Let's see, where'd we leave off? Oh, yes, Mom and I ripped the old roof off an replaced it with a lighter weight piece of tin. My intention was to get some wood glue and glue up the crack before we stood the outhouse back up, but I blinked and it's two weeks later. The outhouse has to be up and functional by this coming Saturday. We're hosting Dinner and an Outdoor Movie, and unless I want to scrub my house from top to bottom, this outhouse has to be functional. Let's be honest, in the time it has taken me to futz around with the outhouse, I could have had my house deep-cleaned, but being outside is way more fun.
Yesterday, during Mom Monday, the Bionic Cowgirl and I got to work. I had failed to get wood glue, so patching the wall didn't happen. What did happen is that we stood the outhouse back up, and rotated it 90 degrees, so that the door opens to the south now. It was cute with the door opening to the west, as it overlooked the property, but with it opening to the south, the angle of the roof should cut down on some of the wind damage.
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| The crack in the wall is barely noticeable. |
No, the tin roof isn't square, but that's because the outhouse isn't square. It matches Maggie, with her roof on at a jaunty angle. Once we got it situated and mostly level, we brought out the auger and dug holes for the anchors. I had purchased some cool screw-in anchors previously, but our ground is too rocky for them to screw in. Last night's plan was to use the auger to dig the holes for each anchor, back fill it with dirt and concrete, then attach ratchet straps from the anchors to points on the outhouse.
The ground is so rocky that even the auger had trouble getting through, so we have a couple of anchor points that are not flush with the ground. We finally got the anchors in, added water to the mix of dirt and concrete, then went in the house for dinner while it cured.
When we came back out to attach the ratchet straps, Mom realized that I hadn't taken into consideration the length of the ratchet straps, and two of them were too short to reach from the ground anchor to the anchors I'd screwed into the outhouse, near the roof line. Oops. I moved the outhouse anchors down about a foot and a half on the backside, which made the distance just enough for the ratchet straps to reach.
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| Oy, the anchor straps are ugly. |
I really hate the anchor system, and will likely end up just sinking actual posts in the future, but this will do for now. I've ordered some solar fairy lights to wrap around the front two anchor straps so no one trips and kills themselves this weekend. I've been told that hollyhocks are the official flowers of outhouses and I should plant some near. That would be cool, except that there's not a good water source nearby (unless the ditch is running, and it isn't yet). I'd love to do something to "pretty" it up, but I think that's a next summer problem. You know, if these anchors hold and the damn thing doesn't fall over again!
The one thing I did for the outhouse that I love, is that I turned an old lantern into a light. Originally, I just had a bare light bulb hanging in there. Mom and I were talking about how to dress it up, and she said an old lantern would be cool. The next time she came down, she brought one with her.
I took out the kerosene tank and wick, and replaced it with the solar light bulb. I had to do some crazy crafting with E6000 glue to pull it all together, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out.
I have a couple of pictures to frame for the inside of the outhouse, and I'm sure there's a bit more decorating I could do to make it cute, but for right now it's upright and functional and that's all I can ask for.
