My wife and I do a lot of traveling by road trip to bring our pup along. And because of that, we keep toying with the idea of buying a van. Recently while talking to a friend with a van they made the point that we should nix a Mercedes Sprinter from our list completely. His point? That we not only live somewhere remote – but often travel to remote places. And how many small towns in America have a Mercedes dealership (vs. Ford)? The same sort of logic can be applied when choosing fixtures for your cabin.

A tangent I hope illustrates the overarching theme here. For example, when you consider what electrical panel – a trump card should be how easily you can source and service it. If you’re building and living in a rural area there’s a very good chance that your local hardware store will only carry one brand of breakers. To our credo – we’re looking for simple, durable, and resilient.

Cabin Plumbing & Electrical Fixtures

There’s a very good chance that you’ll have to bring faucets, toilets, light fixtures, and the like in from far-away places. Build.com has a huge selection of quality fixtures and offers free shipping. That said, there are still a few considerations that should guide your search.

• Fixture selection should guide your kitchen design.
• Look for models that use standard replacement parts. Almost every hardware store carries things like a “universal toilet repair kit”. Mainstay brands like Moen, Delta, and WAC offer good customer support and vast parts libraries that can be shipped to you. Just make sure you buy from an authorized dealer (like Build.com) to ensure you have a warranty and support.
• If you’re on a well consider higher-grade fixtures as the minerals can be hard on fixtures and/or installing a filtration system to extend the life of fixtures.
• Choose high-efficiency fixtures to save water. In addition to preserving your well or cistern, it’s also better for your septic system. See our guide on septic upkeep for more information.
  • Choose dual flush, high-efficiency toilets to reduce water use.
  • Use faucet aerators and high-efficiency showerheads to reduce water use.
• LED lighting is ubiquitous now – and mostly required by code. That said, there are a lot of LED fixtures out there that have non-replaceable bulbs or use a completely proprietary bulb system. Avoid these or buy extras now so you can replace them when the time comes.
• Lighting can be categorized as task, ambient, and accent lights. The use of wafer lights is largely flying in the face of any kind of decent lighting design. The Pretty Good House includes a great guide to lighting design worth reading.
• Go to your closest place to buy circuit breakers and see what they stock, and then design your electrical system around that. If they stock Square D – then use Square D panels, breakers, surge protectors, etc.