How many handfuls of apple chips do you use when preparing roast, smoked zombie?
We’ve talked about the “Corten Coolness” of 20′ ISBUs before, remarking on their transportability via a pickup truck and a flatbed trailer.
But what if you took an 8′ ISBU and did something cool with it?
During Katrina, many families rented these to store goods in while they repaired their homes… after Hurricane Katrina started the remodeling for them. A couple of years after the hurricane, we ended up with a bunch of them. In the beginnings, we really scratched our heads trying to figure out what the best use for them was.
We’ve modified some of these “almost ridiculously small” ISBUs and turned them into “walk-in” meat smokers. We’ve turned them into “Corten Chicken Castles” to keep predatory critters out. We’ve turned them into playhouses. We’ve turned them into “Armored Guard Shacks”. We’ve turned them into fully insulated walk-in Tool Storage for “terribly cold climates”. You can do a lot with approx 64 square feet if you really think it through.
To that end… we’ve even toyed with turning them into securable “Deluxe Guest Rooms” for when the in-laws drop in “unannounced”. We love that once they’re in there, we can close the doors, padlock the box and ship it back to “whence they came”… on a flatbed trailer – behind a pickup truck if necessary. 🙂
Oh, stop it! We’ll toss in a container or two of “Pringles” and a couple bottles of water… we wouldn’t want them to starve or die of thirst…
But, if it was a competition, Brian Richer wins, hands down.
Image credit: UNCRATE.COM
Brian Richer at Canadian based “Castor Design” wanted a “pop and drop” sauna that he could haul up to his remote cabin property.
It’s rumored that Brian actually said: “I want a sauna I can tow up there and then plant on the ground… not one I have to waste my retreat weekends actually building…”
So, Brian and his group of guys turned one 8′ Corten Steel ISBU into a pickup truck portable “People Smoker”.
Image Credit: GizMag.com
From the outside, you wouldn’t really know the difference. Except for the chimney, it’s just a big metal box in the woods.
He took a “perfectly good metal box” and turned it into a cedar lined oasis, complete with wood burning stove and a photovoltaic panel to power the lights.
Image Credit: GizMag.com
Looks pretty plain, right?
But when you open the doors…
Image Credit: GizMag.com
It looks (and probably smells) like a high end, Armani Showroom style “organizer closet” for (gasp!) P-E-O-P-L-E.
Castor is selling these for a bit over $40 grand a copy. They come with some bells and whistles, like tunes to sauna by via iPod stereo, an electric guitar hookup, a stool, a magnetic truck light, and a set of handy bronze antlers, presumably so that you’ll have a place to hang robes and towels?
Image Credit: GizMag.com
While I cringed when I saw that poor SG electric guitar perched so close to that heat… (say goodbye to the poly finish if you do that one too many times)… I’m guessing they thought it through…
Remind me to never loan them one of MY guitars… Nuh uh! 🙂
Now, add a couple of bottles of good white wine and that’s some “Smug Sauna Saturday”, there, boy…
While $40,000 seems like a lot, you just need to decide what’s it worth to you to sit in a sauna at the edge of the beaten track, while the rest of the world does the “Sardine Samba” like lemmings in the big city?
I’m thinking about building one of these myself. It’d be perfect in Montana, especially in the dead of winter. You could probably even find a sauna kit that could be modified to slide right in. Add a “metal shop” built woodstove (after all, I’m surrounded by welders and metal) to heat it up to “well done” and voila! I could drop it down by the river on skids (using the “twistlock cavs” as attach points) and then stare out the window at the scenery while I “relax”…
‘Course around here, some joker would probably attach a tractor to it and drag me into the middle of town…where people could stare at ME through the window…
OY. How embarrassing… 🙂
PS. We’re gonna give the guys at Castor Design a run for their money. We’re currently working with a Nashville Dad who wants to build a “Corten Clad” Space Station for his wheelchair bound young son. Watch for the post to follow…
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