Rebuilding the "Outdoor Rinsing Station" aka the outdoor shower

Over the winter, the outdoor shower, which was poorly built to begin with, took quite a beating from the wind. One night I could hear banging with every big gust. I thought the door had come unlatched again but when I looked out, I realized that pieces of the siding had come loose and were swinging in the wind. The support pieces had rotted and the screws were no longer holding the siding to it. Eventually one fell off and more came loose. With every gust of wind, it sounded like someone was falling down the stairs. It was clearly time to do something about it. 

We have been talking about fixing or replacing it since we bought the house seven years ago. It was another half-assed attempt gone wrong courtesy of the previous owner. The plumbing is backwards - hot is cold and cold is hot, the narrow wooden temporary flooring sits directly on top of the brick patio which allows the slugs to hang out underneath and crawl up while you are showering (EWWWW!!!!) making it impossible to relax and enjoy the shower, and the door is attached to a post that sits on the patio with no support so it leans in when the door isn't closed, out when the wind blows and nearly knocks you over if you don't pay attention to the swing. It's also far too small, has no proper place to sit and shave your legs or dry off, and the only place to hang a towel that feels semi-clean is over the door. 

So... A few weeks ago I sat down with a ruler and a pencil and drafted a larger, more useful, more lovely space for what visitors often consider to be the best room in our house. A was on board and drew up the technical specs (I love having a handy husband!).

So in preparation for two whole days off together over the weekend, off we went to our spring home-away-from-home, Home Depot, and stocked up on all the goods. Then A had homework due so while he studied I went out and took down the old enclosure - tearing it all down took me less than ten minutes! I removed everything except the plumbing. I don't do plumbing... That's A's job!

Here are a couple of "before" pictures:

And here are a couple of "during" photos:

The construction would have gone more smoothly had A gotten some sleep before we went to purchase the materials but he'd worked an overnight double and might not have been thinking entirely clearly. After hauling all of the lumber around from the driveway to the construction area, A realized that he had made some minor miscalculations and we were short three 4"x4"x8' posts, one 2"x6"x8' boards and four joist hangers. Having made design changes on the fly didn't help in calculating either. Not a big deal since we are lucky enough to have a lumber yard 10 minutes from the house. 

Once we had completed the shopping, we were on a roll! On day one we got the posts and frame set, the deck built, and all of the decking cut and installed. Day two will include cross-bracing the frame and updating the plumbing. We've had some very cool ideas for how to plumb this thing - rustic but eclectic!

Day three will involve a trip to the saw mill over the bridge at some point this week as we priced out rough cut pine and found it to be less than half the price directly from the mill. Yahoo! The other half of day three will include staining the boards and installing them. 

Days 5 & 6 will be working on the art pieces that will make this shower incredibly unique! I can't wait to see how my vision comes to life!

This is an old window that will be part of the privacy screen. I'm happy with how they are coming out!

Okay... The reality of life prevented us from finishing the outdoor shower before early July but aside from the hunt for a couple more themed towel hooks, it's done! We absolutely LOVE it! 

Here are the "after" pictures. 

The "riptide door" from the outside. We realized it was a tad short and you could see in from the living room so we added another row of waves going the opposite way... Hence the riptide. 

Finished privacy window. They are designed so that when we move, we will take these with us and replace them with boards or less personalized windows. 

The rustic plumbing. Notice the rain shower head above and the shiny thing at the bottom right is the top of the handheld wand - perfect height for dog washing. 

Opposite the door, the "privacy waves" which may some day be replaced with more privacy windows. 

On the right is the shower curtain that gets pulled across to keep the hanging towels etc dry. On the left is a shelf where I like to put my bluetooth speaker and phone for some shower tunes. 

Very important feature is the broom... Spiders like taking up residence and I don't share well with spiders. They ARE better than the slugs that used to crawl on my feet in the old shower though! Oh... And on the right is another privacy window. 

One of the cool things is that the two smaller windows are from A's family's cottage in Eastham and as I was varnishing them, I saw A's grandfather's name written in pencil on the side. I like to imagine that he wrote it there 50+ years ago. 

And... Looking up. Wisteria and "old" fishing buoys. Trees and blue sky. So lovely!

Overall it was a relatively easy project with me as the designer and A as the engineer, architect, plumber, and carpenter. We make a great team! And yes... We are for hire! :-)