A man who bought a nuclear bunker in Montana reveals how he turned it into a stunning underground home

• Dean Anderson stars in the YouTube documentary made by Kirsten Dirksen
• He bought a bunker in Paradise Valley, Montana, five years ago
• The unusual dwelling came with enough food and medicine to last ‘a few years’

A man has revealed how he bought an 1980s nuclear bunker at a ‘good price’ and turned it into a stunning home in the mountains of Montana.

Dean Anderson stars in a YouTube video made by documentary filmmaker Kirsten Dirksen in which he talks about his unique property project.

He explains that he fell in love with Paradise Valley, Montana, while fishing in the area five years ago, but the entire property was too expensive.

However, after doing a thorough search, he came across a guy selling an idle bunker at a reasonable price and snapped it up.

Dean said the sale price included £45,000 worth of food that had been stored in the basement, and there was also enough medicine and oxygen “to keep them there for a few years”.

He said those bonus items helped seal the deal.

The outdoorsman explained, “Basically for me it was like a million or a million and a half dollars worth of cement stuck underground with all this old food and all this old other stuff that made me salivate.

“I was like, ‘wow, all this leftover stuff is gone and they’re going to bury it so I can buy it for next to nothing and turn it into something cool.’

In the YouTube video, footage shot by Dean shows his home slowly coming together over the years.

In an effort to make the bunker a livable place, he began cutting doors and windows into the reinforced concrete.

He also attached an exterior structure that serves as the home’s entrance with large windows offering outstanding mountain views.

On his tour, Dean explains how he converted a bunker space into an open dining and kitchen area.

Because of the curved ceilings, he had to install horizontal freezer and refrigerator units.

Other kitchen features include a six-burner, three-sink central island, which he says makes it easier to wash dishes when you’re taking in large quantities.

Touching on the design aesthetic, Dean says, “We wanted to keep the place … kind of like a bunker or a bunker or a nuclear waste shelter, so we used a lot of aluminum … a lot of gray.”

In an effort to be as sustainable as possible and keep costs down, Dean made much of the furniture himself or repurposed items.

In one clip, he demonstrated using an old flamethrower he found dumped in the bunker as a door stopper.

Since there are no windows in the main living space, Dean installed bright white bulbs “with a bit of a blue tint” to the ceiling and added blue paint.

He says at one point:[It’s] to try to get the feeling of being outside… It’s almost like heaven.’

Other living spaces he shows viewers include a bedroom in a former medical centre, a shower room in an old warehouse and an office in the new extension.

The underground shelter was built for 250 people, but Dean shows in a clip that the conditions would be quite cramped.

In one of the cramped sleeping spaces, he explains that the plan was to equip each of the slim compartments with multiple bunk beds so that everyone would live on top of one another.

Descending into the cellar – which Dean says is about 20 feet deep – the homeowner reveals how it took a lot of effort to get rid of all the wheat and other food supplies that had been stored in sealed barrels.

He used some of the goods he found, with plenty of olive oil, sesame oil, mung beans, margarine powder, and peanut butter powder.

There are still two floors to complete, but so far Dean has set about creating two living spaces in his sprawling bunker.

In the video, he explains how he did all the work with a team of young men in recovery.

He believes that physical labor can serve as therapy, as he managed to give up alcohol in the same way.

All of the men, who are often off the streets or out of prison, receive training and pay to work on the construction project.

Dean says of his rehab concept, “We’ve had 40 kids come through here. Most of them are clean and healthy and feel good.

There are believed to be more than 50 bunkers in Paradise Valley, built in the 1980s to prepare for nuclear waste.

According to Dean, all homeowners in the area were required to have a shelter space, and “it was actually in the HOA documents.”

Summing up his unusual bunker conversion project, Dean concludes, “That thing was hella hard to ride.”