Wednesday 16 September 2009

Home-building

I have been very pleased with my latest DIY triumph..
I renovated our ancient outside toilet which had become more of a storage space. I was originally just going to clean it up and tidy up the wiring in there (I had previously put in a fuse box to supply electricity to the garden shed). After a bit of thought, I realised that it was no good having a working toilet unless there were taps and a sink for hand-washing. So I ended up plumbing in hot and cold water and a basin with outflow, making the whole job somewhat more complicated.

Of course, we are not talking about a chic stone sink as something very petite was required in order not to take up too much of the small amount of room available. I ended up using a 'hopper' from a rain collecting gutter-system as it was small and happened to have the right sized hole to take a bottle-trap. The end result would not win any design awards, but I felt that considering the small outlay, the finished article is very pleasing. I used tongue and groove panelling to cover all the pipework, and put all of the wiring into ducts and junctions into sealed boxes. The woodwork was stained a dark mahogany and I am pleased to say that the facility has been getting plenty of use as it is always handy to have a spare convenience...

I had one last trick up my sleeve... the hot and cold taps are both the kind of taps that you can connect a garden hose to - that way, when we have a paddling pool in the garden, we will be able to put warm water in there as well as cold water...

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