Posted: 12/23/2009 11:26:16 PM EDT
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I recently stumbled into a thread that got me thinking. It was called "How to build an Armor tree", which I read as "How to build an armored treehouse". I thought it was a ridiculous idea, but I wandered in for some laughs.
Now I'm thinking about building a Tactical Treehouse. Why, you ask? Easy. Last year I lost power in my house for 6 days due to a massive ice storm here in NH. Some people lost it for WEEKS! I didn't have a generator, so no power there, no heat, no nothing. I was thinking that if I built a 15' x 15' (For instance) self sustaining emergency shelter, complete with enclosed generator area, I wouldn't have to freeze my ass off when something sucky happens, weatherwise. I could run a small refrigerator, heater, lights and such. Meanwhile, I wouldn't have to try to heat my entire house (I used space heaters last year) and still be cold, and have no way to cook, or keep food fresh. If it was small enough, the cost wouldn't be prohibitive, and I could do most of the work myself. I call it the Treehouse, because we sometimes get floods here in SoNH, and I might as well elevate it slightly to compensate for that. Not like 10', but more like 5'. I was thinking concrete filled steel tubing, for elevating the platform. Anybody have this idea? Or maybe built something similar? |
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Keeping your house minimally heated is mostly to keep pipes from freezing. At my old house, I had a written procedure, with pictures (so that anybody could follow it) on how to shut off the water to the house and drain and vent the water piping. This was in case I lost power AND had to leave for some reason for an unknown amout of time. This process does not take all that long to do.
The OP could do this and use the treehouse without worrying about keeping the house warm. |
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Quoted:
Keeping your house minimally heated is mostly to keep pipes from freezing. At my old house, I had a written procedure, with pictures (so that anybody could follow it) on how to shut off the water to the house and drain and vent the water piping. This was in case I lost power AND had to leave for some reason for an unknown amout of time. This process does not take all that long to do. The OP could do this and use the treehouse without worrying about keeping the house warm. That is a good Idea for the "winterizing" the house with pictures I may have to do the same. I think you could make an up insulated room or two in the house and that would be more efficient. Now if you had the room to build a small barn as a work shop and wanted to insulate it and have a decked out upstairs that sound like a practical use of big $$$ |
| We do that shit almost every year in Flori-duh, except with heat instead of cold. I've got one bedroom with a window-air unit, 37" flat screen TV, satellite box, keep the fridge plugged in and have an on-off switch on the water heater. I plug all that shit into an 8,000 watt generator and am comfy as hell after the hurricanes knock the power out, with power to spare. You just have to do like Oliver and Lisa Douglass did on Green Acres......when you plug one thing in, unplug something else. I don't know if I'd want to live in a box in the back yard with a perfectly good house a few feet away. You'd be surprised what a medium-sized portable generator (I've got a DeWalt Contractor Model) will run. The only pain in the ass is getting gas for it, especially in shitty weather when power's out to the gas stations too. |
| I would love to do the Monolithic thing, but I was thinking I could get this done for about $5-6,000. Cheap, easy insurance. The thing is, I would still keep my house above freezing, to keep the pipes from freezing, but stay comfortable in the shelter. Plus, I could use it as a workshop. |
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Quoted:
I recently stumbled into a thread that got me thinking. It was called "How to build an Armor tree", which I read as "How to build an armored treehouse". I thought it was a ridiculous idea, but I wandered in for some laughs. Now I'm thinking about building a Tactical Treehouse. Why, you ask? Easy. Last year I lost power in my house for 6 days due to a massive ice storm here in NH. Some people lost it for WEEKS! I didn't have a generator, so no power there, no heat, no nothing. I was thinking that if I built a 15' x 15' (For instance) self sustaining emergency shelter, complete with enclosed generator area, I wouldn't have to freeze my ass off when something sucky happens, weatherwise. I could run a small refrigerator, heater, lights and such. Meanwhile, I wouldn't have to try to heat my entire house (I used space heaters last year) and still be cold, and have no way to cook, or keep food fresh. If it was small enough, the cost wouldn't be prohibitive, and I could do most of the work myself. I call it the Treehouse, because we sometimes get floods here in SoNH, and I might as well elevate it slightly to compensate for that. Not like 10', but more like 5'. I was thinking concrete filled steel tubing, for elevating the platform. Anybody have this idea? Or maybe built something similar? instead of spending that kind of money on a shelter, why not buy a used generator? |
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I can heat my 2K sq. foot house with 2 kerosene heaters and a fireplace in a power outage. One heater goes in the basement to keep the pipes from freezing . A small generator to keep the fridge cold by running it 2 hours out of every 8. A couple LED lanterns for light in the summer or a propane lantern in the winter for heat and light and I am good to go. A bit cheaper and makes more sense than building another structure.
You should maybe take this thread to the survival forum. |