Man Turned A Cave Into An Off-Grid Mansion, And Now He’s Sharing It With The World

Don’t worry, Grant’s no amateur when it comes to explosives. He’s been using them since finding work in Moab, Utah, as a miner. We mean working underground, of course, but actually he was just 17 at the time. Still, it proved great experience for what our resourceful hero’s future held and the amazing abode he came to build. 

But of course everything starts somewhere, and for Grant it was his love of Utah’s untamed wilds. He found great appeal in nature’s bounty, so in 1980 he bought up a chunk of land on the outskirts of Boulder — 40 acres of it, to be exact — and got to work. 

Grant set down roots two hours away from even basic roads and put his passion for self-sufficiency to use by living off the land. In the meantime, he took advantage of his surroundings by setting up an equine riding trail business. It was all a stepping stone to his ultimate goal: creating his own unique home. 

In fact, you could say that Grant’s project started with a bang! In 1996 he decided to make his dream a reality. So he got some dynamite and began blowing holes in the side of a huge mass of bedrock. This might sound like a bit of a random approach, but there was method in the madness: it would eventually lead to an incredible result.

Grant’s rock house began with a dream that never left his mind, as he told the YouTube channel Tiny House Giant Journey in 2020. He says, “One theme I’ve always heard is, a lot of people don’t know what they want, y’know? But man, I always knew, even if it was ridiculous.” 

Grant elaborates, “My original plan was to find a place in the wilderness and the canyons and irrigate, y’know? And grow my food, out in the wilderness.” But his rock house seemed an unreachable dream, given the amount of equipment he’d need. 

Regardless, Grant pursued the life he yearned for and purchased a plot of wild land. “This was nothing but desert here when I moved here,” he tells YouTube channel HGTV in 2020. “We lived without electricity or running water or anything for about 25 years in a 19-foot trailer just south of this rock.” 

He continues, “The rock was perfect — and I knew it — but I never really thought about it, because I didn’t think I could buy dynamite.” Serendipitously though, Grant worked with a road crew in 1998 and made friends with a supplier who didn’t mind selling to an experienced miner. 

“I blasted a little tunnel here first,” he informs Tiny House Giant Journey. “From the first blast I was committed, you know. And then there were eight winters, probably, of blasting. And also, I was always out in the wilderness, spring and fall, and half of the summer.” But Grant slowly made progress.

Eight years later the deed was done, but the result was a series of caverns, pure and simple. All the same, Grant saw its potential, and he knew he wanted something as invisible as possible. That is, he desired a home that would blend into the raw countryside subtly, so as not to spoil its natural beauty. 

Grant told HGTV, “I wanted to not see anything, I just wanted it to be glass.” So a builder buddy helped him carve out wall grooves into which he could slide sheets of glass. It was surprisingly effective. Only two of the cave’s windowed walls needed supports, which they made from steel beams. 

While Grant worked on his rock house, he was also following his passion for living off the land. Since Boulder’s so isolated, many locals practice self-sufficiency. As we’ve seen this was especially true for Grant. But the allure isn’t rooted in preparing for a possible disaster, as you might assume. 

“That’d never been my approach,” Grant tells Tiny House Giant Journey. “It is there, you want to be able to take care of yourself. But for me, it’s lifestyle, it’s health.” It’s not easy living off-grid, though. To begin with, laying the groundwork to make a self-sufficient home is an expensive undertaking, and there’s a lot of physical labor involved. 

Grant’s setup is a prime example. With no running water, he had to pipe some in from a local source — in this case the convenient pond on his land nearby uphill from his home. Grant harnessed it by piping the water 6,500 feet downhill to a wooden wheel spanning 22 feet in diameter.

“I always knew if we could afford to do it, we’d have gravity flow because we’re a mile below the pond,” Grant informs Tiny House Giant Journey. This was also the key to solving his other resource problem. “We have gravity-flow water, so I just plugged into it — put in a turbine to produce our electricity off of it.” 

And with a steady flow of water, Grant literally began sowing the seeds of his future. They have since grown into a farm and orchard, which is where a lot of his diet comes from. “The biggest crop is tomatoes and peppers,” he says. “And then corn, potatoes, lots of garlic.” 

The rest of Grant’s food comes from livestock. He keeps cows, which not only provide dairy products but also have the bonus of making milk for the pigs. As you can imagine, looking after the crops and animals requires lots of dedication and commitment. But with that all in place, he was ready to work in the rock house’s interior. 

And there’s a lot of interior to work with! As you’ve probably guessed, space isn’t exactly at a premium: his finished home is approximately 5,000 square feet, to be exact. So how did Grant turn a series of tunnels and hollows into a livable space? By keeping to the natural aesthetic, of course. 

That’s what all the glass panes are for. As seen on Tiny House Giant Journey, every room has one, which both lets light into the rooms and keeps them open to the natural world. The large one in the living room is particularly impressive and acts as the main feature. No wonder all the comfy chairs point towards it, taking advantage of the stunning view.

Beneath that is a tribute to one of Grant’s other passions: a jam room. That’s right, his man-cave even has a chamber dedicated to music! There are all kinds of instruments there, and it’s not just Grant himself who plays them. Musically inclined guests staying at his rock home can hop on stage and join in. 

