Update 6.12.12
June 13, 2012 § 17 Comments
I got my toilet, already I am slightly disappointed… I do think it is more of a customer service issue than a product error. They sent me the wrong unit. They sent me the electric version of the one I ordered. It’s not a HUGE deal because I will be tied to the grid for a while but it could certainly cause problems when I take it off-grid. The power usage is minimal but it still adds up, i have a lot of ‘minimal’ draws already… The other, more pressing issue is that the electric unit is a couple inches higher. I purposefully ordered the non-electric version because this needs to sit under my trailer, it was really close on the other one, it just means I have to jack the trailer up more, I already feel like it’s pretty high up… humpffff! The third issue is that the unit they sent is a couple hundred bucks more, i am thinking I got charged for those couple hundred bucks instead of the wrong unit accidentally being shipped, it’s easier to believe that the lady accidentally ordered the wrong one but at the correct price… I am going to sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning… it could go either way. Either way I am planning on having it on display at Boise’s Green Expo in a couple weekends.
To get my mind off that I moved back to the electrical. I got all the circuits run, at least until I ran out of wire. I need about 10-15 more feet to complete it! Oh, and to hook it to the board 
. It’s getting there and I think I have it down! Dad made mention of possibly doing the plumbing tomorrow, that would be sweet!
My roof doesn’t seem to have shipped yet, I hope it does soon so I can catch up on the exterior stuff relatively soon. All in good time!
Tomorrow is a work day for USGBC after my day job so no update, probably… I hope you have all had a wonderful day! Here are some pictures:
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- I had to meet with some people that I am hoping will by the last ‘big’ thing I have on Craigslist… my bedroom set. So my anticipation (over the toilet of all things) was prolonged! I was pretty excited to drive up and see it, it was a lot bigger than I expected though.
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- I opened up the box, still all excited. i have never actually seen a view INTO one of these things, probably because they are gross… but I wanted to see before it was all gross ;)
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- I pull it out of the box and the seat is flailing around because the damn thing is broke, already. I think it will work, I will need to get a little larger screw, the unit is made of fiberglass and the plastic screw completely ripped the fiberglass apart where it’s supposed to stay fastened. It’s totally awesome to pay $2,000 for a broken piece, but wait, that’s not all!
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- Before I get into the rest I will show the toilet unit thing, so people can see it. This is the dry fixture for the Sun-Mar Centrex 2000 and 2000 ne
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- It is black inside, surprise, I never even saw in enough to see that! It makes sense, the black part is actually removable and cleanable (hose-off-able).
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- and here is the shot I wanted to find (of a clean toilet) but couldn’t… Here is what it looks like.
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- all the stuff that comes with it!
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- Note that there are bags of sawdust (for low flow water units) just inside the taped part. Which you cut with a razor… I’m thinking it’s not the best placement. Then I read the bag and it’s for water fixtures, that was my first sign that I got the wrong thing, though I think it can be used in a non-water unit as well… its basically just sawdust. Sliced open.
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- The packing slip is for a Centrex 2000, not eh Centrex NE (non-electric) that I ordered. BUMMER!!! Thouroughly bummed with my $2,000 purchase. I am debating whether or not to suck it up, install it (it’s actually convenient since I am running the electrical now, I can run the electrical to it…) or piss and moan and return it, waiting several more weeks.
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- So, what to do when I’m disappointed… move on! I pissed and moaned for a bit but then i moved on to the electrical. First things first, i mounted the panel. Instead of recessing it into the wall I am face-mounting it to the wall in the electrical closet (in the front of the trailer under the goose-neck, accessed from the outside). That way I can run the wires through in one spot and have them accessible from the closet, instead of inside the wall, behind the built in dresser.
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- I ran as much wire as I had! I ran out JUST before I was done. I have a little bit of 4 wire left that I think I can use in lieu of the three wire. I just have about 10-15 feet more that I need (unless I decide to keep the toilet… then I will need a tad more. I have two three way switches, I think I get those now :)
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- More wires, tucked in their little groove. I will go through and put nail plates on and I am almost there! I still need to connect the circuits on the board, so close though!
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- Wires! :)
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- This is where the electrical goes out the house and into the panel. There are four holes on either side for the eight circuits that I will have.
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- I thought this appropriate
Update 6.7.12
June 7, 2012 § 2 Comments
Tonight, when I drove up to the house the wind was in the midst of ripping off the felt I nailed on last night! A minor set-back. I was sort of expecting that (they get pretty massive winds out there and I ran out of daylight before I could really get the sides nailed down as well as I’d like). I ended up going up on the roof and laying on the felt for a few minutes until the wind died down enough to let me re-nail it. It was probably pretty silly if you were to see it but it worked! I didn’t have to re-do the whole thing, just waited a bit then finished nailing it down. I will have to go through and re-lay one strip of it but all and all it could have been a lot worse. I also went through and finished all the window flashing. I was going to work on the furring but the wind was crappy. Instead I hung some light receptacles in preparation for the wiring this weekend and started to work through some designs for my mill-work.
