outside shower

[jfrost]

Thought I would forward details of my newly installed project: an "Outdoor Shower" I'm very pleased with it. It took me a week of going back & forth to Lowes & wal-mart cuz i didn't quite know what i was doing.

Parts: One: 6ft metal fence " T" stake galvanized 1/2"end cap / 4ft galvanized 1/2"water pipe two handled brass mixing valve (from a shower kit ~ 40$--60$) 2ft galvanized 1/2"water pipe / 90deg galvanized 1/2" elbow

a 4or 5 unit muti-cutoffvalve to hook your house waterhose spigot to. black waterhose for hot side & any other garden hose for cold side bungee cord to hold the plumbing pipe onto the fence stake

a $30 outdoor eating tent/canopy @ wal-mart $3 metal shower soap/ razor /washcloth organizer that hooks over the shower head. 5 shower curtains & rings

Throw everything up ( & attach the shower head & handles to the plumbing) and you have a really nice outdoor shower if you want to use after working in the mud, or maybe to cool off if sun gets too hot. If you use it as a seasonal shower in the summer, you can save money on hot water cuz the sun is cooking that black water hose.

I did see a prettier design in a magazine, but it didn't have as much elbow room. instead of the awning, they bought a black metal garden arch; they are for sale here at lowes for $160. It was very decorative!!

I was also thinking that i should now plant mint there, so when you walk on it, you smell that really fragrant smell !

jfrost

[John DeBoo]

And to think we had one when I was a kid. Used to freeze my butt off getting from it into the house in winter. Whatcha gonna build next, a designer outhouse?

[Frogleg]

Ah, but wouldn't an outdoor shower be nice right now? Jfrost didn't say he/she was substituting outdoor for indoor facilities. I know

*I've* turned a (non-sprinkler) hose on my head during a hot day's gardening. (Yes, I did notice the )

Mint underfoot is a neat idea. I have both rampant mint and lemon balm in places is shouldn't be, and the redeeming feature is walking through a cloud of fresh scent. Why, most people would pay pounds and pounds for that! The Brit garden program 'Ground Force' often plants aromatics along pathways so that walking around will release the scent.

[John DeBoo]

It definately would. I find myself standing under my hose oftentimes and the wife nearby with the gleam in her eyes "Give me that hose and I'll show you...". Having 2 large pots of mint growing and wetting them profusely daily I know how good it'd smell. Overall its a great idea for watering the garden. I doubt soap would be harmful to anything growing in it. Now about that designer

2-holer. One could mix the oders of roses and, ahem, roses.

[Tom Jaszewski]

Goofy is living in Alaska and thinking that week of warm weather qualifies as summer.....

*ROLF*

[Kenneth D. Schillinger]

[Bpyboy]

I saw a really nice one in costa rica. It routed the water through a 55 gallon black plastic drum that was up above the shower to give it some pressure. the thing was filled off of rain gutters, and within a couple of hours, the water was nice and warm, but cool enough to refresh you. Really the only way to clean off after a "hard day" on the beach!

the one they had didn't even have a shower head, just a spigot and hose with one of those "soaker heads" you hook on to your garden hose. still, it was glorious to soak your head under that thing after being cooked out in the sun all day.

[Lee]

sounds like a good idea :) but you could still use the outside one in the summer. I saw a house in Calif near where we lived that had in indoor-outdoor shower with river stones and a water fall and it was so lovely that i, 55 years later, still dream about it! lee.

[samuel l crowe]

I have a shower that i installed in the garage/shop to use only after a days work in the garden, now I use it all the time, it has a small water heater, plus a electric heater for winter months . I use it 12 months a year. the dw also uses it now and then. Best investment I have done in a while. Its complete with toilet, sink and a small closet, i love it.

[Lee]

That sounds great, too! my bro-in-law had one built when he built his house in between the garage and the kitchen that worked well. That way no outside stuff into the kitchen! He was required to wash up and change cloths before he came into the house :). he wasn't a slob , but he did have a ranch on the side and sometimes could get in a pretty good mess paticularly if weather was bad. lee.

[Lynda]

heh

[Jan Flora]

It was 104F. in Chicken, Alaska on the 4th of July a couple of years ago. Chicken is about 70 miles south of the arctic circle. It stays hot in the Interior for more than a week. Maybe 6 weeks. That's long enough! (We had major water balloon fights at that Miners Picnic when it was 104. Even the elders in their 80's and 90's got into it. And everyone kept running over to Chicken Creek to lay down in the water, between water balloon fights.)

I didn't always live here. Lived in the foothills of the Sierra for a long time, were temps over 100F. are common for months and months... *sigh* I got stuck down there a few years ago, when my pop died. Right in the height of summer. The guy at a Sizzler thought I was joking when I asked to stand in the walk-in fridge for awhile. (I wasn't kidding. It was 108F. and I was heat-stroking.) All of my camps in the Sierra had outdoor showers. Some even had solar-heated water.

The shower up in my mining camp near Chicken is outdoors. I ran a poly-line way up the creek, into a Paloma on-demand water heater. The shower has a river-rock floor and a shack around it. (City girls who visit get nervous around thorny old gold miners. They need a shower stall. The rest of us could care less.)

What I don't understand is why they don't evacuate the entire southwest in the summertime. It's uninhabitable, IMO.

Jan