Construction in Paradise: Amazing To Have A Flushing Toilet

Construction has started on our little piece of paradise! It didn’t take long before we began construction. In fact, our entire plans of the building had changed within a matter of two weeks. This was because I was tired of using a little camp toilet and wanted a real toilet! So instead of building our house first, we decided to go ahead and get the bathhouse built.

Construction of our Bathhouse

Who doesn’t like to use a real toilet? I know I didn’t think it would be such a short time before needing an actual toilet for me. However, it came real quick for me. I just got tired of using a little camp toilet and having to deal with cleaning it out a few times a week. Using a camp toilet for a few days and even a week is all good, but when you know you’ll be using it for months, you long for a real toilet!

So, we drove into town and ordered our building materials for the bathhouse to be delivered. The next week construction started.

Post & Piers

First, we added the piers and posts and got them as level as we could. We knew there would need to be some adjustments made. However, we knew we could make the changes at a later time. We even got Thaddeus involved in the building. Even if that didn’t last very long, after helping us with a few different things he was done and didn’t want anything to do with helping with the construction.

Thanks to Hydro Flask for sending us a few of their new Hawaiian Collection bottles! We were able to set up a little spot to take breaks and have some nice cold water while working in the Hawaii heat! More on those in another post.

Platform

It didn’t take long for us to get the platform for the bathhouse. Within two days we had the entire platform built, and we were ready to start on the walls. The construction of the platform was pretty easy since it was just nailing some boards together. However, making it level was a pain in the butt! Give the boy a drill, and he’s all ready for help, look at that concentration!

Walls

Probably the hardest part of the entire construction part was building the walls. Not only do you have to make sure the studs are placed in the correct spots. You also have to make sure all the cuts for any windows and doors are made correctly. Oh and let us not forget that the walls have to be standing perfectly straight otherwise your inside and outside walls will not match up accurately.

Overall, our walls weren’t that hard to build because we only put in one door. The windows we plan to have it in will not require any unique building – at least not at this time. The door was a bit of a pain because all the instructions we found said to make the opening a certain size, but they didn’t mention that dimension included part of the framing you took out. So, we had a little fixing to do after the fact, but it was just adding a little extra piece of wood. The real hard part was putting in the actual door. What a PAIN IN THE BUTT that was!

Roofing & Stairs

For the bathhouse, we decided we wanted to have a transparent roof. We chose to do it this way because we will be running on solar power and during the day this will allow us not to have to worry about lighting. We had a little help from our neighbor with the roofing because, well Brandon wasn’t getting up there and there was no way I was climbing up on the top of a house to put roofing up!

The roofing won’t be just the transparent panels. On the inside, we’ll have some 1″ lattice put up to block out most of the light, so it doesn’t get too hot in there.

Adding in the stairs was a much-needed addition. It isn’t easy without stairs to get the rest of the bathhouse completed, especially on the inside.

Flooring

We chose some basic and cheap wood laminate flooring from Home Depot to use in the bathhouse. Although, I think we’ll be using the same stuff in the rest of the house because it turned out nice!

Each row just needed one cut, and it was super easy to put in. No gluing, no nailing, just connect them by the tounges and onto the next row. Once the flooring was in, we got the toilet installed and running.

We already knew where we wanted the toilet before we put the walls up and it was super easy to install. Put in a couple of holes for the waterline and drain pipe, attach the toilet flange, and then put the toilet on. Connect the water line to the toilet and turn on the water. Then pray that the water doesn’t leak!

Painting

Although we aren’t entirely done with the bathhouse, we did get it painted on the outside.

Since this last picture was taken, we’ve put up the rest of the siding (the little triangle portion on the sides), as well as started putting in the shower. We got the toilet in and then construction almost entirely stopped. Our goal was completed, we had a flushing toilet to use!