Speaking of guests, there’s enough room in the huge cave for more than just Grant and his family. The bedrooms are connected by a bridge feature which Grant was initially unsure how to implement. After all, he didn’t want too much artificial material in the cave, and that includes steel. 

That’s where another of Grant’s connections came in. A friend of his who makes horseshoes for the livestock came up with the solution to hang the bridge from the ceiling, preserving the bedrock’s natural appearance. Lavinia Spalding revealed what lies on the other side in an article she wrote for website Medium in 2019. 

Spalding wrote, “[The wing] includes two charming bedroom nooks, a lounge, and private bathroom. The floor is painted a cheerful blue, the furnishings are bright yellow and turquoise, and it’s all unfussy and relaxed.” Sounds like an idyllic place to stay, right? Well in that regard, you may be in luck. 

You see, since the property is so big and the lifestyle it offers is so appealing, Grant rents out the room Spalding mentioned in her article. In fact, you can find it listed on Airbnb by its official name, Bedrock Homestead Cave, where it has received rave reviews from guests who have visited.

Over the 274 reviews left on the website, the cave has a 4.95 rating out of five. That’s almost perfect! And the feedback from satisfied visitors speaks for itself. For example, one person wrote, “You have to try and stay here! You will never find a place quite like it.” 

The reviewer continued, “The house is incredible, the people are friendly. It really is something to behold.” Another wrote, “Absolutely mind-blowing experience. Pictures don’t do it justice. Worth every single penny. The best Airbnb I have ever stayed in!” Nor is it just the cave house itself that people have praised. 

The grounds surrounding Grant’s Bedrock Homestead are also a treat in themselves. “We so enjoyed our stay at the cave house,” described a reviewer on Airbnb. “We loved that it began with an adventure of crossing the river. The cave house was unique, beautiful and such a nice getaway from it all for our family.”

Arguably some of the best sights can be seen at night, though. Because Grant’s located so far away from modern life, there’s very little light pollution. As a result, Tiny House Giant Journey describes it as “one of the best places in the world for stargazing.” 

The best part is that the boulder home has the perfect place to participate in stargazing, should you so choose. It’s the house itself! You can actually walk up the bedrock and find a spot on the roof, from which you can take in the beauty of the surrounding area. All of it, including the unobstructed celestial bodies above.

Of course, we’re not suggesting that Grant’s cave house is the only one around. There are other stories of people carving beautiful homes out of unlikely rock faces. Take the one in Moab, Utah, for instance, which is home to a community of Mormons. Their homes were created in a similar way to Grant’s for a completely different reason. 

The Mormons in question are polygamists and wanted an isolated place to settle down. In 1977 a man called Robert Foster blasted into a large wall of bedrock using dynamite, just like Grant’s Bedrock Homestead. The result was Rockland Ranch, a.k.a. The Rock, though the result is aesthetically different.  

Because The Rock’s cave houses are finished with brick fronts, they’re visually closer to modern-day houses. Their windows and doors are more what you’d expect in urban locales with power and running water. The Mormons still share a similar farming lifestyle to Grant’s though, hence the “Ranch” part of Rockland Ranch’s name. 

Utah seems to be a popular place for cave homes since it also hosts Cliffhaven, a three-bedroomed property set into the side of Montezuma Canyon. Just like the Bedrock Homestead it’s off the grid, but this one utilizes solar panels to provide power to the owners. Cliffhaven even gets satellite TV and an internet connection! 

Cave homes aren’t limited to America, either. For proof of this, you need look no further than Angelo Mastropietro of Worcestershire, England. As per YouTube channel Truly, a 2007 diagnosis of multiple sclerosis motivated him to seek a simpler life, which he found near the Wyre Forest. But there was a lot of groundwork to lay before he could settle down.

Angelo, whose surname means “master of the stone,” spent over $200,000 on his modern-day cave. He purchased a sandstone cave as a base and shaped it into a home personally for the most part, which took him an estimated 1,000 hours. The end result looks like something you’d see in a fantasy movie. 

It’s not hard to imagine why some people believe this location helped inspire parts of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book Lord of the Rings. Now he has a plethora of modern amenities, including underfloor heating, ventilation and fresh running water from 262 feet underground. Angelo also gets WiFi, of course. Just because you live in a cave doesn’t mean you’re stuck in the Stone Age! 

Angelo shares Grant’s desire to keep a natural aesthetic to his home, too. So now you’ve seen the wild beauty of these natural cave houses, we think you’ll agree the appeal is obvious. But what does Grant think of his Bedrock Homestead? Were all the years of work and hard toil worth the effort? 

Spalding answered that question in her article for Medium. Apparently Grant said, “I always told myself it was about the journey and not the end result. But the result is that it’s so incredible to live here, every day I walk in and just go, ‘Whoa.’” And the cave’s various visitors agree with him. 

“People get inspired by it,” Grant elaborates with Tiny House Giant Journey. “And I didn’t expect that so much, and it really is the case. People really feel a lot of inspiration here, from all different angles. Positive living in a negative space.” Who knew living in a cave could be so appealing?