The Outhouse Conclusion (I hope!)

I mentioned in my last outhouse post that it had to be ready to go for an event we were hosting on Saturday. So, of course, that meant that I'd put off doing any actual real work on it until Friday and Saturday. Such is the life of a procrastinator. 

I only had to work a half day on Friday, and I had grand plans of checking the anchors, resetting them if need be, and getting everything set up and ready to go. What I did instead was take the prints I'd picked up from ARC last fall, and went into town to find some "cheap" frames and mats. I paid $1.99/each for the prints, and spent over $50 on supplies to frame them myself. Typical.

Then I came home and took a nap. Peak procrastination right there! After nap time, I did get the prints matted, framed, and put up in the outhouse. I think they're perfect for it, and breaks up the brown OSB walls a bit.

I love the lantern with the print.

The print on the other side.

I felt pretty good about my "progress" on the outhouse and spent time hanging out in the Whimsical Treehouse with Diana and Pina before calling it a day. Whimsy did have a surprise for me - there are two toads living in there. I know one is living in Diana's straw mulch, and I think the other one came up from under the weed barrier, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll post a Diana the Pomegranate update soon - she's doing great!

By Saturday morning, I knew I had to do what I was dreading. I had to go pull on the anchors to see if the concrete had set correctly, and if not, I'd have to pull the anchors and do it all over again. In my gut, I just knew that I'd have to re-set the anchors, and I was right. It took next to no pressure to pull two of the four right out of the ground. Grrr. I was lucky that we hadn't had any significant wind since Mom and I sank the anchors on Monday.

Jay helped me auger out the holes, which we made a bit deeper so the anchors would sit flush, and I filled each hole with concrete instead of just mixing it with dirt. He also suggested crossing the rachet straps - running one from the front of the outhouse to the back anchor, and vice versa - to give it more stability. In order to do so, I had to change out my straps, but I feel like it's much more stable with them crossed as he suggested. 

You can see how I've crossed the ratchet straps from front to back.

Should I have just sunk actual posts at each corner of the outhouse and secured it that way? Yes. Why didn't I? I wanted to be able to move it, if necessary. I never factored in the wind knocking it over b.s. that's been going on.

It gets dark out where we live, though not as dark as it used to thanks to all of the urban sprawl. However, out at the edge of the property, it's dark and I didn't want anyone tripping over the anchors, so I had the brilliant idea of wrapping the front ratchet straps with solar powered fairy lights.

Here's the thing about fairy lights. I love 'em, once they're strung up. But, good gods do I despise stringing them. It's like detangling fishing line with permanent knots where the little LED lights are. It took me two hours to string the lights. Two hours! When I was done, I told Jay that I felt like the outhouse was going to look like Beetlejuice's place with the big flashing sign over it.

I'm not going to lie, if I leave the fairy lights on "flashing" mode, it does kind of look like Beetlejuice's sign, but overall, I'm pleased with the way it turned out. 

Back in Part 1, I mentioned that I'd found a chamber pot-style set up for the outhouse. It was really low to the ground, so low, it was almost a squat pot. I built a platform for it to bring it up to normal toilet height. It's not a pretty platform, but it'll do. At some point, I will probably stain them both to match and look less discrete. The original outhouse had a chemical toilet, but after researching how to clean it, and realizing I'd have to take it into the house and flush it down the toilet, I opted out. Instead, I found some camping toilet liners and an additive to turn the contents into a compostable gel. I'm not composting human waste in my yard, but I don't feel bad about putting the compostable liner and gunk into the dumpster to compost at the landfill. 

If you look closely on the right side of the picture, you'll see Bill's toilet paper holder. He was super proud of himself for using an old curb bit and curb strap as the toilet paper holder. He went the practical route and used a nylon curb strap, but I might change it to a leather one in the future, just to keep with the old west vibe.

Being knocked over the last time had screwed up the door latch again, so I changed it out to a hook and eye lock on the inside. I figure if - God forbid - the wind blows it over again, the hook and eye lock is more forgiving if the door shifts again.

Finally, after hours spent doing everything I'd procrastinated, the outhouse was ready for its debut. The next step is getting everyone trained to use it instead of traipsing through the house. I heard no complaints from the people who did use it, and clean up the next morning was a breeze.

There's still a bit of a "Beetlejuice" vibe, but I'm happy with
the way it turned out.