The Question

At our cottage we have finally upgraded from an outhouse to indoor plumbing. What should we do with the old outhouse: Have it cleaned out, or just leave it be? Some of our (male) family members want to keep using it.

—Pat Hennessey

The Answer

Why do guys love outhouses so much? We don’t get that. But actually, they could be on to something. It’s not a bad idea to keep the biffy functional for an emergency. What if you go up in the winter and you can’t turn on the water system? What if you have a big crowd over for the weekend and the septic rebels?

Maybe you’re adamant that no one, under any circumstances, will be using that outhouse ever again. You don’t have to pump it out, move it, or tear it down (we assume it already complies with government rules about placement, building design, and so on). But if you leave the structure standing, you should keep it in good repair. If it deteriorated so much that it could be considered unsafe, your building department could make you fix it up or remove it, under the authority of the Ontario Building Code.

 

 

 

I've been going to my family's cottage on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park since about age four. My strongest memories of summers there include 1) keeping a leech as a pet (not successful); 2) performing a live re-enactment of the Nintendo video game "Super Mario Brothers" (also not successful); 3) assembling a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle called "Bear House"(technically still not successful, three pieces were missing). Now I love going to the lake to swim, hike, and spend time with family.

 

At Cottage Life, I'm the assistant editor. I edit the Waterfront section, write the Cottage Q&A column, and do a lot of fact-checking. Every day I learn a ton about cottaging, but not enough to complete a jigsaw puzzle.