Eric- They actually are for building a solar hot water collector (drainback type system). I still want to build one (considering its free hot water for 5 months of the year). This is just a temporary spot. I'm tempted to put it in the driveway (huge driveway here) on 4x4 posts. If/When i buy a 12x20 hoop house, that will cover most of the bed in the above pic. I'll till in the wood chips, add some black dirt and lay down pavers for walking on. I like wood chips (they are free!), but they really hold the bugs and they don't allow the soil to warm up that well (they seem to have an insulation effect. They do an excellent job of suppressing weeds, however.

Rainhead. The term "rainhead" has sort of been corrupted over the years. You really need to feel the output yourself and figure out what type you prefer. In my own shower I wanted a traditional rain head. Simple water droplets, so to speak. Mine is a 12" head, and I do consider that to be the smallest size for a decent rain shower, and without a doubt, that is my personal opinion. You want the head away from the wall, so if you have a large rainhead, consider a bracketed or support arm of some sort, the added support can come from the wall or from the ceiling. Something along the lines of this: For your hand shower, have a hose long enough so you can spray down the corners of your shower. Body sprays. The same. Good showrooms have spray displays where you can feel the spray of water. Once upon a time I was intrigued by body sprays, Then I tried them and thought them to be the silliest thing ever. Some folk put in two heads, stacked vertically, one one wall. It's a little more common to want four body heads. Usually on two opposing walls, stacked vertically. You don't want them spraying towards the door. Usually chest and waist height, so figure that out when plumbing. You will have to figure out flow and hot water supply issues, from your water heater to the shower drain. Shower supply valves allow a certain amount of "pass through". You need to make sure each valve can actually supply the water needed to feed the heads that you want it to supply, or you could end up with insufficient flow. With body sprays, I recommend a "loop" supply to feed them, so the last head has pretty much the same flow as the first head. For your shower drain, it needs to be sized to the number of heads you have in the shower. Doesn't matter if only a few of them can or will be on at one time. It's a simple counting of the shower heads. A 2" drain can accomodate a shower with up to three heads. With four or more heads, plan on two 2" drains or a single 3" drain. If your plumber says you don't need to upsize to a 3" drain with four or more heads, he's not complying with code. If you want a "car wash" shower with five or six heads going at once? Your half inch pipe may not be adequate. Sure, with adequate feed pressure behind it it might be able to feed all those heads. But high water velocities through the tubing can actually erode copper from the tubing, potentially resulting in leaks. It's not just a matter of the 1/2" tubing being able to supply the needed water volume. You can crank up the water pressure and get volume. But cranking up the pressure to get the volume increases the water's velocity through the tubing, and again, too high of a "feet per minute" flow through the tubing can actually erode the tubing away. So do be wary if your "contractor" tries to soft talk away all of your concerns. Half-inch supply tubing can work. But it should work because your shower was designed to work with 1/2" tubing, not because, as your contractor told you, "everybody else is doing it". You can help yourself by drawing out a diagram of your shower. Doesn't have to be fancy. Each body spray and each shower head will have a GPM rating. Same with each valve. Make sure the valves and/or diverters that feed those heads can pass through the needed volume of water. Very basic numbers here, but 1/2" can comfortably flow about 5gpm. For hot and cold, that's 10gpm combined. For a comfortable temp out of the shower valve, that gets derated to about 7.5gpm of shower-temperature water. If your body sprays are 1.8GPM, four sprays is 7.2gpm for the body spray set only. You can figure different GPM combinations. Then figure that GPM out of your water heater to see how long your heater can maintain shower temperature. Oh lord. I need coffee...good luck! Edit: I never proof read this after posting it. Egads. Edited to clean up the weird formatting too. This post was edited by mongoct on Tue, Oct 21, 14 at 17:47

This volunteer Eastern Red Cedar was less then a foot from my parent's house. I think a lot of folks here are way to paranoid about trees close to houses...but that was a bit much even for me. After it was moved closer to the driveway I put some solar powered Christmas lights on it. Here is a link that might be useful: Former Location of Tree

For Karen - my tent is approx 70cm wide by approx 70cm deep by 160cm tall. I use two 20watt heatmats in the base connected to a thermostat and run it at about 88-90 degrees. Originally it was about 95-98 degree but turned it down a while back and everything is fine and dandy in there. I have 2 Mars lights in it, a double at the bottom and a single up top. Egg crate in the base so that heat does not get trapped by pots sitting on it so the crate create the space needed for the heat to flow and escape. Also I use one fan for air circulation. This is just how I do it, it works pretty good for me. I also have the vent on one side and the roof open very slightly all the time.