My husband bought me a bathroom today-a portable one- and guess where it is? He set it up right in the middle of the living room! See the porta-potty? In the living room? No,no, no. This is just a demonstration- we will definitely not be keeping a portable bathroom in our living room, no matter how convenient my husband believes it is!
It has a strap to hang a 6 gallon bag of water for showering in addition to a place for the porta-potty. Now, we have a camper and a really nice camper. It has a bed, sofa, table, full bathroom, refrigerator, etc. Unfortunately, it has become so expensive to operate between the price of diesel and low gas mileage that the truck gets. It has basically grounded us.
We do have a tent. I have to be upfront with you- I hate tent camping. It's uncomfortable and I do love my creature comforts. That's why we have a camper. Now he wants to do some tent camping with the neighbors and knows I want a bathroom plus I invariably have to go there after dark and I hate walking around campgrounds by myself late at night. It's spooky.
He thought this might satisfy my needs. The thought was good but really, this toilet is 11 inches off the ground. That's really short and I just don't know if I can do it. At least not without falling over. About 10 years ago a driver crossed the center line and hit me head on and caused the car behind him to veer off and go crashing down a hill through the woods, trees cracking all the way. Everyone was helicoptered to the hospital except for me. Although I had my seat belt on, I still hit the dash with both knees, breaking one. The guy had to be cut out of his car- no seat belt, no airbag and a low profile car. It took out everything under my car and sent me into a deep ditch. The result of this is my knee cap no longer nestles into the place it belongs plus there is nerve damage, not debilitating but causes problems. It is sort of part way out but the doctors didn't want to do the replacement until I was older and couldn't function. Anyway, I can't kneel or put much pressure on my knee without lots of pain. There is no way I can lower myself down to 11 inches!
I don't know what I will do about camping but I do appreciate that we have this, just in case we have a power outage. Out here if you don't have electric you also don't have water, so no toilets unless you have enough water stocked up. It can be part of our preparedness planning.
This was our old camper, but I wanted a bathroom. We sold this and purchased a travel trailer.
15 comments:
I'm walkin' through the livin' room and my wife, as always concerned about appearances, say, "Would you pick up the socks on the floor, just in case somebody comes over?" Of course, I leapt into action because, as anyone that knows us is well aware, I'll do whatever it takes to make Kathy happy.
But I had to wonder, given a choice between socks on the floor or a port-a-potty in a tent, which was it more likely our potential guests would notice?
That is a great port-o-potty! When we camped on the beach all we had was a box with a hole cut in the top and a flimsy tarp wrapped around it.
I will show this to my husband! I only like to tent camp on the beach because I love the breeze and listening to the ocean all night. I do want to purchase a camper like yours. We have been looking around. Thanks so much for the potty picture!
I hate to ask, and I may regret the answer, but where does the toilet dump into? LOL.
Congrats on your new "loo". I hope it's varmint-proof.
Manny: The toilet has a water holding tank on top (so it flushes) and a containment unit below. You do have to empty it and flush it out with a hose. If you are at a campground it can be emptied into a dump station.
Lisa: camping on the beach at the ocean would be great! I think you can get some pretty good deals on used campers. We purchased ours used and in almost perfect condition for about half the price. We didn't want anything too big, just enough for two.
Joyce: LOL, can you imagine zipping up the potty tent only then to discover you are not alone!
Tom: LOL. I'm glad we have the same goals in life! Somehow, knowing us, I don't think our friends would find it unusual in the least bit to see something strange in the middle of our living room!
I have leg and back issues, so I couldn't use the low potty,either, but I do have the bedside commode chair I saved when my great-aunt passed away. My idea has been to use it over a hole in the ground like an outdoor john, of a sort, preferably surrounded by an enclosure of some kind, if necessary. We live in a rural area, so we could do this in an emergency.
Thank you for sharing this! I have a pop up camper and always have to walk across the campground in the middle of the night if you know what I mean ;) I am showing my husband this.
I've been looking at those every time I go to walmart!
About your knee: My mom damaged both knees years ago and needed a replacement for years. Her doctor told her the same thing, that he wouldn't do it until she was "elderly," well, my mom went to a new doctor who did it. He uses a new system to replace the knee. It's safer than the old way and lasts much much longer, in fact he has yet to have a patient wear it out (he's been testing it for years).
Ask for a second opinion, there may be a knee surgeon near you that uses the new system.
Oh, thank you!
your portable bathroom looks like mine! we love tent camping tho :)
I'm glad you seem to like this one. My problem with tent camping is mostly discomfort- arthritis, bad knees and disc in my back, all made worse by the accident. The travel trailer made that all much easier. I hear I am getting a cot, before it's all been just sleeping on the ground or a terrible air mattress (very old type, the kind you might have in your swimming pool).
You live in the woods and still feel a need to go camping? That's like a doctor vacationing at the Mayo Clinic.
Kathy, they had a link at Yahoo or somewhere a couple of days ago to Whose Line Is It's offical website. I don't recall if it was a dotcom or dotnet or what, but anyway, they have every single episode available online free from both the UK and USA shows. I remembered that you were a fan too.
Here, I just searched for it.
http://whoselineonline.org
Hey, Thanks! I'll look that site up.
Oh yes, the camping- I joke that if we want something different we need to set up under some bridge in downtown STL!
Actually, the travel trailer, not the tent, was used more like a mobile hotel room except I knew the bedding was washed! We'd take a road trip and pull in somewhere like a state park or KOA. Easy in and easy out, just remove the leveling blocks and off we go. The tent thing- not so much.
My husband wants to camp on the river sand beaches or gravel bars out here for a weekend fishing trip and said he wanted me along. I like the beach idea, even the gravel bar but never had a good bathroom. It may be a little more important to girls. Sometimes there is brush, sometimes not, so this helps.
Kathy,
Great blog and post! :)
A couple suggestions - The tent looks really tall in comparison to the toilet. Could your dear hubby build a platform for the porta potty? With a door on it, on a hinge, this could also serve as extra storage.
Or if he makes it large enough it could be something on wheels to carry the porta potty in to make it easier to haul around.
As far as sleeping arrangements, those double high mattresses are pretty nice - very comfortable and relatively easy to get in and out of. I'm sure they'd be more comfortable then a cot. Of course, you need electricity to pump them up if you want to use the built in pump. Just make sure you put layers underneath you so you don't get cold from the air! :)
All the best to you!!
Katie
Thanks. I think he could make a stand for it. I don't really think we will be using this as a shower and even so, we could just move it over.
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