So, I live and work in a ‘green’, semi sustainable workshop space that was a shell of a buliding in which I built water systems, heat, and toliet/shower…..
The place is a ‘workshop’ basically, a commercial space that I use for my art/music studio and to live in. The place is in rural Colorado, no address (not on the city’s map), it was a shell building, a large garage basically…the house/studio is heated with a west bay door that opens to a homeade acrylic glass window that in the morning let’s the east sun in for heat, there is also 3 large south facing windows for all day passive solar heat, the ‘running water’ is all carried in (usage is around 5 gallons per day or less) and the sink is made from a water container with a spigot attached (properly) with hose clamps and gasket.
I fill the sink with water as needed but it runs on gravity, the toilet is a composting toilet inspired by the humanure compost toilet system, so I use either peat moss or good pine sawdust for cover material, I also have another toilet just for urine (number 1), the shower is a little less luxurious and is a large plastic basin that I use either a hung solar shower or water jugs with holes drilled in them. I have a small copper quartz heater for at night mostly and a wood stove for heat, the studio is about 1000 sq ft (so not exactly tiny), (but not a large ‘house’ either).
Everything is made from recycled materials, thrift shop finds (again recycled) or things I built myself, such as the toilet made from a vintage end table and one from a coal stove, the sink basin was free at a yard sale, and drain into a 5 gallon bucket in which I take to my grey water area, and the toilets are put into the compost piles.
I live/work in here (work mainly 😉 ) (it is zoned commercial), and it serves as a small living space, kitchen, bedroom(s) (2 beds and a nice sofa sleeper), and the rest of the space is my art (furniture, instruments, jewelry, audio sculpture…(all functional but still decorative), and my music studio, I play music live all over in Colorado. I release records on labels and our own record label and tour off and on. It is definitely a space well used!
All the best,
Matthew Hunzeker