Temporary Housing

[FrankInWI]

I think I have it figured out how to walk before I run in building on my land.  I can't afford the septic and building materials yet, but we want to enjoy the land with a few more immenities than our pop up trailer.  Turns out my county allows a building with a 200 sq ft or less footprint to be built without paying for a Land Use Permit. You have to have the Permit, but there is no fee.  My township just now started requireing Uniform Dwelling Code Permit (Building Permit), but I hope they won't want that on a "Minor Structure" as this is called.  
What to do with human waste is such a problem if you don't have a septic.  Solutions start at a thousand and go up quickly.  I'm going to leave up the pop up trailer, and have a potty attached to that with the haulable tank under that.  I can say it is the RV's potty.  Hope they buy that.  
Meanwhile I'll do a shack with a loft on the 200 sq ft footprint.   I'll rough out window opening, but just do screens for now.  I can't 'live in it", but for weekend stuff I bet we can get away with a lot....especially if we let the pop up stay.  I see a lean-to for a water heater, some temporary plumbing from my shallow well.  I also will run temporary electric.... a foot or so undergroung.  I need to move my electric and well to be closer to the eventual permanant home.  Feedback always welcome.

[Amanda_931]

You can still read the book on line in .pdf format, although I'd make sure I had the latest free version of Acrobat (7, I think) before I tried to download it.  But then I'm notorious for having trouble with Acrobat.

http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html

Jenkins is one of the few people who believes that you need a nitrogen source--urine--in the mix (and you may even then need to add water to your compost to get it to heat nicely).

Mine is this year.  But it still may not kill the tomato seeds.  Between me and the cats it takes about a year to fill up one of those store-boughten compost bins.  Let it set for a year after that, then put into the garden.  Might not want to grow carrots in it if you have cats.  I've certainly put kitchen compostables in there as well.  Soldier fly larvae just love watermelon rinds, and they are ugly but not harmful.

[jraabe]

Have you seen the other projects on the forum and website that are under 200sf?

Here's one:
http://countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=01;action=display;num=1118359039;start=0#0

Here's a free plan for a 14x14 layout:
http://countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=4;action=display;num=1114539248;start=0#0

Here's a direct link to the PDF: http://www.countryplans.com/Downloads/14x14.PDF

[JRR]

When I was a teenager working my way thru engineering school (co-op student), one of the "adults" that I worked with one summer, dug his own swimming pool ... by hand.  A full size olympic.  He started in late spring ... by early fall he was swimming in his gunnite pool.   He had money, so it wasn't a money thing.  He used the excuse that his back yard was "too closed-in" to get conventional digging machines back there.  But I think he just wanted to do it himself.  He weighed about 140 lbs soaking wet, but he had an athletic ego and muscular self-confidence.

I have often thought about the guy's pool project, when faced with a choice of putting out some money or putting out some extra physical effort.   His effort has helped me hand dig some rather extensive foundation footings and do other "grunt" jobs.  I've never dug a septic field, but I've dug many feet of ditch for sewer lines and underground services.

Of course, one needs one's good health ... and time ... and good weather.   And you still have to know what you're doing .... codes still have to complied with .... and holes can fall in.

Of course, if you know someone who is reasonably priced with his backhoe services ... why bother?   Put your efforts elsewhere.

Just a thought.  

[Amanda_931]

JRR's right.  When we were connected to the sewer in Nashville, the guy who did it thought about the possiblity of getting a machine into the back yard, thought "it would be faster just to dig the silly thing!" so he did.

But it's amazing how little water you need when you are hauling water.

A decent sand filter will probably do for all the grey water that you can't toss on the plants.

(mine is made of a biggish loader tire, bottom sidewall cut off, half buried in the ground, about half filled with sand, plumbing lines run into it.  What I always planned, but never did was to use the cut-off sidewall with a bit of something (left-over metal roofing, painted OSB, etc.  There's an upside-down stock tank there now.

The top surface of the sand gets green with organisms.  They are what help clean the water.  But once in a while they also clog the flow and you have to take off a layer.

Mind you, I wouldn't try to hand dig a septic tank in my (alleged) soil here.  It took me four or five hours to pound in one (supposed to be poundable) post bottom for a foundation for a portable building a couple of years ago--rock-hard silt and rocks.  Actually when someone else just put in a post a few feet away, I think it took less time.  But still.

[Woodsrule]

Hi Frank,

Sorry to be the master of the obvious, but it is permissible to have an outhouse on the land? I put one up last year on my slice of heaven in NH, and not only is it allowed, but town hall personnel were happy to give me a plan to do so.  We simply sprinkle lime after each use and there is virtually no odor.  Good luck, Tony

[hobbiest]

if you are locating your electrical less than 24". please use conduit.  Don't want to hear a bad story.

[FrankInWI]

I have high ground water (very close to the river) and they won't let me put in a out house unless it perked well enough for a conventional septic.  It doesn't, it rate for an at-grade mound septic ($8500).   So, no out house.

[JRR]

Ouch!

Well, it sounds to me as if the septic system is the very first thing to get under control.

If that doesn't "go" ... nothing else will.   And because it is so expensive, I would do everything possible/allowable as a DIY'r.

[glenn-k]

What about a composting toilet?  Allowed?

[FrankInWI]

yes, they drap you through the mud to qualify, but you can do a composting toilet.  I guess I get resistant to that cause it ends up costing a good Percent of what the septic will, which I will want in a few years anyway.  I'm just going to do the tank on the RV and haul it to town when filled.  That'll be good for a couple of seasons.

[spinnm]

I think you're wise Frank.  Better to wait on the septic until you're absolutely sure where the house footprint will be.

Otherwise the location of the existing septic might limit you.  

[spinnm]

Talk about topical!  Here's an interesting thing Frank.  Just today I'm chatting up a guy who's GCing his new house.

He puts in the septic first.  Then lays out the house, has the plumbing roughed in, concrete poured....never considering the septic. (slabs here).  So, last week he has the septic and the waste stub-out connected.  He's mad as a wet hen cause some of the drain line is on the surface.

Did you violate the First Law of Plumbing?  What's that?  It's 1/4" per foot and it doesn't run uphill.
Now, there are things that probably coulda been done.  Sounds like the plumber was punishing him.

[Amanda_931]

There is that.

I didn't realize that my trailer was going to sit so I couldn't drain into the septic tank--if I used it at all it had to be hauling truly nasty smelling buckets of what once was greywater.

So I had the inlet moved.  Right where the hill above washes stuff down on it.  And where it might eventually end up if I put a studio there.

One of these days I ought to find it again.