idea about a home for in the county

[henry2]

i found a clean brand spanking new steel tank ..the unit is 15.ft tall-x-15.ft round-x-50.ft long tank ..horizontal typle of tank with a single end opening in the tank
it was made for a company and they went out of business before it was completed.. ..the tank maker sold to me for a very nice price and i thought about this idea for a while.. then it hit one day about my new cabin in the woods

now here my idea for my new cabin in the woods ..

i was thinking about outfiting the inside up like a two level home with the bottom level held all the items -battie bank water tanks water puf system . along with everything else to make the house off gird typle of home..

but the bottom section would be just like a home basement set up..

with the upper floor level is weld into place with on the sides of the tank there spaced typle l-brackets to help with the weight of the floor along with haveing space out support poles in the bottom section also to helping with the wieght of the upper floor ..

with upper level beening outfitted like a rv style layout with upper and lower typle pantry sets up on the unit ,,

the upper level liveing quaters is 40.ft long-x-14.ft wide -x-8.ft tall..
with a 10.ft typle pantry shelf system in the rear of the unit ..

the bottom level are is 55.ft long -x-14.ft wide-x-6.1/2..ft tall ..

i plan on useing line-x-to coat the insides and outside then useing a tar typle base paint coat the whole tank unit ..

the upper floor is going to have the following items

a bathroom is going to be set up with the following way

stand up shower stall with greywater drain system

marine hand pump up and out black water toliet system with a greywater flushing system ..

combo washer and dryer unit with stand with bult in drawer unit

small kitchenette typle set up with the following way

small combo kitchen unit with two burner stove with sink and small rig unit with over the burner typle mircowave oven set up with a small curved around typle counter with a two place eating brench set up..

with a small over the counter top shelf-x-2-high open typle..with under the counter typle open slots for stowage with a trash can slot ..

rest of the area is going to be a liveing room and bedroom set up ..

with 12.volt led light system though out the cabin house top and bottom levers along anything else it can get rv style 12.volt units for running off the batties banks along with a inverter units for the 120.volts item..

the idea behind is that one it goes into the ground and covered with the dirt and rocks set up and then let settle landscape the area .. so people can not tell where it is,..and hide the entance where it hard to find..

i have been looking at diff companys that make diff typles of fake rocks and boulders set up to put over the entance to hide the fact there is something there..

i was thinking about this for i while in my job i bounce all over the place and i need to put down roots somewhere ..

but with the travel i do not want the house to get broken into and this way i could hide the house as it can be seen from the road ..or the air

my plan is to use about 5.days a month when at home and rest time iam on the road working ..

sorry for the bad english and grammer i just got home after a 15 hour shift at work ..

[gone-a-milkin]

It sounds like a great bunker style set up.

I would miss the daylight personally, but maybe that is just me.

Welcome to the forum.

[NCLee]

It's going to be hard to hide it completely. You'll need ventilation, even when it's not in use to help keep condensation and mold down. I like the idea/concept of doing it.

It'll take a couple of years to let nature help you hide the evidence that all that digging was done. Use the exess earth to build a berm around the front entrance. Planting evergreen trees in front of the berm as a screen. Sowing native grasses on the berm, itself, along with blackberry bushes (if they grow in your area) will further help.

You'll need to figure out how to hide the path to the front door. Eventually foot traffic will wear a path in place, much like a game trail. Placing some "fallen" trees across the path, may lead hunters and others to believe the trail is no longer used. Use small real downed trees, not ones that have been cut off the stump.

An "old" brush pile, could hide your ventilation system, RV skylights, and such. Planting annual and evergreen vines can quickly hide what's underneath the brush pile.

I wouldn't use artificial rocks as the look just like what they are, man made rocks. I know some folks who have used them for landscaping. After weathering for a few years they look like worn plastic. Use real rocks, even if you have to haul them in a few at the time. "Paint" them with a mixture of sheet moss and yogurt to get the mossy look that rocks have in protected spots in the woods. Even the best of those artificial ones will look out of place when near the real thing.

Make your door as sturdy as you can. Most folks who stumble across your place won't have the tools with them to bust through a very secure door. If someone is determined they will get in. So hiding your door behind a berm, behind a blackberry thicket, or in a kudzu patch may be your best approach.

I didn't see any mention of your water supply. Nor what you plan to do with the waste water. They'll have to be handled in some way to make them disappear into the landscape.

Hope some of these thoughts are helpful.

Lee

[henry2]

thanks for the info ..
i plan on comeing back to az and up into the mountains area where i have a piece of land and i was looking to settle back in the area..

i had the land for over 20.years now..up in the northern az area ..it bought and paid for now for some years..

someone i know that does blueprints for a liveing is takeing my rough hand stetchs from the printer outs on the computer of the drawing up of the floor plans and they are turning them into a complete set of blueprints that going to be taken to the county planning office and let them take a look at them and see if i can get the permint for a drop in ready bult underground home ..

i am on the road a lot for my job along with kids are grow and gone out of the house and no longer married .. ..

i was looking to stay in the southwest for it allways been a more of a home to me for all the years i spent there..

i sold the land i had bought in eastern tenn to a another couple i knew and planed to come back to az at one point to settle down and have a life back there up in the mountains....

i have been put ideas to paper and along with a friend that does landscapeing business along a few ideas about rock cribs for air intakes and exhuast units along with some very clever ways to hide a entance of the underground cabin and a rock garden path that curves around area and comes back right to the point where you start along with hideing a few more things in the area .

