Most important features in a new prepper home

[ladyhk13]

The biggest problem people have is there thinking on the whole underground home is the following areas

-1- getting the bank to loan out money to build it .That why i went into my personal 401k & job retirement fund and took money out of it for the project and the basic reason why i do not have to worry about paying for it when i'm old

-2-is getting there head wrap around the fact that you are underground and living in the place that has limited exprouse to the daytime sunlight .Most people can not or will not fuction well in this type of living conditions .that why i say it take's a special person to live in one .

It was pure dumb crazy luck that i found a tank in the middle of Kansas that a company there had made for someone else who did not pick it up from them for a year and they where saling it for the cost of building it and little more .

I do have a simple verison of the mud room set up with a small bult in metal brench with coat hooks on the wall and a rack for shoes .I have a set of indoor shoes that i wear inside the place and i use my socalled outdoor shoes when i leave the place .

You are right about living underground without proper sunlight. Southern walls are important or at least skylights.
Mudroom!!! A must!!! My dogs are making my laundryroom a mess.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Lady I have a fair amount of brochures and contacts for you from various ICF manufacturers exhibiting here at World of Concrete. Many have experienced contractors they can recommend. I'll PM you later. Off to dinner now.

[izzyscout21]

Grumpy,

You realize of course that you need to drop by and construct my secondary concret bunker.............

[Taz Baby]

Lady, Mother Earth News as a very nice article in it you might like. The Dec. Jan. issue. (I love this magazine) I have a subscription to it and I have it all on CD.) Anyway, the story is called: “The Joys of Building a Home Together” It is about how an Alabama family built an affordable green home by hand using 85% salvage wood and other reclaimed materials. You might get some ideas from there. Also, as we are building too, we check out CL for all the free and curb alerts for our materials. We hit the yard sales and flea markets on the weekends. Have not started dumpster diving yet, but if need be we will. We will start at the construction sites first.

If any one is not getting the Mother Earth News Magazine, I recommend it high. Get it in paper back not on the internet, as you will always have it handy to look at.

[realist]

I’ve been gone for the past couple of weeks and want to jump in here. Here is a thumbnail sketch of what we are doing in the next couple of years. I have a piece of property that is very rural that I will be building on in the future.

The location: 114 acres approximately 1 mile off a main highway. The nearest store is about 13 miles away, the nearest neighbor ¼ miles away. The house will be built into the military crest of a hill (facing north) overlooking a small meadow. There is a real small pond that had natural gas bubbling out of the ground. On the back side of the military crest it is very steep and will be perfect for solar panels. The nice thing about this is cannot be seen.

Access to the property is across a bridge so it is for that reason we will never be able to get a concrete truck in. So everything will be done by hand because of a bridge that will not take the weight.

Climate: Temperature summers are hot, fall and springs are mild and the winter it rains a lot. Snow will fall about once or twice a year and stay for a couple of days.

At first I am putting up a 20 by 24 foot building that will act as a cottage and be our base of operation. We are lucky we have all sorts of water, two running creeks we can drink out of, I know it needs to be filtered. I have a spring that is about 200+ feet above this cottage that we will run water.

So what are we going to build for the main house? The basics are going to be one story with a two bedroom and one possibly two baths about 900 to 1000 sq feet. The bedrooms will be relatively small. There will be a large kitchen, dining and great room that will all be one. Attached to the kitchen will be a large pantry. There will be a deck on the north side that will extend out to make a carport/work area/wood storage area. The main wall will be a shared wall with the basement. There will be a basement that will match the house footprint. There will be a root cellar that will be built before the house for our stores that can be used also for the first cottage. The same water that feeds the cottage will feed the house. The house will be about 100 feet above the cottage.

All I need is money and time………….no problem.

[ladyhk13]

Realist what will your power source be for the house? I noticed that you mentioned everything will be facing north which is the cold and dark side when it comes to building...just wondering.

[The Stig]

I’ve been gone for the past couple of weeks and want to jump in here. Here is a thumbnail sketch of what we are doing in the next couple of years. I have a piece of property that is very rural that I will be building on in the future.

The location: 114 acres approximately 1 mile off a main highway. The nearest store is about 13 miles away, the nearest neighbor ¼ miles away. The house will be built into the military crest of a hill (facing north) overlooking a small meadow. There is a real small pond that had natural gas bubbling out of the ground. On the back side of the military crest it is very steep and will be perfect for solar panels. The nice thing about this is cannot be seen.

Access to the property is across a bridge so it is for that reason we will never be able to get a concrete truck in. So everything will be done by hand because of a bridge that will not take the weight.

Climate: Temperature summers are hot, fall and springs are mild and the winter it rains a lot. Snow will fall about once or twice a year and stay for a couple of days.

At first I am putting up a 20 by 24 foot building that will act as a cottage and be our base of operation. We are lucky we have all sorts of water, two running creeks we can drink out of, I know it needs to be filtered. I have a spring that is about 200+ feet above this cottage that we will run water.

So what are we going to build for the main house? The basics are going to be one story with a two bedroom and one possibly two baths about 900 to 1000 sq feet. The bedrooms will be relatively small. There will be a large kitchen, dining and great room that will all be one. Attached to the kitchen will be a large pantry. There will be a deck on the north side that will extend out to make a carport/work area/wood storage area. The main wall will be a shared wall with the basement. There will be a basement that will match the house footprint. There will be a root cellar that will be built before the house for our stores that can be used also for the first cottage. The same water that feeds the cottage will feed the house. The house will be about 100 feet above the cottage.

All I need is money and time………….no problem.

This sounds....fantastic

[realist]

The house will face north to have an overlook of the approach and the valley below. It will be colder but will help with the summer heat. This will also add to the warmth during the winter. For the most part the house will be used during the summers. There is a bunch of large rocks that are around which may force me to move to house to a different location if we rund into rock when digging the basement. One thing I plan on using is blue blocks for the basement. This allows me to build and insulate at the same time. It also allows me to be able pour it in sections. I also plan on having sky-lites that will bring the natural light indoors.

[Sniper-T]

Realist,

Sounds awesome! looks like you have an awesome plan.

Are you worried about opsec when it comes to the concrete people? I've done a lot of really bizzarre work with specialized trades over the years (I used to be a commercial Diver); and we had to re-build a weir on a remote portian of a river once. We contacted the local concrete company for a quote, expecting to be hauling it from the road onto site by pickup, and hand unloading on site into location. OR having to haul all materials in, and mixing onsite. Neither looked good!

When the concrete rep came out, we went in together via pickup, and without blinking an eye, he gave us a quote for concrete delivered onto site. We asked about the bridge, and he said it wouldn't be a problem, as they deal with people all over the place with bad accesses. They had a set of steel spand, that they put down over the bridge, and were able to access our location.

Doesn't hurt to ask.

If all of this is to be out of sight... you may want to consider tossing up a small 'hunting shack; of sorts near the front, and visible from the road, to make it not look like abandoned land. People will be less likely to tresspass, if they think it is being occupied. Even if sporatically!

IMO

Great plans though. and nice set-up

[ladyhk13]

Sniper-T that is kind of what I have been thinking about...OPSEC. If you have local contractors/concrete people doing the work for things like basements with secret rooms or panic rooms or secret rooms within the house how do you know that they will not blab all over town or be a zombie when the time comes especially when it is a very small town?