Tuesday, July 12, 2011

my local contractor

(This shot of Keith was on an old roll of film I just got developed when I sent in our 10-year anniversary camping trip film. A nice surprise! More of my film shots are uploaded on my Facebook.)

Keith is busying starting work on our bathroom - yay! He has the siding taken off the house where the Bathroom Addition will touch, we've drawn up a rough floor plan, and we'll be scouting for some tile when we head over the pass this weekend.

We're going to a sustainable bluegrass festival at Lolo Hot Springs and being that close to Missoula (about 40 miles) means we might as well head to Home Resource and see what kind of treasures we can't live without.

He's also taken out the 2-way  mirror on the east side of the house and we'll be incorporating that into the north side of the Bathroom Addition. And probably another window on the south side (tangential to the porch) for light and/or ambient heat since it will be separate from the house and therefore not heated directly. But really, how long do you spend in the bathroom?

Our composting toilet (similar to this) is going to be an experiment in design and function, but we're pretty set against having a septic system for a number of reasons, so a DIY composting toilet is our first choice.

We can't afford a commercial composting toilet, so after a lot of internet research (as well as reading The Humanure Handbook), we plan on having all solid waste go into a rain barrel that will be vented and urine will be diverted and diluted with water that flows to a planting bed. We'll try worms in the barrel to help break down everything and we're not even sure how long it will take to fill the barrel---though I'm sure there's some sort of calculation available that would crunch those numbers.(Build It Solar also has some great graywater and toilet information.) Like I said, experimental.

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