WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT used to be a falling-apart shed used mostly for storing rusty yard tools and mouse droppings.
The floor had rotted out, the roof leaked, and if you were standing in there when the wind blew, your hair moved. But the structure was good—the bones, as they say. It’s about 18 by 12. It’s in a semirural backyard, about 200 yards from the house, but it could well be in the middle of the woods, or on a river, miles from any place. The idea came about to restore it as a functional, self-sufficient escape, with heat and electricity. No running water, but that could be done if it was needed.
The woodstove is a Morsø 2B, a model produced by the Denmark-based foundry from 1934 to 2000. This one was on Craigslist for $240. The rotten floor was ripped up and carted away, replaced by a layer of Roxul insulation (the vermin don’t like it, nor does moisture) and this sweet tongue-ingroove pine floor from a local (well, two hours away) mill. The fire-rated bricks are from Home Depot. The angle-iron penning in the brick hearth was sold and cut by Mark & Son Metal Products in Bedford Hills, New York, for $32. The wood for the walls was reclaimed from various houses around town. (You can read about how it was installed on page 8.) Behind the stove is a fireproof wall of rescued sheet metal that once lined the ceiling of the 1876 church that now houses contributor Richard Romanski’s woodshop. (There’s fire-rated WonderBoard behind that, separated by one-inch ceramic spacers.) The rig over on the right is the genius system from Goal Zero, which is bringing solar power to the people—more about them on the next page. Six hundred bucks, less than a day’s work. The place now runs on sun and wood and is to code and properly permitted.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2019 de Popular Mechanics.
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Esta historia es de la edición May 2019 de Popular Mechanics.
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ONE OF THE 'GREATEST THREATS' TO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK.
EXPERTS ARE PREPARING THE REGION AGAINST THE THREAT OF DANGEROUS VOLCANIC MUDFLOWS, KNOWN AS LAHARS, WHICH COULD INUNDATE THE COMMUNITIES SURROUNDING MT. RAINIER IN AS LITTLE AS 30 MINUTES.
THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST ROW
They rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic, battling unpredictable weather, chaotic seas, and finicky equipment. But what they discovered gave them profound new insights into the power of the ocean.
HOW TO DIY OFF-GRID SOLAR
SPEND THE TIME UP FRONT AND PLAN IT CAREFULLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT
Are We on the Verge of an ARMS RACE in SPACE?
RUMORS OF A RUSSIAN SPACE NUKE, ALONG WITH OTHER SATELLITE-TARGETING WEAPONS, HAVE MADE GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS EXTEND INTO ORBIT.
Fresh Fingerprints on an Ancient Statue
A CLAY FIGURINE HAS SPENT MILLENNIA incomplete, waiting at the bottom of a lake for its long-dead craftsman to finish the Iron Age-era statuette.
Quantum Entanglement in Our Brains
IT HAS LONG BEEN ARGUED THAT THE human brain is similar to a computer. But in reality, that's selling the brain pretty short.
The Tools of Copernicus
WAY BACK IN 1508, WITH ONLY LIMited tools at his disposal, Nicolaus Copernicus developed a celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system, which he described in hist landmark work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. It was a complete overhaul of our conception of the universe-one that, unfortunately, earned him the ire of the Catholic church for decades after his death-and forever changed the way we look at the stars.
Building a Sixth-Generation Bomber Raptor
THE GLOBAL COMBAT AIR Programme (GCAP)-a project by the U.K., Italy, and Japan to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter-has been busy at the drawing board reshaping its vision of the future of air warfare. And judging by the new concept model unveiled at this year's Farnborough air show, that future has big triangular wings.
The Electroweak Force of the Early Universe
TODAY, THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT IS governed by four fundamental forces: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetism, and gravity.
This Ancient Fossil With a Brain and Guts
WE KNOW WHAT FOSSILS LOOK like. For example, typical dinosaur fossils are bones turned to stone and preserved from the passage of time, located, if we're particularly lucky, in large collections that can be reassembled to represent the beast they used to prop up in their entirety.
