Man Spent 40 Years Turning A Cave Into An Incredible Off-Grid Mansion
Grant felt the last explosion shake the mountain, and he took a moment as the dust settled. He’d finally hollowed out the makings of his new home. After nearly a decade of hard toil in the wilderness overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, he was ready to begin the second stage of a lifelong ambition. Grant would turn the sprawling cave into a self-sufficient home over the next 40 years, and nothing would stand in his way.
Excavating for a mine
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.
A stone dwelling in Boulder
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.
Happy trails
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.
Starting with a bang
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.
