1950 popular mechanics fallout shelter plans

Bobby Kaplan recalls that when the couple first moved into the house, he was in the yard with the dog when the dog suddenly vanished. The Cold War hideout has thick concrete walls and a 2 ½-foot-diameter corrugated-metal tunnel, which leads beneath the lawn to the outside.

Ruby Kaplan, a real estate agent with Vera & Nechama Realty in Teaneck, is listing the home.) (The seven-bedroom home is on the market for just under $1.5 million because the Kaplans' three children have grown. The shelter is a surprise in the Kaplans' large stucco house, which has been so extensively renovated it looks nearly new. In Bobby Kaplan's words, it's “a nice, cool place for junk.” Ruby and Bobby Kaplan of Teaneck, N.J., store old clothes, toys and household items in theirs. Old bomb shelters are sometimes converted to wine cellars. The owner lined up her shoes on the steps.Ī Ridgewood, N.J., Tudor listed by Beth Freed of Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty includes an elevator, which the owners use as a linen closet. Tom Johnson of Liberty 100 Realty in Waldwick, N.J., recalls selling a house where a secret staircase connected a closet on the first floor with a closet on the second. Quite often, homeowners find new uses for oddball spaces. The smokehouse tells of a time when Americans didn't buy their meat at the supermarket, but butchered it and smoked it to preserve it.Īnd the outhouse tells about life before indoor plumbing, when … well, you know. The bomb shelter recalls a time when Americans feared nuclear attacks from the Soviet Union, and imagined how to survive in a scorched landscape. These can open a window into history, giving a fresh sense of how people once lived. There are certain spaces that home buyers crave, like giant kitchens and expansive walk-in closets.Īnd then there are the spaces that turn up unexpectedly, especially in some older homes - spots like bomb shelters, smokehouses and outhouses.

1950 popular mechanics fallout shelter plans