OFFGRID BATHROOM WAS EASY TO CONSTRUCT

Ron built the concrete wall in our offgrid bathroom to enclose the shower area. It is reinforced with rebar and concrete in first and last column.

Ladies, if you thought you could not do construction work, start with a small job. I was nervous about doing the offgrid bathroom by myself.

Ron measures, nails, and can think things through better than I do. Why?

Because he has done it more often. That's all!

I wanted to be a part of our home building process. The outer wall was stuccoed with Quickwall (fiberglas reinforced stucco) and painted it. The inner wall was not stuccoed because it would have made it difficult to put on the ceramic tile.

I cut the green board for the offgrid bathroom in half to make it easier for me to handle. I measured the distance from the wall to the center of the shower lever and cut the hole with a sheet rock knife in the green board. Green board is a moisture resistant drywall. I attached the green board with drywall screws and recessed them.

I cut a 2" x 4" the length of the wall to the shower base. This was my starting point. I wanted to use as many whole tiles as possible. I used 12" x 12" ceramic tiles that are a neutral color and a tile mastic to adhere to the wall and wrapped it around the shower leaving the south side open for the door. This took several days because I needed to let the mastic dry.

I cut the tiles with a hand tile cutter.

Once the mastic was dry, I mixed sand colored grout to fill in between the tiles. I wiped off as much grout as possible with the float trowel as I went along making it easier to clean off. Waiting until the grout is firm, with a large sponge with as little water as possible.

I wiped in circular motions to remove the excess grout. Wiping straight down gives the grout a lined surface. I did this in 2 x 4 ft sections. If I did too much at one time I had difficulty removing the excess grout. This needs to cure for 24-48 hours.

Then I applied a sealer on the grout. Let it dry for 24 hours and reapplied. This is a pain on a vertical surface, but necessary so the grout did not leak.

I selected a 36" unfinished bi-fold door which I stained and urethaned. This allowed wall space inside the offgrid bathroom we would not have had with a regular door.

The bathroom sink cabinet is very slender and narrow with the bowl protruding out. I wanted some cabinet space but did not want the entire wall filled. The toilet is a 1.5 gal flush. Not the conservation we wanted offgrid but good on water savings.

The rest of the walls in the offgrid bathroom are satin beard board. It looks like wainscoating but comes in a 4' x 8' sheet.

When building in a small community offgrid, you should expect waiting for materials or the possiblity of not being able to get what you need to complete a job if you miscalculate the amount that you need. The next shipment came in 2 months later. It dries and curls very quickly and is a little difficult to put up. The finish nails that I had were too long and pounding them in every stud and down every 12 inches to keep it flat was time consuming. But I like the results.

Both of our two offgrid bathrooms measure 5 1/2' x 10 '. The bathroom in our off grid home is not yet complete, but when it is it will be quite nice.

After this experience I forced myself to get over my fear of nail guns. I bought a compressor that came with three small pneumatic guns. I was very careful.

The last sheet I put up with a brad nailer. Took me a couple of minutes instead of several hours.

I was getting confident, I bought a framing nailer.

Guest Bathroom