"Sh#tter's full!" (September 2011)

Taking inspiration from Cousin Eddie, I'll "flush" the "polite-speak" for this post, and instead speak candidly of our toilet solution for the Mill office. We knew we needed an outhouse of some sort - there's no septic on site and no plans for year-round running water. We were debating whether to put in the time and expense of building a quaint outhouse, or whether to look for a port-a-let to cut the bottom out of for a quick fix. It was an ongoing debate - we even looked at kits/plans from Jamaica Cottage Shop (which is an awesome company, btw).

Meanwhile, my father in-law (affectionately aka "Papa Turbo") is well known for cruisin' the roads (at a whopping pace of 15 mph regardless of road condition/surface) checking for wildlife and, on occasion, running into some sweet road-finds. Well, in late August of 2011, Papa Turbo stumbled upon the mother load of road-finds: an old port-a-let, with the bottom already removed, fully vented, already cleaned out and spray painted a homemade camouflage to boot! And the best part - it was free for the taking on the side of the road! So Papa Turbo and I piled into his pickup to go pick up my new sh#tter!

Mark and Papa Turbo sizing up the project

Mark digging the hole

Placing the throne

It's all good

You can hardly tell it's there ;-)

Mark installed some beams under the edges in order to get it off the ground so it will be easier to open the door when there's snow on the ground

With this very important, if not so very glamorous, piece in place, we were finally ready to start tackling the shed renovations!

The "before" shots (August 2011)

This shed has history. In addition to a storage shed, it's been a hunting camp, a sugar house, and year-round shack. It's certainly seen better days, and soon it will see better days again! These "before" photos were taken in August of 2011.

It's cute from the outside, no?

A bit overgrown on the backside...

But it's located on the banks of a babbling brook...

So, it's in need of a *little* TLC before I can use it as my NEK office (but at least there's a place to store eggs!)

In the next post, I'll cover the installation of necessary facilities! Can't plan to accomplish much renovation work without a proper "sh#tter". :-)

If only she blogged regularly...

You can't tell by reading it here, but we actually have been making progress on the Mill Office! The biggest issue is my complete neglect in retrieving photos from the camera... BUT, the good news is that I've reduced the number from about 2000 to about 400, so I'll start posting some progress photos here shortly! Promise :-)

Actual Coffee Table

In the end, price wins! My mom found this baby at a yard sale for $10. I love it! Coffee table for the mill office: check!

Coffee Table?

This wasn't my original plan for a coffee table, but seriously, how cool is this?!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Suitcase-Picnic-Table-and-Speaker-System/

Spending and Saving

I spend a lot of time day-dreaming about my Mill Office, getting lost in my own thoughts on how to solve various issues. And there are a lot of issues! Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), we've saved and accumulated a lot of materials over the years - leftovers from various home improvement projects or (Mark's favorite) finding free stuff at the dump or on the side of the road. Our goal is to reuse as much as we can in order to (a) save money, (b) help clear out our junk collections and (c) give it an authentic, rustic feel.

So given all that, here's some of the issues/todos/plans:

• replace roof - it's 325 sq ft (including 10% for waste), and we just happen to have 328 sq ft of architectural shingles sitting in our shed at home that Mark found free on the side of the road last year.
• replace windows - we have several windows that we saved out of my old camp that we're hoping to use
• rewire electric - we have an electrical box we saved out my old camp, as well as many outlets and a ceiling fan
• seasonal brook water - we have a pitcher pump saved from my old camp, and hopefully enough water line laying around
• insulation - we will probably need to buy this new, rolled fiberglass for the walls (assuming we find that the studs are evenly spaced) and we plan to add insulation and new sub-floor on top of the existing one
• furniture & appliances - we have the sink, propane range and table from my old camp, a nice futon and shelf unit that my mother found at a yard sale for me, a breakfast bar with two benches, a coffee maker and a chair we no longer use in the house, a small fridge that my father doesn't use, a microwave that our neighbor got rid of
• flooring - we will likely buy this new as well, unless we happen to stumble upon something else before then. I'm thinking floating vinyl planks, like Allure from Home Depot.
• heat - this is a tough one because we have an older, Kozy propane heater that was given to us, and feel like we should use it to save $. But, it will require quite a bit of valuable floor space and we do have an alternate use for it at home. So, one of the major "splurges" might be made on one of these Dickinson propane heaters made for boat cabins (more on this later).
  
  

The Mill Office

Time for a new blog to document a new project - one I'm *very* excited about! If all goes well, by the end of the month we will be the new owners of a piece of property in the NEK, upon which sits an antique saw mill and (more excitingly) an old shed, which we plan to transform into a year-round functional office, for me! Soon-to-be known as, The Mill Office.

My inspiration: http://www.shedworking.co.uk/, http://tinyhouseblog.com/, and http://www.amazon.com/Shed-Chic-Outdoor-Buildings-Work/dp/0789318601

We have permission from the current owner to start cleaning out the shed while the lawyers continue working on the closing docs, so I plan to document our progress here.