[henry2]

plus i figure out the daylight issuse for the time iam down there along with a few extras items i am going to have installed when it beening bult ..

[tamsam]

My only questions are about your tank. Where is the water coming from to fill it? Was this tank built to be a pressure tank? That is a lot of water. I wish you luck and it sounds like a good idea. Sam

[Ross]

Two words, "fire" and "escape" How thick is the steel?

[henry2]

the company that order it was going to use it as a back up water tank ..for me it going to be used as weekend cabin get away ..the land has a well on it and that was put into place a few years ago..to get the water up from the well ..

iam going to use a hand powered pump to get water into the three inside 55.gallon water tanks set up ..the whole thing it that it not going to be used a water tank ..it going to be used a weekend and time off cabin along with the last home i going to build for i going to retire in about five years ..

i want the most simple basic low up keep of a house i can get ..so a underground house is the way to go for that idea..for i do not want to have to clean out gutters and paint the house and do all the other things that upkeep to a house that you have to do ..

the people bult it was order to make at .1/2.inchs thick standard steel plate welded togerther it was like they knew i was comeing and bult it the specs i need for building a tank shelter ...

i found the place by getting lost in the drive down to the job site in kansas and it was setting out in the yard with a sign on it for sale ..

i was allready lost and had miss a half a day worth of work when i found the place ..

stoped in and talked to the lady at the front desk and was asking about the tank and they let me go and take a look at the tank along with telling me about the metals and how they are welded ..i ask the guy for a few mins alone and made a phone call to someone i know that builds tanks shelters and he told specs to look for the metal for i wrote them down and ask the guy the specs and they met the specs for a tank cabin set up ...

i made them a offer for the tank after looking it over ..we will went to lunch and the person i was dealing with about the tank..his phone rang and he told they said ok on the price i offered.. along with the person telling me who to call for moveing a oversized tank trucking company to conact to set up the move the tank ..they let me set me up with the guy and we talked on the phone .to get the tank moved to utah to fitted out.,

the next morning i was back and we had went to there bank and it was like a brezze dealing with there bank ..the whole thing took about 20.mins start to finish..with me asking them to write me a cashier check for the trucking company that was going to move the tank .. for i had transfer money into a account for me and they wrote me the check right then and there ..

for i had set it up that they where to be paid in full when they came to pick the tank up along with the front and rear safety cars for movement down the highway..

the person i dealt with was a nice as heck along with when the tank left the lot ..he called me and told it had left.. along with it was going to be about two weeks before the company could come and move the tank and would they mind it set there for a couple of weeks waiting intill the people came and pick up..they told me not a problem they had tanks sit and wait for up to three months before thay could moved ..


first class people all the way when dealing with the company ...

they came in about two week time frame and pick the tank up and it was moved to utah to be finish out as a weekend home along with other items in the building of the weekend cabin ..

[henry2]

the battie and water stowage along with the other items that are need to run the cabin are set up is going to be like a ship compactment set up with hatchs set up on the front and rear area going in and out of the mech room that can be dogged down and a simple fire fighting system be used if the fire starts in there that area ..
also a simple back door esacpe system that i only know about is going to be used ..

the whole thing is a two story home that bult inside a tank unit ..with the bottom just like a basement in a regular house with a water heater larndry room with a small work space for use as need along with a bottom large panty shelf set up etc etc

the top floor is like a regular open floor loft style plan with starting with the bathroom then moveing onto the kitchen then the bedroom area then the liveing room area then the rear upper floor panty area

[Harry Chickpea]

Man, while reading this, ALL I can think of is that when you get it all set up, and are inside, I want to bring a baseball team and whang on the outside with baseball bats. The reverberation would have to be awesome.

Being waterproof and all that, you could use it for secure storage of personal effects like family photo albums, important documents, etc.. You know, tanks for the memories.

[ronbre]

with a torch..done before building..you could easily cut in openings to build in windows and doors to the outside..i think i'd put in a subfloor to cut out the curve of the bottom..and use the area under the subfloor for pipes and electrical wires..make sure you properly vent everything..

a cutting torce and welder could be your new best friend

[henry2]

the bottom floor was bult first and then the top floor is going to be bult on top of that with the bathroom and kitchen drains holes and electrical pipes set up are comeing up though diff sections of the floor with small cut out in the edges to run the pipe though and then the wireing system for the floor lamps and other items as need ..

the upper floor overhead light wireing set up is beening painted to match the ceiling to blend in with the background ....


the people that are working on a good people and know what they are doing ..

[Ozarkquilter46]

A friend of my husbands was trying to do the same thing. He dug the hole and put it down in there. He braced it slightly inside and set up the cement truck to pour around three sides of it. When the cement started to pour it went fine till it got about 2/3s of the way up and the container caved in on itself. Even tho it was steel it could not take the weight of the cement. So if you do this Brace the inside EXTRA STRONG and wait for the cement to dry then if you need to you could talk the bracing out.
Didn't want this to happen to you. Hubbys friend was so disapointed he just got a big tractor and burried the entire thing.