I have updated my budget and ran some quick numbers, guesstimated about what I still have to purchase and amazingly I am still sort of on track. It will be tight but I am in the 10k range… so far… I have a feeling the finishes is where I will up some of my standards .
I also heard that my toilet is in town! It is missing one piece right now but will be delivered on Tuesday when that piece gets in. We have a green expo coming up here in town in a couple weekends that I will probably have my toilet in, just so people can see what it’s like and make it not such a ‘foreign’ thing. The green expo is actually a really cool event Boise does. I get to help work on some of the information through the USGBC Idaho chapter. I hope some of my Boise friends can make it down there, there are a lot of great lectures and a lot of innovative companies pushing the edge of sustainability. You are bound to learn something and what’s better than that!? That’s right, nothing 
. Have a good night everyone!
Here are some pictures:
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- I put together a few quick sketches a while back and then lost them. I found them tonight and was happy to see that they were still relevant, the design must be settling a little :). This is the porch. I was playing around with the direction the structural members would run, this is the way we ended up going with it.
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- This has changed a little but the general idea is still there. I will have the cabinets be all white with wood accents.
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- this is fairly similar to where I am at too. You can barely see it but there is a possible built in dog dish holder (for Dawson, he needs elevated food dishes since hes so tall, so he doesn’t gulp air when he eats and drinks, that’s bad for dogs). I have an open space for a cloths washing unit as well. I should do a post here shortly on a washer once I get one picked for sure.
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- This is going to extend my work hours! Yeah! My plan is to finally actually run the electrical this Sunday but even so I won’t have power in there until after the .drywall. This light will come in handy
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- I got the receptacles for the pendant lights above the kitchen counter in. Originally I had planned on three but I didn’t like the way it laid out, they weren’t logical, not centered on the window etc. It seemed a lot better with four. This will up my costs but it will be one of those things I believe will be worth it!
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- You can see two things in this picture, first, I hammered my finger pretty good. Truth be told I did it yesterday too when putting the roof on but it didn’t bleed… this time it did! Turns out it hurts… Mom always told me I could be a hand model, I don’t think this is what she had in mind. The second thing is the ring I have been working on.
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- For the most part I don’t wear jewlery, not because I don’t like it, I do, it just needs to have meaning for me, or a memory. this is a piece or the scrap piping from my plumbing on this house, I have covered it in epoxy so it won’t turn my finger green. I grinded off the outside epoxy, Im going to engrave the word ‘imagine’ in it and finish it off with another thin coat of epoxy. I like it, it fits my finger well and it had great meaning to me! If anyone ever asks about my (probably hideous) ring in the future I can tell them the story of my tiny house!
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- I am doing very limited drawings for this project, some of you may have noticed… sort of ignoring my whole trade… there are some things that need worked out more precisely though. I am starting to look at the dresser and kitchen mill-work a little closer.
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- working through the kitchen too, there is a lot to figure out still but it’s time to start thinking of it…
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- I also started poking through my budget, turns out I am pretty close to meeting it but I would not be surprised at all if I go over budget. I threw some rough numbers at the things I still need to purchase, some may be discounted and some may cost more and there is always those little extra things that you don’t account for having to pick up… I also still have a whole bunk of insulation I will be putting on Craigslist which gets to go right back into my budget.
Composting Toilet
May 11, 2012 § 11 Comments
I have ordered a toilet! I have gone with the Sun-Mar Centrex 2000, non-electric. It costs WAY too much and really is more than what I ‘need’, system wise, but I there are several conclusions I have drawn through my research that have lead me this direction:
- The mechanism that the Sun-Mar products use is a manual crank device as opposed to that of some other companies that use a grating system. As I understand the grating system has a tenancy to dry out and ‘clog’, requiring a manual disassemble and cleaning. Though I was told this was rare it is not something I want to deal with.
- The unit itself is longer and more spread out and therefore allows better waste management because of the design (more surface area for ‘liquids’ to evaporate and a longer waste storage area for solids to go through, there is a drawer at the end of the process where wastes will be removed and no one will be the wiser! Or so I am told, we shall see…)
- I like the way this company is run, really there were two units in the running for my usage needs, the other being a Sancor model. Both companies have made in the USA products, Sancor is a factory direct sale and as such they were able to drop the price a bit more than Sun-Mar could… I however like the fact that Sun-Mar takes it a step further and supports local economies, providing more jobs throughout the US. My Sun-Mar dealer is located about 8 miles from my project site and was able to cut off a few hundred bucks from the ‘retail price’ for me.
- I went with a remote toilet as opposed to the self contained so the waste is not actually kept in my house, it will be in a tank below the trailer, accessible/cleanable from outside.
- I went with a waterless option so that I do not have to worry about draining extra water or hooking water up to the toilet.
- Really, what I was looking for was the most ‘conventional’ looking composting toilet, I want people to feel comfortable using the bathroom at my place and I don’t want to have to leave a book of instructions for them to be able to do so. It did end up costing me a bit more but I felt like it was worth it, and it’s all about priorities… the potty is one of those for me.
