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And by that, I mean pretending to be an architect. Hahaha.
I've been thinking about a good eco-house of late. Just thinking.
See, Paul and I spent Saturday/Sunday up at his family cottage. It was fun. I went wading, and I went berry-picking (mostly blackberries, some blueberries) with Paul's mother and grandma. (That was awesome! I sang to the berries, adn they fed me! Yay! :-)
But, they have a composting toilet at their cottage.
I like it a lot.
So, I have been thinking: Is it possible to build a bathroom that has a composting toilet (see details, below), but that could be converted (as in has space inside the walls for the right kind of plumbing) into a non-compost-toilet bathroom without too much trouble. (I'm thinking in terms of selling the house later on, when Paul and I can't handle the stairs anymore).
Anyway. Here are the details.
Ideally, this would be built on a hill that sloped southward (possibly down to a creak or river, but that's not likely given that, in Ottaw, the River is North).
North-facing house, with a small, shady front yard.
Shade would be provided by:
2 Pine trees,
2 Cedar trees,
1 Sugar Maple
1 Mountain Ash
1 Lilac
2+ Honey Berries
(1 Service Berry and/or 1 Elder Berry)
With ostrich ferns, day lillies, and other shade-hardy, edible (or not -- hostas, for example), and at-lesat-slightly-ornamental plants growing underneath. There might also be a fountain, but not necessarily.
The front (north) half of the roof would be flat (and by flat, I mean with a 10 degree slope, but no more than that, for drainage purposes) and green -- covered with mostly creeping juniper, plus some low-bush blueberries and possibly more partridge berries. There would be a door up to the flat roof for harvesting purposes, most likely accessed via the livable attic.
The back (south) half of the roof would be almost perpendicular to the ground (a slope of 75-80 degrees) and would be covered in power-generator solar panels. (It would be nice if I could also use said solar panels as a way of heating our hot water -- see below -- but I don't know if you can use the same kind of panels to do both).
The back yard would, ideally, be a terraced (or terrace-able) hill-side (not too steap, but still a hill-side) that I could plant my HUGE Veggies and Fruits garden in.
On the eastern(?) side of the house, (but taller than the house, by a meter or so), and able to catch the wind coming up the slope, would be a bank of two (or maybe three) windmills, all mounted on a generator-shed where the batteries were stored and the maintainance could be done.
One the western side is the four-bin compost heap (Bin #2 being slightly bigger than the other three). Also on the western side of the house is the bathroom.
The full bathroom would be on the second floor. There would be two toilets, one on either side of the sink. We would only use one toilet per year, and they would be rotated every year – either in late April or early May. (Perhaps some sort of locked cover could be used to make sure things keep running smoothly).
Basically, they’d be outhouse toilets with really secure lids.
Underneath, they’d be, well, closets, effectively. Each one would be a small room (but larger than the hole above them, obviously) with straw (or, more likely, shredded news paper) on the floor, and a door to the outside (locked). Each closet would be well ventilated by one (or more) good, always running fans (and probably some sort of air-filter on the way outside) and hooked up with a heat lamp.
Instead of a flusher, there would be a button that you press when you’re done – it would turn the heat lamp on for… 30 seconds? 60 seconds? ...Enough to deliver a blast of heat to the closet-room – which would be very well insulated – to help keep the compost working (“cooking”) even through the winter.
Depending on how the house was designed – for example if it were three half-stories instead of two full-stories (or something) – there could be a half-bath below (sort of) the full bath, with the toilets being directed into the same ‘closet’ rooms. I would like that. :-)
The bathroom(s) would have to be vacuumed fairly often because of the peat-moss or what-have-you that was getting dumped in by cup after every use. (Just a guess, mind you).
Inside the house, besides these crazy/illustrious bathrooms, there would be radiant heat floors that doubled as a tankless-hot-water system. Which I think would be cool, and I’ve heard is slightly more energy efficient than the kinds that use tanks. Awesome! :-)
I would like the house to be in a sort of Neo-Tudor meets field-stone farm house style. I would like bamboo floors (instead of hardwood), and/or tinted stone irregularly-shaped tiles. Possibly cork flooring in the rec. room. There would be a poured concrete floor in the garage (aka the store room, aka the soap-shop/workshop – which would have a stove in it, and be well insulated, but probably not heated – at least not with anything more than a space-heater and the above-mentioned stove). There would be a proper garden shed next to the compost bins, with a raised cement floor (possibly just cinder-blocks?) and slope at the door to make it easier to get the wheel barrow in and out. :-)
R2000 insulation, if not something even more energy efficient. I’d like to grow beans, or grapes, or morning glories, or *something* up the eastern (probably) side of the house, making some sort of leafy arbour thing that we could walk under: a nice stone path-way with babies’ tears as a ground-cover between the stones.
There would be no grass (aside from sweet corn, I mean). The ground would have a mixture of white Dutch clover, plantain, purselaine (which I can finally identify! Woohoo!) creeping thyme, mother of sage, mother of thyme, mosses, and other stuff like that there: Nothing that required mowing, and lots of stuff that smells pretty and/or can be eaten. :-)
Hrm... That's as far as I've gotten, so far. :-)
Your suggestions are appreciated. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
I've been thinking about a good eco-house of late. Just thinking.
