Written by the "world's most unlikely author."..............
Books are still available on the internet, search Amazon.com(books)......

Did we mention the books.... If you still don’t agree that this house is a bit "unique", search the internet, especially Amazon.com for underground homes or by my name, Ray G. Scott.  Either way, you will find many books written on the subject...... 

You will find at least four written by yours truly and the subject of each book is the house you are viewing on this web site...Just a side note about the "unlikely author"....If any of my high school teachers new that I actually wrote successful books (or successful anything) , they would roll over in their graves...

As it turns out, thousands of these books were sold worldwide. That led to countless newspaper/magizine articles, many television appearences...all before the internet

The response to all this exposure was unexpected and soon overwhelmed our private time......Turns out, everyone wanted  to "take a tour".....After a few weeks of "request to tour" phone calls , we had to set a "once a month" week-end  "Open House program".....

After a few years we lost count of how many visitors have passed thru our doors......In case you are wondering.....After 40 years, we still have numerous week-end tours thru-out the year  

 An interesting bit of history attached to this property......

In this area many years ago, there was a railroad that passed thru this property....It was known as the Ma&Pa...but, it closed down around 1960.... The rails were removed shortly after, but the bed, ties and many other artifacts are still laying around....There was a bridge (see photos) and it likewise was eventually taken down, but many of the wood beams are still on our property.

Search the internet for "Ma and Pa railroad" ...There is lots of history and photos available....... 

 

Here I go drifting off again.....

At the peak of the books promotion period, the state of Maryland asked us to allow our home to be on the "Maryland Home Energy Tour" for a week-end in mid -summer.  The request was a casual two minute phone call from a state employee who gave minimal information, because details were being worked out and they would be back in touch as the date approached....

We soon forgot about the call, because it was so low profile and didn’t sound like it would amount to anything.  After all, just last week the local Boy Scout Troop had asked if they could see the house and we agreed........

They arrived the next weekend, 15 uniformed Boy Scouts...We were amazed to think a crowd like that wanted to see what we were doing underground.  For the next few days we had a hard time handling our 15 minutes of fame.......

So, being very busy with  kids, school, dogs, cats, work and so on, we didn’t give the "TOUR" thing much more thought.....We had no concept as to what we had agreed to do or the power of the state to advertise.......

It was about 3 weeks after the state's call, someone at work asked if we were on the Home Energy Tour that they keep hearing about on radio.  I said, I believe we are, but no one from the state ever called back to verify it.  A couple days later we saw an article in the local newspaper... Remember, this all happened before the internet......

We still thought it was a great idea for the state to promote energy conservation, but it wouldn’t amount to a  hill of beans , plus our daily lives were very busy ......

When the scheduled weekend arrived, we had the house relatively clean and in order....  We got moving a little early just in case someone actually did show up.......

We were sitting around the table, having that second and third cup of coffee when the phone rang.  It was a neighbor four houses away, politely asking if I would ask my guests to let him get his car out of his driveway.... I didn’t know what to say. We had no guest in the house.......

Our indoor “underground”  pond.............

Our main entrance early May of 2017.............

Simultaneously, the door bell rang and my wife opened the door. We almost had a heart attack. Lined up the sidewalk, around the corner and up the drive into the community street were people 2 and 3 abreast, all standing patiently and orderly. The first family in line asked,  " Is it 8 o’clock yet ? "......

Now comes the panic phase....We had no plan as to what to say or how to give a tour of our private space. Even if we had a plan, how can two adults and two daughters ages 13 and 15 and a son age 9 handle hundreds of visitors waiting to take a guided tour of our home? ....and it was only 8 am of day one.......

After the deer in the headlights look receded, we said ...."give us 5 minutes and we will be ready". A  3 minute impromptu family meeting ended with the words..."take about 6 people and show them around just as if they were your school mates.  Answer their question the best you can".......

Our fast thinking daughters called a girl friend from the neighborhood who was always around the house... Within 10 minutes the tours began.....

After two long days of meeting, talking and showing,  we were ready for life to quiet down....Fortunately, everything went smooth and we really developed a new found respect for  our community.......

In one weekend, more than 500 people entered our private home and not a single person was rude, crude or inconsiderate.  All this activity with zero security and to think how many of our personal household items were out in plain sight.......

After the last person left, we surveyed the property and soon discovered the only sign that an open house had occurred was the matted carpet.....Nothing damaged, nothing missing and no trash.......

We attribute this show of public consideration and honesty to the select pool of humans interested in the environment, energy efficiency and Mother Earth in general.....The End of another dissertation .....