Shed of the year 2024, Sponsored by 
We recently bought a Shepherd's Hut for the small field behind our house in Devon. The house is rented out as we temporarily work away, but we love the area so much that we still wanted to come down and stay so although we had somewhere to sleep, we needed a toilet.I decided to build a composting loo, but the overall response when mentioned, is mild disgust (people need educating on this matter). I therefore decided to build the World's most luxurious composting loo, but also make it sympathetic to the environment and use as much recycled material as possible.The Loo was finally finished during the summer of lockdown and when we were permitted to travel, it provided the ideal, safe holiday retreat.
Designed to match the Shepherd's Hut and move when necessary, The Loo was built in a barn at a recently closed garden centre owned by a friend and used old wood from the site. The chassis was made from chunky timbers in his wood store; side panels and structure are mainly reclaimed outdoor plant benches and by good fortune the owner had a set of Victorian duck house wheels, an old glass panel door from which I made the small rear window, and he even had tins of bitumen and wood preserver used to weatherproof the chassis and hidden sides of the walls. Even the wiring came from a dusty old cable roll in the back of the barn. Almost all of the wood needed to have rusty screws removed and be sanded back to clean away years of weathering, which probably doubled the length of the job. The floor and storage (to keep sawdust, loo rolls, eco-friendly cleaning products and the electrics) lids are mahogany tongue and groove from an old gym (with court markings still visible) and left out in a front garden in Bristol. They were exchanged for eight bottles of Peroni! The loo seat came from a skip and the sink and stained glass window were from a reclamation yard. An old dumbbell weight and large bolt form the pivot for the axle to turn. The only new items are the roof, the interior tongue and groove, wood mouldings, a tin of Cuprinol Jasmine Garden Shades stain/preserver, a few bits of plumbing and ironmongery and a motorcycle battery ' any other fittings came from eBay and the cherubs and mirror were from a charity shop. I have since also bought a solar panel to recharge the battery.In terms of cost, I paid my friend approximately £300 for materials and wheels (all of which he needed rid of) and to use space in his barn. The other big costs were the antique sink (£120), roof (£60) stained glass window (£25) and approx. £70 on other bits and pieces.
