Live From Hollywood AVe. "It's Bob's Bunker" - Videokarma.org TV - Video

ohohyodafarted · #1 10-10-2012, 08:07 AM

Hi Gang,

As some of you may already know I lost my display room and all my workshops at my brother's factory last year when my brother Todd was diagnosed with brain cancer and he closed the factory. All of my 92 tv sets are currently in storage lockers and I can't work on my hobby again until I have a new place to work and display the sets.

With that in mind, I have embarked on a rather unusual project to construct a 2000 sqft underground workshop with a 2 story, 2 car garage above. When finished the "bunker will connect to the existing basement in my home, and will also be accessable by way of a stair case in the rear of the garage which leads to the bunker and up to the tv museum above the garage. The driveway will be placed above the bunker as will be a patio and my back yard lawn.

Attahed is a pdf of the floor plans from my architect.

If you follow this link you will be able to watch the live construction on Ustream during weekdays. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bob-s-bunker

I am also doing time laps video of the project which will eventyally be placed on my web site after the completion of the entire project.

TV-collector · #2 10-10-2012, 10:48 AM

Hi Bob,

Great live pictures!

I like to give you an advice, try to dig and place a part of your upcoming
museum under the neighbors garden!

He will never realize it!

Just when you have next more space, you will buy more stuff and then it
is too small again!

I know what I am talking about!

Best regards,

TV-Collector

DavGoodlin · #3 10-10-2012, 11:00 AM

Ahh the space....

I look at drawings all day and that's the best plan I have seen in years! the garage is a great "sally port" for new acquisitions.

The new secret TV museum

old_tv_nut · #4 10-10-2012, 11:09 AM

Shades of the Underground Home!
http://www.nywf64.com/undrghome01.shtml

Sandy G · #5 10-10-2012, 11:27 AM

What TV Collector said is correct-Nature abhors a Vacuum, & a man will fill up any/all available space allocated for his Toys, & whine that he wished he'd had more...(grin)

ChrisW6ATV · #6 10-12-2012, 06:10 PM

Bob, if you are in the country, it will be "Bob's Country Bunker". You can play both types of music on your TVs, country AND Western.

Carmine · #7 10-13-2012, 03:41 PM

That is amazing. I had always thought of something like that in the back of my mind, but never investigated because I just assumed it would be cost-prohibitive. Can I ask for a ball park on what this will run?

How is your local city/township/whatever treating you in terms of granting permits, etc.?

ohohyodafarted · #8 10-15-2012, 10:05 PM

Chris: Unfortunately I am not out in the country, but rather in the city, however I do play both types of music, Country and Western.

Carmine:
Without divulging the exact cost, I will tell you that the project cost is equal to the current market price of my small Whitefish Bay home. Whitefish Bay is a very desirable place to live and home prices reflect that. Here is a link to a site that gives you some idea of the selling price of homes in Whitefish Bay. http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Wh...market-trends/

When the stock market was at it's low in the last big downturn, I invested everything in a small domestic gas and oil producer called Linn Energy (LINE). It was the biggest home run in all my years of investing. I am now 65 and the old saying "you can't take it with you" applies here and so, even though I am a solid Mitt Romney supporter

, I am doing as our current president has asked, and I am "re-distributing some of my wealth"

The biggest cost over-run of the project has been the shoring of the walls of the excavation. We were forced to do the shoring because the soil here is very sandy due to the fact that during the ice age, my lot was once a sandy beach along the shores of Lake Michigan and now that sand is about 5 feet below the surface soil of my back yard. The shoring involves many tons of steel girders, and thousands of board feet of lumber to insure that my neighbors yards don't slide into the 13 foot deep excavation.

The really interesting part will start in about 1 week when the foundation contractor starts pouring the footings and erecting the forms for the poured concrete walls. The foundation contractor will be hiring a PutzMeister (German for Pump Master) concrete pumper with a 120 foot boom to pump the concrete over the top of my house and pump the concrete into the forms nearly 100 feet to the back lot line of my yard. For those of you who are not familiar with Putzmeister, here is a link that will give you some idea of the kind of machine that will be parked in the driveway in front of my house with outriggers extended into both my front yard and my neighbors front yard. http://www.putzmeister.com/pm_holdin...pm_4170_gb.pdf

The attached photo is looking up my driveway and down the earthen ramp to the excavation in the back yard. The view is looking from the front yard to the back yard between my house on the right and my neighbors house on the left. The 3 foot strip of grassy area on the left of the ramp next to my neighbors house is his lot, and the ramp is about 8 feet wide. the Putzmeister is needed because we can't get a cement truck into the back yard due to the narrow width of the earthen ramp.

As for zoning and permits, it took about 6 months in the planning and permitting stages. Oddly enough the village didn't care about what I did underground, their main concern was that the 2 car, 2 story garage on top of the bunker had to conform to building code size restrictions and esthetics for my neighborhood. Fortunately my architect is also a member of the village architectural review board and he is familiar with what would be approved and what will not be approved, and so we had an easier time than other applicants might have had.

Be sure to tune in to Bob's Bunker Cam weekdays during daylight hours to see live video of the construction at this link.... http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bob-s-bunker

AUdubon5425 · #9 10-16-2012, 08:02 PM

It's great you're able to do this - I know you have to be pretty excited about it.

I'm preparing to sell my house and relocate, and having a large "hobby area" such as a walk-out basement or large garage/workshop is a requirement for the new house. Sadly I'll most likely be leaving where I grew up but I will most likely be moving to an area where basements exist...they aren't even a possibility here.