Boilet? Tink? Call it what you will, Ryan Gushulak’s commodal hybrid solves the space crunch in his tiny cottage loo. After hearing about biffy-basin combos from Europe and Australia, the Tee Lake, Que., cottager crafted his own with a thrift-store salad bowl, a discarded wooden mantelpiece, and a gnarly limb of driftwood. First, he cut a hole in the bowl, caulked a drain and strainer in place, and mounted it to the mantelpiece, now serving as the toilet tank lid. Next he replaced the toilet’s refill tube (normally clipped into the overflow pipe) with longer tubing, running it through the lid and up behind the driftwood “spigot.” When the toilet flushes, clean water, which would normally be directed straight down the overflow tube into the toilet bowl, shoots from the spigot into the basin. “It runs until the tank fills—lots of time to lather up and rinse off,” Gushulak says. Meanwhile, soapy water drains through the overflow pipe into the toilet bowl, where it’s hardly noticeable. It’s hygienic—and fun. “When kids go in, I hear them flushing the toilet a couple of times, because they think it’s so cool. At least it encourages them to wash their hands.”
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