This is the bathroom from the Kupa property. The bathroom is in the guest cabin and set back to the right in the first image. The box on top is a 'batch heater' for water, meaning the sun heats a tank within an insulated box for showering, particularly in the afternoon when the sun has been on it all day. Inside, the sink is recycled from an older tear-down. The toilet is composting with the 'works' below the building. The metal can is not for trash, but rather wood chips to add to the toilet. The shower is a step-in and uses left over tiles. I made the stained glass windows from, well, used pieces. The washing machine is a Staber, which was great (US made, low water use, easy to fix machine). Drawing of buckwheat. One small solar panel and a few batteries created the power.
Down side- no heat. It took a walk to get there, but that was by design. I wanted to keep us active. When I injured my knee and had a hard time getting down the hill, it occurred to me that it could be a problem to not have a toilet in the main house. No early morning showers unless it's summer. It was shocking to hear the joke about, 'if you need boots and a flashlight to go to the bathroom, you might be a redneck'.
Down side- no heat. It took a walk to get there, but that was by design. I wanted to keep us active. When I injured my knee and had a hard time getting down the hill, it occurred to me that it could be a problem to not have a toilet in the main house. No early morning showers unless it's summer. It was shocking to hear the joke about, 'if you need boots and a flashlight to go to the bathroom, you might be a redneck'.
This is the kitchen from the main building at Kupa. It was once featured in the Natural Home and Garden Magazine. The first image shows the door to the shower/bathroom (no toilet) with a crazy door knob and a chopstick that holds it closed. I tried to bring as much natural light into the dark bathroom as possible. The sculpture is a self portrait (holding one of my long white hairs, lighted which can be seen on image #3). Propane stove. Ikea cabinets. The odd light over the stove is a dental surgery lamp. The Conserve fridge has two compressors to shut one down in the cloudy winter if not needed, a great feature for solar power. The kitchen table was called the 'table of cooperative participation'. There is a drawer in the middle that could go both ways. One person needed to ask the other to push it. During arguments, it was so tempting to give it a shove. Drip water filtration (Katadyn) for the well water. The not much used toaster (lots of energy drawn) is near a clay tablet that we embedded into a concrete counter top as an in-place cutting board. The concrete was mortar actually, with a bees wax coating. All stains graciously accepted as evidence of a great meal.
This is a remodel of a guest room now into a guest room/yoga studio. Cork flooring is quiet, soft, beautiful and sustainably harvested. A futon is sofa and bed. Left corner is a glass art piece. To the right of it is an Eye Chanting piece (click on Eye Chanting button to learn more). Little plant was a give away down the street.
This is one element of a bathroom remodel (called the Re-noodle). Please see blog for the full story about environmental designing. I made this sink out of concrete from a mold that I constructed. It is an inverted sculpture.
It is a joy to look at every day in its brut-ish industrial ways.
It is a joy to look at every day in its brut-ish industrial ways.