The Energy-efficient Silo House
(Page 3 of 3)
January/February 1982
By Glenn Worthington
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The Home Stretch
With the basics out of the way, we began to concentrate on turning the 50-year-old cylinder into a comfortable house. A partition on the second floor served to separate the bathroom from the kitchen area, and we installed inside plumbing. Then we bought a submersible deep-well pump, hooked it up to 50 feet of pipe, lowered it into the casing of the well under the windmill, and came up with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of clear, free water.
Thanks to my dad and brother’s help, I finished the necessary electrical wiring in one weekend, and we were suddenly able — as we went from the first floor to the fifth — to turn on a light above and flip off the light below at each level.
In mid-May we were six weeks away from our projected moving-in date. We spent the rest of the time wallpapering the kitchen/ bathroom partition, installing cabinets, putting up plasterboard and texturing the ceilings, and laying carpeting and linoleum.
After settling in, we used our evenings and weekends to add a few finishing touches. Just $6,500 and 800 work hours from our starting point, the first floor had become a sunken living/dining room. From there three steps lead up to the front door and the stairs to the kitchen and bath. The third floor became the bedroom, the fourth, an art studio for my wife, and the fifth, storage space and my study. The spiral staircase rises the final four feet from that level to the balcony.
As you can imagine, we had to maintain a “squeaky tight” budget during the months it took to transform that hollow shell into a lovely home. But once we moved in, we had no rent or house payment, no water bill, and, because we cut our own wood, no fuel bill. Our monthly utilities totaled less than $30: some $20 for electricity and about $7 for our telephone.
I use the past tense because, last January, we adopted 4r-year-old Charlie, who loved our cylindrical home as much as we did. However, we soon realized that with a new addition to our family, we needed more space and (most of all) a laundry room. So this past August we moved into a big old house in town and rented our tower to a young couple for $225 a month, out of which we pay a voluntary $50 to the landowner.
The new residents report that they’re enjoying silo living as much as we did — and you just might, too!
Be aware that some modern silos have been sealed with PCB-containing material, so it’s wise to choose an older model for a live-in project. — Mother
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