The ‘Facilities’

Keeping things simple

Outhouse Phase 1

The biggest struggle for sea can houses is moisture. Cold steel walls on the outside, warm moist people on the inside (ew). It’s a recipe for condensation. Bearing that in mind, I decided that having a bathroom in the can is a terribly bad idea. Shower and toilet within this 8x20 space? No, thank you.

Fancy Pedestal. The outhouse was made out of OSB before we bought the mill.

The Outhouse

Last year before buying the tractor we hand dug a shallow hole. We then built the small structure over it, and inserted the toilet pedestal on top. A toilet pedestal like an outhouse at a provincial park - bit of a splurge! A little laminate flooring purchased from the ReStore and some paint - good to go. In the winter a tarp became the roofing to keep the rain out. A bit ghetto but simple and it worked for last year. It wasn’t level which made things.. a bit of a unique challenge.

This summer I used the backhoe on the tractor to dig a much deeper hole. It’s a tiny backhoe but MAN, that thing can reach down. I never even jumped down into the hole, I’m pretty limber but I don’t think that I would’ve been able to get out!

We then moved the structure over the new hole. Levelled and sealed and openings around it. Luckily the dirt that came out of the hole is a sandy clay mixture and makes a great base for the building to stand on. I’d say with a proper roof added to it this outhouse will last a few years! After then I’ll build something more 'ritzy’ but for now, it works great.

Shower House. Made from wood that we milled and repurposed windows.

The Shower

For the first year it was very simple. In the summer the shower was a jug of water with a spigot that you’d place overhead (usually just on a ladder). Open the spigot and shower away. If you covered the jug of water with something black for the day in the sun it got HOT. Hot shower!!

The winter was far more tricky, more of a bird bath situation. I ran out of stored water so, it was melted snow. At first it sucked, I’m not going to lie. But once you get used to it, it’s actually pretty nice. Sitting in front of the fire washing yourself with lots of intention. It’s a very ‘in the moment’ type of experience.

Now I have an on demand propane water heater. We built a room outside of the can using Tamarack and Cedar - both are very rot resistant woods. And mounted the shower inside! It needs lots of ventilation, propane burners create a lot of carbon monoxide. I keep a carbon monoxide detector in the shower, just-in-case. That worked well for the summer. Water was stored uphill and gravity fed to the shower.

Now that it’s winter- the propane shower doesn’t want to work! It seems that it doesn’t fully drain after use and since my shower room isn’t heated - it then freezes solid. So for this winter showers are under a shower bag, in my shower room. The cedar smells incredible and using snow water that’s been warmed on the wood stove makes my skin super soft!

It’s a slow process figuring out the most efficient way to do things off grid. It takes patience, time and a lot of thought.

To me - living mindfully is worth it.

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