Showering in the open air is one of life's most delicious pleasures. We've had an outdoor shower in the 10-Year Plan pretty much since its inception – 11 years ago. And this summer, we finally made it a reality.
We determined its location early on, and a few years ago when we 'improved' the apron around the downstairs of the house, TJ moved a massive flat stone into place as the base for the shower, surrounded by a healthy layer of crushed stone for drainage. Early in the spring we let our plumber know this was the year; he put it on his schedule, but since it was a non-essential, it took low priority in his line-up. TJ was at the point of scheming with one of his buddies to try and install it himself when we got the call that we were scheduled in. Half a day running lines, drilling the concrete foundation wall, re-routing the exterior hose hookup.
It's a bit fancier than we had in mind, but it has its upside: when winter comes, the whole unit lifts off the wall for storage, and the lines back at the pressure tank are fitted with Schrader valves in addition to the levered shut-off valves. The lines can be evacuated with a bicycle pump for frost-free wintering over.
Given our location away from the road and strategically screened from our one neighbor, there's no need for a surround or enclosure of any kind. The garden and whole of the adjacent forest and sky are our shower stall. Some huge slabs of white marble culled from the slag pile at the Danby quarry not far from here protect the foundation from splashback. TJ found an old standing coat rack at the dump, which conveniently holds towels and oddments of clothing; he got a scrap of mirror at our favorite old-school hardware store and mounted a small shelf to hold his shaving kit and some shampoo bottles.
It's gotten hot again here, and this evening after dinner I needed a good hosing-down. So while TJ cleaned up the dinner dishes, I slipped out in the dark for a brilliant shower – the stars were just starting to blink on, and a bright half-moon peeked through the trees. Serenaded by the chirring of the crickets and the dog barking off whatever current bogey is encroaching (bear, we think), I stood and let my private summer rainstorm wash away the day's grime, the week's work frustrations, and life's free-ranging angst.
Beautiful blog. And a lovely write-up of outdoor shower bliss - it is what I miss most when we are away from our home in the woods of Vermont.
Posted by: Elin | 26 August 2012 at 11:08