In 1977, an Illinois man built an underground house with rocks he collected on trips to Colorado to fight rising energy costs; nearly 50 years later, the 2,300-sq-ft ‘caveman’ home is listed for just $59,000
In the 1970s, when energy costs were climbing, an Illinois man went underground. The earth-sheltered house he built at 508 S Jefferson Street in Armington, Illinois, hit the market on Thursday for just $59,000. The home has already secured a place on this week’s most popular homes list, according to Realtor.com.The 2,300-square-foot home, which was built nearly 50 years ago, still has its rock interior intact, along with an unfinished kitchen and rooms.
A house built into the landscape
Pic credit: Midwest Real Estate Data LLC
The house wasn’t built like the ones we often encounter. The stones here did not come from a quarry. According to the listing, the Davis family hand-collected river rock during annual trips to Colorado, then used it to cover the ceilings, walls, doorways and arched corridors.That’s right! Each stone was handpicked, and every one of them made the trip to Illinois. The house was built by Andy ‘Caveman’ Davis to fight rising energy costs. Unlike a conventional house that sits on top of a plot, this one was designed to become part of it.The listing describes an undulating concrete exterior and a bermed roofline that were built into the landscape for natural climate control, long before eco-building became a trend.
Hobbit windows and a rock-ringed tub
Pic credit: Midwest Real Estate Data LLC
The structure of the house becomes more evident as you step in. The rock-covered interiors are accompanied by circular, hobbit-style windows that break up the walls.According to the listing, there are five bedrooms across the 2,300 square feet. There are also three bathrooms in total, of which two are full bathrooms. A rock-surrounded bathtub is another attraction. There is a fireplace as well.Two brand-new, uninstalled argon-gas circular windows come with the sale. The listing values the pair at $15,000, roughly a quarter of the asking price, and pitches them as replacements for the old ones whenever the next owner gets around to it.
Not a turnkey home
Pic credit: Midwest Real Estate Data LLC
This rocky cave is every bit a vacation home, but buyers should know that it is unfinished. This is not a move-in-ready house. The kitchen still needs to be finished, and much of the interior is still a ‘massive blank slate’, the listing says. This means that, if you plan to live in this cave, you have to bring a contractor along. The structural footprint of the house already provides the next owner with the framework for a five-bedroom layout. But it does not say what finishing the job will cost. So this is the number any serious buyer will want to consider first.Given that the buyer gets a 2,300-square-foot home for $59,000, it is still a bargain. The buyer is paying roughly $26 a square foot for a home built from handpicked stones, which is something. Property data site TopHap puts the median price per square foot in Armington, a Tazewell County town, at $77, and the median living area at 1,442 square feet. The cave house is about 60% larger than the average home there and priced at about a third of the per-square-foot rate. The unfinished kitchen and non-standard construction are still factors to consider. But this is a home that can have any future that one may dream of.This blank slate could become a single-family cave house. It could be an Airbnb or a multi-unit rental with the right renovation and pending construction work. The listing also suggests the opportunities are endless. Whether the finished product earns its keep depends on how much work the interior needs and how many guests want to sleep inside a rock-lined hillside.Whoever signs will be finishing a kitchen in a house whose ceiling was hauled in by hand from Colorado. This is a house with stories, and only the right ones can carry it forward.
