Underground Living and Greenhouse

I made an energy efficient underground living space including everything a person would need to live, which includes a greenhouse, kitchen, a small bedroom and a bathroom. The aboveground area includes a garage. Underground houses are easier to maintain than your average house and fewer materials are needed to build the house.

Materials include hot glue, cardboard, an old shoe box, 10-20 popsicle sticks, small blue, white, and black pieces of fabric, cotton, gum wrappers, a green plastic bow and the DIY 3D Book Nook Kit Flower House 176pcs (from Walmart)

Cut off the front of any shoe box and cut off the lid. On the left side of the lid, cut a 7.5" by 4.5' piece out. Paint both the lid and the back side of the shoe box brown.

Cut out 2 8.5" by 7.5" pieces, paint them blue. Cut out a 6.5" by 9" piece, and paint one side brown. Finally, cut out a 7.5" by 6.5" piece, and paint it blue. Wait for all the paint to dry. After making sure the painted side of each piece is facing inward, use hot glue, glue both the 8.5" by 7.5" pieces to the longer sides of the 6.5" by 9" piece. Next, glue the 7.5" by 6.5" to one of the smaller sides of the 6.5" by 9" piece. You have now assembled the walls of the living area.

Using cardboard, cut out 2 4.5" by 3" pieces, and 4 1.5" by 2.5" pieces. Paint the first pieces light brown and the smaller pieces dark brown. These will be the actual cabinets. While waiting for them to dry, cut out a 2" by 4.5" piece, a 1.5" by 1" piece, and a 1.5" by 2.5" piece. These will be the pieces to the fridge. Paint these white. After everything is dry, you are ready to assemble them. Take both of the light brown pieces and put the dark brown pieces on it and arrange them so that they look like a cupboard, then glue. Next, move onto the fridge. Glue the smaller of the pieces towards the top of the fridge where the freezer would be, and the other piece towards the bottom. Finally, take both of the cabinets and the fridge and glue them both in to the back of the living area. You are now done with the kitchen. You can now add any other decorations that you would want, I personally added some flowers on top of the fridge and "counter."

To make the bed, take 4 popsicle sticks and cut both rounded sides off of each so that they are all 2.5". Next, take 5 popsicle sticks and cut off the rounded parts like earlier but this time make sure they are 3". Glue the 5 popsicle sticks side by side and wait for it to dry. This will be the "mattress." When dry, take the 4 popsicle sticks you cut earlier and glue them all to each corner of the "mattress" and take blue fabric and glue it on top of the mattress. Moving on to the couch, Cut out 2 1" by 1.5" pieces and 3 1" by 3" pieces. Paint all of these pieces brown. Take 2 of the longer pieces and glue them at a 90 degree angle, and take the third piece and glue it to the bottom, almost resembling 3 stairs. Take the 2 smaller pieces and glue them onto the side of the original piece, and you are done with the couch. Take the bed and glue it towards the front and to the left side of the living space, and take the couch and glue it towards the back and on the ride side, near the kitchen, of the living space.

Set aside 1-2 hours to build the book nook according to the directions it came with.

Take the completed living space and glue it into the right side of the shoe box. Take the finished book nook you made and glue it to the left side. There should be about a 3 inch gap in the middle. This is where the stairs leading up to the garage and the bathroom will be. Also, make sure the lid can fit over the room and the book nook.

To make the toilet, cut out 2 1.5" by 0.5" pieces, 2 1" by 1" pieces, a 1" by 2" piece, and a small circular piece. Paint all of them white and wait to dry. Glue the 2 1.5" by 0.5" pieces to the sides of the 1" by 2" piece. Glue the circular piece towards the bottom, and take the 2 1" by 1" pieces and glue them to the bottom of the circular piece. Moving on to the shower, cut out a 4" by 2" piece and cut the corners of one side so that they are circular. Paint the bottom half white. While waiting to dry, cut out a 3" by 2.5" piece of black fabric, 6 2.5" by 0.25" pieces of black fabric, and 6 0.5" by 0.25" pieces of white fabric. Glue the small pieces of white fabric on the ends of the 6 longer pieces of black fabric. Glue the original larger piece of black fabric onto the top half of the 4" by 2" piece of cardboard. Next take the 6 pieces of black and white fabric and glue them to the top of the original larger piece of fabric. These will be your shower curtain. Take the shower and the toilet and glue them into the back of the 3" gap inbetween the rooms from earlier, arranging them however you like. To make the stairs, take 10 0.5" by 2" pieces of cardboard and paint them white. When dry, glue them all together so that they look like stairs. When done, glue the stairs towards the front of the gap.

Cut out 3 5" by 6" and a 5" by 4.5" piece. Paint all of these teal and wait to dry. When dry, glue the 3 5" by 6" pieces together so that they form walls, and the last piece towards the back. Glue the garage on top of the lid of the shoe box.

Starting with the solar panels, cut out 3 2" by 1" pieces and cut out the middle so that the edge is only about .05" thick, cut a gum wrapper so that it perfectly fits