Many questions on a structure I might convert into a home. homestead

There is this structure on land we are looking at purchasing. It was used as a grow house. It's a metal building with waterproof insulation sprayed on the outside. The foundation and the building is solid, though, obviously it looks weird on the outside and very industrial on the inside (though my wife has seen many home designs using industrial styles and thinks she can make the inside look nice)

Here is what I have to work with:

• 3x 800 sq ft metal buildings connected together.


• It has working electricity with outlets in many places inside and out


• It has faucets multiple faucets (think water faucets you connect a hose to) inside and out


• it has a a concrete floor with drainage (remember this was a grow house) that leads behind the structure down the hill (The grass on the hill looks beautiful)


• It has lighting, but I'll being replacing the awful florescent lights.


• It has vents


• There is a small water heater, not sure if it works, but at the very least the plumbing is there.

It pretty much has everything I need to live, however, even though the outside will look terrible, we are confident we can make the inside enjoyable.

What we have and what we are confident we can do on our own:

• We will be fully furnished, and we have a refrigerator and a freezer


• There are no windows, though the metal isn't so thick that we can't easily cut holes for windows, skylight, and put in a window AC/heater in each section. *We can purchase a stove, a clawfoot tub, sinks, toilet and anything else we need

Here are my questions, and they are primarily all plumbing related

Drainage for sinks, tub, shower, and toilet:

I know the obvious answer is simply go septic, and that is an option, I'm simply wondering if there is something different.

I'm hoping that drilling into the foundation can be avoided thus most of the work can be done by my friends and I and I can just place all plumbing devices against the wall, and go through the wall.

For the toilets, I've looked up Sun Mar and Biolet Composit toilets.

• This turns waste into compost, which will take care of that. My wife wanted me to ask if anyone has experience with either of these models. They evaporate the moisture, so I assume a bidet attachment could work with this if you are conservative with the water, also, if these don't flush, is there always lingering feces in the bowl?

Running piping from the faucets the the appropriate locations for the sink/tub/shower shouldn't be that difficult or at least expensive if I have a plumber do it, though is there any danger to having all the piping exposed on the inside of the house (elevating them out of reach of course)?

Lastly, simple grey water options? If we are moving away from dishwasher, garbage disposal, and don't need to dispose of human waste, all that will be left to drain are the sinks, tubs, showers, and washing machine.

Do I need an expensive septic system for this or are there other options like a few 50 gallon drums placed to reuse most of the water later on the land (We plan on moving to nontoxic, environmentally friendly soaps)

If there is anything else I'm forgetting please free to bring it up.

Submitted February 10, 2015 at 02:31AM by imnotgoodwithnames http://ift.tt/1zQ4JpF homestead