Kinda sweet. Someone spent some good money to put this thing together. I rather like the idea of earth-sheltered homes but I always wonder about the long-term waterproofness of such things. I think I’d be more interested in earth-bermed homes. Kinda like those ammunition bunkers where they bulldoze berms on all sides.
Anyway, places like these are always interesting to look at, unfortunately the attention sales like this receive kinda negates a lot of the advantage of a place like this.
This one gets the Harder Homes & Gardens tag.
H/T to the person who emailed me about this.
I imagine any buyer would be a cash buyer only, as any lender-required home inspection might well be problematic for an “earth-sheltered home”.
I think I’d rather go for a standard house with a bunker. Got to consider the resale prospects (for you or your heirs) if the apocalypse doesn’t occur in your timeline.
But if you’ve got the money to burn (including surprise maintenance cash!) I’ll bet it would be a nice hobby home.
They better hope their Commie Lib Governor doesn’t hear about it. He’ll sign a law outlawing a domicile like that. To aggressive to be referred to as realestate.
“The first rule of Prepper Club is, you don’t talk about Prepper Club!“
Do a search on Zillow for “5312 S Stone Rd, South Range, WI” for a set of interior photos.
I like the “dry moat” feature — it’s outdoor open space that is not visible from the perimeter of the site — but I’m not such a big fan of the retaining walls that face the exterior of the site. They’re “dead space” that can provide an intruder with both cover and concealment.
My landscaping tastes run more towards the “late 19th century fortification” designs: vehicle barriers well out from the house, a dry moat that can not be easily crossed, landscape that slopes upwards towards the house so as to deny an intruder the dead space that could hide and protect them, A large interior courtyard would be preferable to the exterior-facing windows and doors — though you would also want some elevation above the edges of the dry moat so as to be able to see (and if necessary shoot at) intruders. A defensible gate or two from the structure’s courtyard into the dry moat would be a good compromise between defensibility on the one hand and livability on the other.
With drones being cheap and readily available, camouflaging such a site would be much more difficult than in the pre-drone days. Some sort of covering over the courtyard and dry moat that could be easily removed, and/or would not support someone attempting to cross to gain access would seem wise. Plant grape vines, hops or such that will cling to wires stretched across the holes?
The biggest issue with this house though is its location. It’s quite close to Duluth, which is no longer the small run-down mining town it used to be. Now it’s the playground for rich folks from the Twin Cities and vacation homes are being built on every patch of dirt within miles of Lake Superior. True, few of them over-winter there — but that’s the second issue with the location. It gets cold there in the winter. Seriously cold even by Minnesota, Wisconsin and UP Michigan standards. That’s going to make it a lot harder to be self-sufficient if the trucks and trains stop delivering. A short growing season, a high demand for fuels, and less game to hunt than in warmer locales.
But the wild rice harvest is delicious and relatively cheap