I know I'm wierd but I just love the stories, traditions and looks of outhouses. Where I am located we can not construct any new ones but I thought it would be a cute idea to build one new - making it look like a real outhouse but when you open the door - it really is a garden shed or something on this idea. Anybody else think like me? I hope to one day get one built. :-)

-- Pat (mikulptrc@aol.com), March 21, 2002

Answers

Hi Pat! We are on the same wave lenght! I love the look of an outhouse! My mind has been working on one for a few weeks now. And now that the weather is warm (and hubby is out of town!!) I am wandering outside as I type this!! In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy Barth (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), March 21, 2002.

I hope to build a new 'outhouse' this summer. However, I plan to use some type of composting toilet, or a portable camper-type toilet. I want it useable so that those who are working outdoors don't have to track dirty boots through the house. I saw one like this on a garden tour I was on a couple of years ago. It had a skylight, a window with shutters and a window box, and of course, the 'new moon' cutout in the door!

We had an old outhouse here on the property, but it was very old and had caved in - no longer useable and totally beyond repair. In the midst of all the hype about doing something memorable to welcome in the new millenium, we hit upon the ideal celebration for our family. We burned the outhouse! So out in the backyard, in the dark and the snow, the Kerr family welcomed the new millenium gathered around the burning embers that marked the demise of dear old #5. My kids and their cousins (all teens and young adults) will never forget where they were at the beginning of the year 2000!

-- Bernie from Northern Ontario (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

WHEN, I get my homestead, I will have an outhouse too. With small kids, it will created less mopping, for me. We are considering the composting toilet thing too, as my oldest had a bad experince in an old outhouse and now will not go near one, unless she can see it has a toilet seat, like a real one... LOL.... kids...

-- Kristean Thompson (pigalena_babe@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

A few years ago we looked up the old one room school my husband had attended. It had been turned into a house & the outhouse was still in the back. It had been turned into a tool shed, but looked the same on the outside.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), March 21, 2002.

Hi, I already have one with its own resident mouse who lives in a bucket of old rope hangin in there I even have an old catalog too even tho there aren't any "holes" I get more questions of whether it is a working one or not but I just wanted a place to put tools and its part of my heritage ssssoooooo If ya gonna put up a toolshed why not a "picturesque" one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cindy

-- Cindy (hollo@bitwisesystems.com), March 21, 2002.

I bought my outhouse from a man that salvages old barn siding to build them. He made them for folks who wanted cute/rustic tool sheds. When I told him I wanted mine to be real...he just smiled and made me one. I love it.

-- Susan in Northern Mitten Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), March 21, 2002.

My outhouse is disguised as a tool shed. We could not get a portapotty for our family reunion last year so my Dad built a rustic "tool shed" from poles and light weight siding. It sets out behind the garden between the the compost and the orchard.

Someone stole my uncle's antique outhouse. It was built with hand hewn beams and planks, 2 oak seats, mirrored lamp shelf and Prince Albert tins on the walls to hold the paper. We really missed it when it was gone! My cousin decided to dig for treasure where it stood and found a wooden box with sealed jars of dried beans and canned apples, the original owner's legal papers and land deeds, and a bottle of unopened, well aged, antique whiskey.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@somewhere.com), March 21, 2002.

I'm currently building a new outhouse for my sister's vacation place in Vermont. We use it in the winter, when the water is shut off. We have an outhouse at our home, to houses our irrigation eguipment (pump, presure tank, filter, and fertilizer injector).

-- David in NH (grayfoxfarm@mcttelecom.com), March 21, 2002.

My sweetie grew up with a two-holer, his father built. He could never understand why his Dad built an outhouse with two seats, because he wasn't going to chat with anyone while doing his business! LOL!

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), March 21, 2002.

Sorry but I think outhouses stink (pun intended)! My Mom tells of "toilet tipping" on Halloween. More than once there was some poor soul inside at the time. I was 18 before Mom got running water and a bathroom. You can have the outhouses! I'm spoiled now. Besides, too many times when I went out there in a sleepy state only to find a snake or two coiled up in the corners! No time for wiping then.

-- Jean in No. WI (jat@ncis.net), March 21, 2002.

I would like to have one too for a little taste of history. I remember being trained in an outhouse. My grandpa installed a little wooden ring on a hinge that I could put down so I wouldn't fall in the hole. I remember thumbing through the Sears catalog deciding what page to use for toilet paper! Folks, I'm not that even that old. Wisconsin winters can sure be cold on the bum!

-- connie in md (connie@mission4me.com), March 21, 2002.

I've got an outhouse right behind the cabin that my husband and I live in. We built it a couple of years back when we were getting married, to accomodate all his relatives that came overseas for the wedding (a bunch camped out in the back yard for a few weeks). We still use the outhouse when we are too lazy to go to the main house- it is always an adventure. In the winter there is a crazy draft from down below, and in the summer, there are always a couple little wasp/hornet nests in the eaves. I always hope, hope, hope that there are none under the seat!

-- Chenoa (ganter@primus.ca), March 22, 2002.

When I was a little kid (5yrs) we moved back into Okla. and moved in with my Grandma who still had a outhouse. I was always scared to go use the #2 cause I didn't know just what I would find in there. I would do the #1 anywhere outside. One day while I was setting in there I looked up over the door and saw the biggest spider I had ever seen. It had a great big egg sack on its back and looked very vicious. I screamed and hollered until my Mom finally heard me and came to my rescue. Then not long after that I was setting in there and happened to notice something moving under me. I got up real fast and turned around to see what was in there and it turned out to be a racoon that was starring back up at me. I think he was about as scared as I was cause I don't know who made it out the door first, me or him.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 22, 2002.

Hello Pat,

One of the first things that I built on our undeveloped land was an A-frame outhouse. I built it in the shape of an A-frame because I wanted it to match the A-frame house we are building. The pit is 4 feet by 8 feet in diameter and six foot deep. I laid three railroad ties across the pit length ways. I built my deck and commode on top of the railroad ties and then added three "A" shaped trusses. The roof is forest green tin roofing. The back has a small trianglar window that the peak and the front has dutch doors. Its made our of weathered oak (corral) 2x6s. We use it and consider it a very beautiful and very natural way to go. In the Spring my wife plants flowers around the front of it and it just really looks like it belongs there. If you want to see a picture of it I have a couple of them on my webpage, (address below). When you get to my webpage just click on to "Our Ozark Lifestyle" photo album and you will see it.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), March 22, 2002.

Instead of the lakes or pictures of mountains or what ever I have outhouses in the background on my checks there are four different ones. I do get some strane comments when I write checks at stores sometimes. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gefozarks@centurytel.net), March 22, 2002.

We have an outhouse in our back yard that is used as a toolshed and erstwhile chicken coop. Currently, it contains 26 chicks, about 3 bales of straw and a few tools. It was a two seater and was in use as an outhouse up until about 30 years ago. When we bought this house, we were told that the avocado green tub, toilet, and sink were the original bathroom fixtures.

-- Lav, Maryland (lavenderbluedilly@hotmail.com), March 22, 2002.