Batman's Toilet

I'm a Solar Decathlon groupie. The Solar Decathlon is an event held every few years (Oct '02, Oct '05, and returning in Oct '07) where college students from all over the country, and a few places outside, build houses that function off of the grid. They have to fit within certain dimensions, but aside from that anything goes. Once the house is built it is shipped to Washington, DC and setup on the Mall for ~10 days. They're then judged on comfort, energy use, climate control, engineering and some other subjects. And when not being judged they're open for public tours. Plan now to be in DC for the Oct. 2007 show.

For my eventual rear deck I tried to get some lumber I saw used in one house, but it turned out to be a special material invented by the students and not yet on the market. Based on what I saw there I'm trying to use foam insulation to insulate my house. I'll be doing the floor of my second story over in bamboo and plan for one wall to be bamboo that I'll stain in a design.

I also saw this toilet in several houses.

It has two buttons for flushing. One for solids and one for liquids. After all, you don't need as much water for a midnight trip to the bathroom that you might need for a post-Thanksgiving overload. So that's what I told my contractor that I wanted if he found it necessary to dispose of the old toilet.

He called me yesterday and said that he got one from Kohler (I'm almost certain that's what he said) but it won't be delivered until next week. Sure, why not. It's already been two weeks more than expected. I've worked this patch of loop carpet into something almost as soft as cement. So what's another week?

I had to go out to Kohler's website to see what they have. Turns out they only have the one model of dual flush toilet and it goes for the low, low price of only $900. Even their cheap models are $450. Granted, I've never bought a toilet before so I'm not too sure what they generally go for, and Kohler is one of the bad mamma-jammas of the bathroom fixture world, but for $900 I feel it should also wipe my butt and thwart the Joker's latest evil scheme.

I better not ever have to jiggle the handle.

More of my pictures from the 2005 Solar Decathlon can be seen here thanks to Wayne "Danger" Stout.