Separate Bath House

[donsgal]

I saw online recently an article about a couple of ladies who have a ranch in the Big Bend area of Texas and made their house by hand, themselves. (Interesting article. I did not add it to my favorites, and wish I had).

Anyway, they had a separate bath house which I thought was kind of neat. They use rainwater for their moisture needs there (water is scarce) and they have a combination solar heating unit right on top of the bath house. It was very cool. And I wondered if any of my HT friend have a bath house separate from their main house.

It would be very practical in an environment where you get really dirty. Not so practical in the winter, perhaps - in cold climates anyway. But I am thinking mostly during the other seasons.

Anybody?

donsgal

[Christiaan]

Don't have one right now, but some years ago I was the caretaker of a community activity center out in the sticks. We had our mobile on the property. To save money, we always used their showers. It was also a lot easier as I could bathe two kids at a time, with only the younger girls needing help. I've often wanted to have an outdoor shower, just have never gotten around to designing/building one.

[Shinsan]

There's been a number of people in Aus. that have built outdoor bath houses, some with a small rock garden alongside - bit of a take on the Japanese style. After a hard day's work, shower off all the grime then have a long hot soak in the tub. Very relaxing. Great if you can have a small table beside the tub to hold the wine bottle.
In Japan, the baths, called on-sen, are sometimes outside, and in winter you can enjoy a hot bath with snow all around you.

[Maimes]

I am planning on adding an outdoor shower. It's basically a shower head coming from the house. I get pretty dirty during the hot months and it would be good to not have to take all of that dirt inside. The picture I saw in a book has the shower head coming out of the exterior wall of the house where the indoor bathroom was. There was a small concrete slab to stand on, then surrounded with a section of solid board fencing. I fell in love with it.....Good project for next summer..

[Windy in Kansas]

As a really separate bath house those over 50, or whatever age might be needed, one might also consider using a fitness center for seniors. Go in and work out with weights or a treadmill for a little bit and then shower. We have such a facility where I live but I haven't checked to see if they even have showers. I would expect they do since the facility has a pool to use. The cost is $180 a year for an individual or $300 for a family. Can one heat water for less than 50¢ per day?

[GoldCountryGal]

This weekend, the plumber was at our house and we were talking about outdoor showers/baths... the house is getting remodeled and repiped - so we now have a "spare" cast iron bathtub - so the subject of what to do with it came up. For his house, the plumber ran a hot and cold water spigot (like for a hose) on the outside of the house - then he used garden hoses to run the water down to his outdoor bath/shower. When the weather gets cold - you can take off your hoses and not worry about anything freezing up. I thought that was a nice, easy way to get running hot and cold water for an outside shower/bath.

[Nel frattempo]

We have separate outside shower/wash up room. It is simply two shower heads mounted on the back of our Bunk House (small building the kids use for play house), with hot/cold water we ran ourselves. We do shut it off by first frost. The shower is in an area about 12 feet by 12 feet with locust posts around, cheap cloth curtains, log pieces for seats, wire baskets for soaps and shampoos, wood shelf for razors, etc. We also set an old sink into wood base and it has cold water run to it for washing shoes, hands, clothes, whatever needs to be washed. The water runs down into a flower/herb bed. We use it a lot, love it, some guest use it but are shy about it (but the whole area does have good solid curtains for privacy) but once they use it, they always return to use it again. Goodluck, we love our outside shower room and hope you will enjoy yours too.

[Shinsan]

GCG, That sounds like a really good idea using hoses that can be put away when they're not needed. Are you going to do that?

[Rick]

We had a storage shed built this summer. We had a bath deck built onto the back of it. There, a solar shower and a clawfoot tub (minus the feet as we only have inherited 2 of them) drain into our 24 by 24 garden.

This has proved to be quite an asset during this yea'rs drought.