We quickly learned that we weren’t as well prepared as we thought when building our outhouse. Our biggest challenges happened with our camping setup.

Little did we know that spring is “mud season” in the Cariboo. Because of the vast amounts of snow melting, the ground is pretty much soaked for a couple of weeks. (mid March-early May) So living in a camper without a mud room, was messy! Jelger quickly built an extension to our camper: a tent with tarp and fallen birches. Hillbilly style living. 😉

In the photo above you can see we have a cooking stove and a table. Yep, you guessed it, after cooking on the wood fire and on tiny camping fire, we figured that wasn’t a long term solution, so we invested in some better equipment to get us going for the long haul. Cooking hot meals and being able to make coffee and tea was so necessary!

Staying warm was also a bit of a problem. During the day, while working, we kept warm! But at night, it was still freezing up to -5°C. Unfortunately we thought there was a gas leak in the camper. 6 months later we found out there wasn’t, and that it was a dial we forgot to shut. So at this time we didn’t use the heater in the camper. We kept warm with an occasional fire outdoors and by bundling up. It was HARD.

The start of the build

Once we settled in, it was time to start building the outhouse. We went back and forward a bit on the location of the outhouse. We knew we wanted to have it in a convenient spot close to our future cabin. So we had to decide where to build that cabin too. The nice cleared area that our contractor had created earlier, was reserved for a future larger house. After walking over the terrain for a while and checking out the boundaries, we chose a spot between two clusters of trees. We knew we wouldn’t do anything else there.

And then came the digging. We initially planned on digging a hole deep enough to burry the holding tank. That turned out to be next to impossible. The clay ground is extremely heavy and hard to penetrate. We had to stab the ground to scrape inches away. After two days, we called it quits and decided to build stairs to the outhouse instead.

The choice to just stop the digging and move the tank in, made things instantly more fun! First Jelger made sure all the pavers and deck blocks were level. Not an easy feat on a three-dimensional slope. And next up it was time to start creating the frame. In our long winter of planning, he drew plans by hand and took everything into consideration, including the cheap window I scored. Because this outhouse was going to be FANCY. 😉

We purchased local green lumber to lower the costs. That certainly came with some challenges. The wood was extremely heavy and more warped, with some extra sap here and there. But luckily Jelger seemed to be a natural at building things and he quickly learned the tricks to get the wood to do what he wanted.

We definitely decided not to use green lumber for future building projects, like our cabin. (Maybe for a shed!) I should also mention that since we didn’t have a work space, the back of our truck was Jelger’s work bench for cutting wood.

During our time building the outhouse, of course we also did other things on the land, such as clearing away fallen trees (so many!!) and building trails to make everything more accessible.

While most of our time was spent working, we also tried to enjoy some down time. We especially loved our hammocks, haha. Here you can see the difference in nature in just a few weeks time!

After a trip back to Vancouver and a second visit to our land, we finally reached the lockup stage of the outhouse! Jelger built an amazing staircase, as well as a door! I still don’t understand fully how he made that door, haha, but he did and it looks great!

We opted for a red roof, because we’re using the same red on all our roofs! That way our land will look less like a hodgepodge of buildings and more cohesive. Every building (even the smallest shed) will get the same roof and eventually the same board and batten. But that’s something for much later! (Maybe the summer of 2022?)

The ventilation pipe in the back was an absolute must! The Tyvek doesn’t help our ventilation, but it will make sure this outhouse will withstand time. And luckily the window opens, haha. We’re using peat moss to help cover smells, which works well! At first we used lime, but that actually slows down composting.

Jelger also made sure that the tank is fully sealed at the entry of the pipe, so flies can’t easily get in. (we have some gauze at the top of the pipe too)

We’re so happy with our outhouse! It made our lives a lot easier. And yes, a 6 by 8 foot outhouse is maybe a bit over the top, but it was the perfect learning opportunity for basic framing. The finishes will take a very long time, as there are numerous more urgent things to attend to. But hopefully some day I’ll post a blog about the finished inside. We already have a suitable floor covering ready.

Next post, I’ll share more about building the foundation of our cabin. Thank you for following along and check out the videos below!

Tanja

Outhouse building video

Enjoy the video of the entire process, sped up to 6 minutes, haha.

Or if you want to have a laugh about what we think about Canadian Building terminology…