31_Outdoor Shower

Our next outdoor project was building an outdoor shower. We wanted it because North Carolina mostly had hot and humid weather. So whenever we had to work outside, either for gardening or workouts, we would end up dirty and sweaty. It would be nice to clean ourselves up before entering the house. Beside, it would be refreshing too.

From the start, we wanted it to look natural with bamboo or wood. We didn’t want another brick building outside the house. We browsed around on the Internet to look for designs, and we liked one with spiral-shape bamboo chamber. So we went to Home Depot to buy bamboos, as Lowes didn’t have it. Apparently the bamboos were sewed together into an 8’ bamboo row. This made us a bit difficult to get the spiral shape as we wanted. And if we pushed to get it, we need a little bit more bamboos; but we couldn’t buy it a piece. So it was a dilemma.

In the end we had to adjust our design. We looked around again on the Internet and decided to have a ‘normal’ square chamber. The bamboos even had to be cut in order to avoid the use of excessive cement. We put pebbles for the shower floor and drew a new hose line from the garden plumbing line. In the end, we put plants around it to make it looks more natural.

Front part of the outdoor shower.

A side from the shower.

Inside oart of the shower, with pebles floor.

Another side of the shower.

30_New Shed

One of the eyesores in our home is the shed in the backyard. I don’t know what the shed made from; it looked like a tin can for me. This shed probably had been there for decades, cause it was full with rust since the day we came. One of the sliding doors was detached from its rail, so we had to put a brick to hold it from being collapsed. The doors couldn’t be closed as well. Actually, I put a padlock to make it looked lock.

So when the weather got warmer, we were ready to tear the shed apart and build a new one. My husband liked to do woodworking and he had plenty of tools along these years, so he designed a shed that suitable for his needs. He chose to make it from cedar wood to make it last long and to look beautiful. He also used the same roof color with the house to match. But not everything was new. For the door we used our old kitchen door; we replaced the kitchen door with a new one. And for the window, we bought it from ReStore for $2, and my husband made the shutters from scrap wood. 

The work took some months, though. First we just installed the foundation in late April and left it. We collected the materials as we wanted it, before we continued. Because once we started, we couldn’t stop and left an open shed. The rain might damage it. In the end we spend over $1,000 but this included new tools such as extension ladder. 

Demolition of the old shed.

Demolishing the eyesore in the backyard.

Once we started to work on it in early May, it took us around 3 weeks to finish it. We demolished the old shed and built a new one behind it. Now the new shed looked like a cabin in the woods. On the area where the old shed was, we put a pull-up bar and planted grass around it. This pull-up bar was also homemade. Our backyard looked better and better and we increasingly enjoyed it.

The new shed.

The new shed from a side.

Garden tools in one of the sides.

A pull-up bar stands on the old shed area.