price of a waterless toilet to the cost of an entire septic system… This post convinced me that this is the one I want: http://tinyhousebuild.com/composting-toilet-options/

I would never have given toilets a second thought had I not needed to consider them for my tiny house build, but now I find our current system ridiculous. We are literally shitting in CLEAN DRINKING WATER just so we don’t have to deal with poop! That’s insane! And then we still have to process the black water somehow, so why not just save ourselves the clean water and the extra work by COMPOSTING? Mother Nature already has a way better system than ours; we should use it. I don’t know how composting toilets would work on a larger scale, but I’ll be glad to save water in my tiny house by using a waterless toilet.