My 8×12 sauna plan assumes a wood, not concrete floor.

• 2×6 green rim joists.
• 2×6 green studs at 16″ or 24″ on center.
• 3/4″ subfloor,  et voila.

Stephen, I know your sauna has a cement slab, and i’ve built a couple saunas with a cement slab base (which could be argued is the “A” job) yet I find with a wood base to your backyard sauna it can be:

1. built quicker.
2. leveled easily, even down the road.
3. moved if you move, of if your partner gets wiggy.
4. called a ‘temporary structure’ for frowning building code inspectors.
5. extended easily as a header for a deck (yet I prefer a slate patio with an outdoor sauna, so as to reintroduce the stone medium from sauna rocks to your feet whilst between sauna rounds).

For a great 3D blueprint of an awesome mobile sauna or backyard stationary sauna design, click here.

The intention is to get folks to try out a real sauna at some special events.  Plus the Mobile Authentic Finnish Sauna will be available for folks to try out in their own backyards (before committing to build a sauna or buy one for themselves).  Theory is, once friends and family get to experience an authentic Finnish sauna, they’ll be hooked!  And rightfully so, health and wellness, green, and escape with ‘staycation‘.  Mobile Authentic Finnish Sauna: cabin life right in your own backyard.

Here is a list of Minnesota special events where I’ve wheeled over my mobile sauna:

• Lake Minnetonka, Excelsior, New Years Day ice dive, Jan 1, 2010.
• Fish Lake, Maple Grove, to help plungers raise money for Haiti.
• City of Lakes Loppet Cross Country Ski Festival, Feb 6-7, 2010.
• Polar Plunge for Special Olympics, Lake Calhoun, MN.

Let’s get a mobile sauna in your town!  I’ll help you wheel it around.  For a worldly view of mobile saunas, check out this site!!  saunasessions.ca has a wonderful posting of well organized photos and information on the craziest collection of mobile saunas… enjoy!  (one of my favorites is the firetruck sauna).

Maybe we can get over to Finland to check out the Mobile Sauna Festival.

At the mobile sauna yesterday, we had good effect with an international/reggae/African play list.  Nothing Ragga and Rough, but more ambient dub (King Tubby, Thievery Corporation) with a mix of African (Amadou & Mariam, Fela Kuti).  When at the sauna controls, choosing instrumental music, and (or music where one doesn’t understand the lyrics) seems to resonate like a cold water splash on sauna rocks.

Thanks to my brother, I have a waiver/disclaimer prohibiting top 40.

Authentic Wood Burning Sauna to visit Uptown, Minneapolis February 6-7, 2010.

Old Chicago Uptown, bar sponsor for the The City of Lakes Loppet Cross Country Ski Festival, is excited to offer up the use of an authentic Finnish sauna to racers, sauna enthusiasts, plumbers, pipe fitters and and spectators in conjunction with this weekend’s festival in Uptown Minneapolis.

Folks interested in taking an authentic sauna are encouraged to bring a bathrobe or towel, swimsuit and a pair of flip flops.  The sauna will be in the front of the parking lot, adjacent to the Old Chicago entrance. The sauna will be idling warmly from 2-7 pm Saturday and 2-5 pm Sunday.

Old Chicago will be featuring “two for one” Summits during the above happy hour times. Old Chicago will also be featuring a $4.00 Pasta Bowl on Saturday 2/6 (4:00 to 6:00 with Loppet bib or registration). Patio will be open for an ice cold beverage and cool down between sauna rounds. Come experience that ”up north” Scandinavian feeling and take a sauna at Old Chicago with your fellow cross country ski enthusiasts!

The City of Lakes Loppet festival:
http://www.cityoflakesloppet.com/

The Mobile Sauna:
http://www.saunatimes.com/2010/01/04/the-mobile-sauna-by-saunatimes-com/

Old Chicago:
http://www.oldchicago.com/

xxx

My good (virtual so far) friend Stephen built his own sauna in North Carolina.  Watch through his video. It’s a great sauna, wonderful aesthetics and touches: slate patio walkway, nestled amongst foliage, and a great outdoor shower. Note Stephen’s OSHA approved sandals:

Click here:

Mahmoud Ahmed Lala link.

What does this song have to do about saunas?  Seemingly nothing.  Mahmoud Ahmed is a 60 year old Ethiopian singer who, i’d bet my house, has never taken a sauna.  Yet his music fits nicely with the sauna experience.. melodic, passive yet steady simple base line, and a rolling voice with horn interludes.

But this is one of the things that makes life worth living.  Navigating, as Seth Godin describes, out on the edges of the box.  On the edge, where you can think freely vs. being pushed around like sheep. Just within the boundaries, vs. out there lost in the wilderness.  The other nice thing about living out on the edge of the box is being able to jump easily to edges of other boxes.

Jessica Hagy illustrates this another way, in her work with graphs and Venn diagrams Indexed.  Not so much a book, but a simple page by page collection.

So, this is life: not a book, but a page by page collection.

• A = Ethiopian music.
• B = Sauna.
• A union B = Listening to Mahmoud Ahmed in the sauna on a zero degree Minnesota day.

Too many people troll around unchallenged, right in the middle of their own box – same couch, same TV shows, same friends, same downloads on their Ipod.  Push yourself outward, on the edge, and start looking at other edges.  How do you get to your edge?

Me: the mobile sauna.