THE JOYS OF RENOVATING: COULD YOU LIVE WITHOUT A TOILET, BATHROOM + LAUNDRY?

Having no toilet, bathroom or laundry is such joy when there is a household of sick people. When we knocked down the old lean-to attached to the beach cottage, we really didn't have a choice. It's where the extension goes. In fact, it wasn't how our renovation was going to go at all. But when a building permit doesn't come through as you planned (and oh how we planned!), everything has to be done differently. Instead of extending first and then moving into the extension, we renovated the original cottage while living in it until the building permit came through. This means living without basic amenities for around six weeks (we are two weeks into it, so far).

Last night my sweet friend Kellie was imagining how embarrassing it is to visit the public toilet when you're sick...


"What do you do? Take a bucket and Glen 20 with you? MORTIFYING!"

Her visuals were good. But it wasn't that bad. After all, I had a stash of my own 3-ply toilet paper, plus some soap on tap hidden between the toilet cubicles. I may have also mentioned that I'm on first name basis with the toilet cleaners, and they've seem me in my jammies. She guessed it wouldn't take long before I was making myself really at home by placing those smelly reeds soaking in essential oils on each toilet cistern, and possibly a doll whose crocheted dress covers the toilet roll.

I guess I will have to know when to draw the line.

Right now, while it's not as easy as having these rooms in our home, it does have its advantages. I get to walk more, and there's more excuses for an outing. (Even if it's to the public toilet.) Assuming there is no queue, I'm able to get all my washing done in under an hour. Three loads from dirty to clean and dry, thanks to the laundromat's six super-sized washing machines and four huge dryers. There's time to actually read the magazines and books I have loaned from the library while waiting for the loads to finish (at the same time!). Also, we are all clean by 6:15pm each evening, thanks to our nightly visit to the caravan park to shower. We are all in our jammies for dinner, and in bed early.

But, I need to be super organised to be sure that I squeeze in the extra visits out of the home, and have dinner ready before we head off to the caravan park to get clean. The laundromat is visited before and after school drop off so the washing is done early in the day. I need to be sure that there is entertainment/snacks for my four year old while we are at the laundromat so he's not finding destructive things to do. I'm not quite able to coordinate toilet trips so it works for everyone, and there are times when I wish I was a boy too. (The late night visits to the toilet aren't fun at all, especially when it's windy and raining.)

At the end of tossing up the pros and cons, I must say that living life without a toilet, bathroom and laundry is much easier than thinking about doing it.

Do you think you could live without a toilet, bathroom and laundry? How long do you think you could do it?