See, Paul and I spent Saturday/Sunday up at his family cottage. It was fun. I went wading, and I went berry-picking (mostly blackberries, some blueberries) with Paul's mother and grandma. (That was awesome! I sang to the berries, adn they fed me! Yay! :-)
But, they have a composting toilet at their cottage.
I like it a lot.
So, I have been thinking: Is it possible to build a bathroom that has a composting toilet (see details, below), but that could be converted (as in has space inside the walls for the right kind of plumbing) into a non-compost-toilet bathroom without too much trouble. (I'm thinking in terms of selling the house later on, when Paul and I can't handle the stairs anymore).
Anyway. Here are the details.
Ideally, this would be built on a hill that sloped southward (possibly down to a creak or river, but that's not likely given that, in Ottaw, the River is North).
North-facing house, with a small, shady front yard.
Shade would be provided by:
2 Pine trees,
2 Cedar trees,
1 Sugar Maple
1 Mountain Ash
1 Lilac
2+ Honey Berries
(1 Service Berry and/or 1 Elder Berry)
With ostrich ferns, day lillies, and other shade-hardy, edible (or not -- hostas, for example), and at-lesat-slightly-ornamental plants growing underneath. There might also be a fountain, but not necessarily.
The front (north) half of the roof would be flat (and by flat, I mean with a 10 degree slope, but no more than that, for drainage purposes) and green -- covered with mostly creeping juniper, plus some low-bush blueberries and possibly more partridge berries. There would be a door up to the flat roof for harvesting purposes, most likely accessed via the livable attic.
The back (south) half of the roof would be almost perpendicular to the ground (a slope of 75-80 degrees) and would be covered in power-generator solar panels. (It would be nice if I could also use said solar panels as a way of heating our hot water -- see below -- but I don't know if you can use the same kind of panels to do both).
The back yard would, ideally, be a terraced (or terrace-able) hill-side (not too steap, but still a hill-side) that I could plant my HUGE Veggies and Fruits garden in.
On the eastern(?) side of the house, (but taller than the house, by a meter or so), and able to catch the wind coming up the slope, would be a bank of two (or maybe three) windmills, all mounted on a generator-shed where the batteries were stored and the maintainance could be done.
One the western side is the four-bin compost heap (Bin #2 being slightly bigger than the other three). Also on the western side of the house is the bathroom.
The full bathroom would be on the second floor. There would be two toilets, one on either side of the sink. We would only use one toilet per year, and they would be rotated every year – either in late April or early May. (Perhaps some sort of locked cover could be used to make sure things keep running smoothly).
Basically, they’d be outhouse toilets with really secure lids.
Underneath, they’d be, well, closets, effectively. Each one would be a small room (but larger than the hole above them, obviously) with straw (or, more likely, shredded news paper) on the floor, and a door to the outside (locked). Each closet would be well ventilated by one (or more) good, always running fans (and probably some sort of air-filter on the way outside) and hooked up with a heat lamp.
Instead of a flusher, there would be a button that you press when you’re done – it would turn the heat lamp on for… 30 seconds? 60 seconds? ...Enough to deliver a blast of heat to the closet-room – which would be very well insulated – to help keep the compost working (“cooking”) even through the winter.
Depending on how the house was designed – for example if it were three half-stories instead of two full-stories (or something) – there could be a half-bath below (sort of) the full bath, with the toilets being directed into the same ‘closet’ rooms. I would like that. :-)
The bathroom(s) would have to be vacuumed fairly often because of the peat-moss or what-have-you that was getting dumped in by cup after every use. (Just a guess, mind you).
Inside the house, besides these crazy/illustrious bathrooms, there would be radiant heat floors that doubled as a tankless-hot-water system. Which I think would be cool, and I’ve heard is slightly more energy efficient than the kinds that use tanks. Awesome! :-)
I would like the house to be in a sort of Neo-Tudor meets field-stone farm house style. I would like bamboo floors (instead of hardwood), and/or tinted stone irregularly-shaped tiles. Possibly cork flooring in the rec. room. There would be a poured concrete floor in the garage (aka the store room, aka the soap-shop/workshop – which would have a stove in it, and be well insulated, but probably not heated – at least not with anything more than a space-heater and the above-mentioned stove). There would be a proper garden shed next to the compost bins, with a raised cement floor (possibly just cinder-blocks?) and slope at the door to make it easier to get the wheel barrow in and out. :-)
R2000 insulation, if not something even more energy efficient. I’d like to grow beans, or grapes, or morning glories, or *something* up the eastern (probably) side of the house, making some sort of leafy arbour thing that we could walk under: a nice stone path-way with babies’ tears as a ground-cover between the stones.
There would be no grass (aside from sweet corn, I mean). The ground would have a mixture of white Dutch clover, plantain, purselaine (which I can finally identify! Woohoo!) creeping thyme, mother of sage, mother of thyme, mosses, and other stuff like that there: Nothing that required mowing, and lots of stuff that smells pretty and/or can be eaten. :-)
Hrm... That's as far as I've gotten, so far. :-)
Your suggestions are appreciated. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)
