Outhouse Repurposed

The Outhouse (circa 1907)

I inherited a portion of my great-grand parentsfarm several years ago.  The inheritance included their house, a red brick/block tobacco barn, a couple of silos, a few other buildings used on the farm, some acreage and this outhouse.  The century old outhouse had seen better days.  After many years of restoring the craftsman style house and tending to the grounds and other buildings it was time to rescue the out house.  Fortunately, it had been constructed of  block and hadn't rotted away as had most of the other buildings. 

The outhouse hadn't been used in a long time and had become a trash bin over the years.  Adding scrap plywood kept critters out and ended the trash collection.

Outhouse Rescue

I kept old tires on the top to keep the unsecured tin from blowing away.  The roof was made with wood and tin but after a 100+ years it was severely weathered. It would need to be the first thing to go!

It's A Dirty Job!

I had been in overdrive the past year preparing the farm for my daughter's vow renewal ceremony.  The outhouse was the fifth project on the "Must Complete" list.  We were just a few weeks shy of the ceremony and time was definately "of the essence." On this particular day while I was painting the newly converted "hay loft to garage", I asked my daughter to start cleaning out the outhouse...now this was a nasty, filthy and yucky, dirty job and she was not very enthused to say the least!  But next to me she cleans better than anybody I know, so I knew it would be done to my satisfaction. She wasn't very happy about it but she's a trooper and she handled it.

Off With the Old Roof

My son-in-law, Israel and grandson, Jakob were a tremendous help in taking the rotten wood off the outhouse.

It was very exciting to see the outhouse being cleaned up...I was so excited to watch the transformation.

Outhouse Deep Cleaning

I had painted the outhouse a couple of months earlier in anticipation of the conversion.  I gave it a thorough cleaning with the pressure washer, both inside and out.

Outhouse Conversion

After removing two large trash bins with outhouse trash and cleaning the bottom we were ready to add some lime and dirt to fill in and build up the floor. Thanks to my brother for all the clay we used to fill in the bottom.

Outhouse Remodel

The outhouse was clean and ready for the new construction.

Concrete Floor

After adding dirt to the floor a few weeks earlier it was time to put in a concrete floor.

It was an all day project for us two gals.  The concrete was heavy...

...the shoveling and troweling was heavy...

...but the end result was well worth all the work.

We etched a heart and date in the new concrete floor of the outhouse shed .

New Outhouse Shed Roof

The outhouse shed started taking shape once the roof was built.  I wanted the roof pitch, the soffit and the gable to match the house and hay loft garage.

Outhouse Shed Door

A carpenter friend, Bronford Jr. did an awesome job building the roof.  It was two weeks before the wedding when I approached him to put the roof on and he wasted no time in getting it done.  It's very hard to find anyone to work on old houses let alone an outhouse...so I'm really thankful that he helped me out on this project.  I built the door since I figured it would be fairly easy to build and I wanted it to mimic the house and hay loft garage door.

Pieces of cinder block were missing from the sides of the door frame so I added the 1 X 6's until I can go back in and fill in those areas with morter.

Shingles & Soffit

How exciting to see the old outhouse getting new shingles and soffit on a former shed style tin roof.

The Outhouse Shed

I just want to say thank you to all my family and friends for their help with this project.  It is a super cute feature on my farm and provides additional storage space.

The outhouse shed was finished for the vow renewal ceremony.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of her by the newly transformed outhouse.

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