You Could Stay in This Magical Hobbit House
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Wanting a guest house for people who came over for dinner at his remote place, Roy Toft built this amazing Hobbit House. He lives among hills in a valley, where it isn't easy to find a flat spot, so he decided to go underground instead. Lucky to have talented friends who became passionate about the project themselves, he trusted them while they continued building the house even when he wasn't there. They even went way beyond what was needed and did incredible detail work Roy didn't even have to ask for. The idea for the whole build to turn into a Hobbit house became obvious quitee quickly, in Roy's own words: “When you're digging something and going underground, you can decide whether it's going to be a bunker or put a round door on it and have something special instead!”.
The house has a big nice overhang and a living roof: Roy put a sprinkler on it to water the plants on it and the water just drips down. The walls are out of rock veneer and some parts are through and through rock. All the granit they used comes from the dry riverbed down below. They also constructed a whole patio with an outdoor bathroom, outdoor kitchen and chillout area with a fireplace for winter. Benches and table are out of stone and wood and the whole space fits with the aesthetics of the Hobbit. Behind the shower is a five gallon propane tank for hot water and beside it a normal flush toilet – in the middle of nowhere – with a bidet to reduce toilet paper in the septic system and to water the plants around. Right above it hangs a wooden plank for Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fans, with engraved "My Precious! O my Precious!". Yet this is not the only Gollum around: in the shadowy corner often lies a tiny Baja Tree Frog, protecting itself from the sun.
The door was the last thing they did on the Hobbit – they were a little bit afraid as to how to support it. It is a big, heavy door that weighs around 300 pounds and they had found the right people to help them make it. His neighbour, an engineer, eventually made him a big, Hobbit-style locker out of heavy steel.
The foundation is out of stained concrete – simple and looking like dirt, which they liked. The majority of the Hobbit is out of concrete block. In one corner is a small kitchen/sink area. They made the sink out of a big chunk of granit which they pulled out of the dry riverbed, cut fins in it, chipped and ground it out. It is a nice natural looking sink, with some drawers out of wood built up around it. It was important to them that everything looked natural and raw.
The murphy bed in the middle of the single-room house can be pulled up to gain some more space. There is a simple closet and a small cupboard from Thailand that turns into a small bar and proved perfect for the small space. On one wall, Roy installed a kind of shelf out of scrub oak out of the valley from a burn that took place in the valley twelve years ago.
In another corner is a fire place – Roy installed a wood burning stove, which he says to be cleaner and a little safer than other options. He found it on Craiglist for only $75. The whole inside has a rock facade – with block and metal posts behind it to support the heavy roof – and they put a few rock blocks standing out of the wall in order to have small shelves. Big windows open up, letting in light and air and also assuring cross ventilation. As the place lays underground, it stays cool – even when there are 100°F outside, it is 20° cooler inside.
Right under the window they installed a beautiful desk out of wood, it can be pulled down in order to save space. Beside it is the only corner that is through and through rock. It has a nice round window and some candles as decoration. To add to the strengh in the corner, they added four by four metal posts.
For the structure of the roof, a big key comes down from the peak point. The first layer is out of one by six western red cedar and above that three quarter inch marine plywood. On top of that they applied melted rubber, papered it, put tar shingles, root barriers and last but not least some earth and plants. Roy made sure there were enough drain holes to keep moisture off the rood. As there is only little soil on it, he also chose the plants carefully – mainly grasses and succulents. Roy advises that when you do a build like this, you do the engineering, the math and then you double it, just to be sure.
"Be genuine to who you are. I love nature, that is why I live out here. I spend half of my year in really wild places doing my work, photography, and when I come home I still want to be in a kind of wild place. It's really an extension to who I am to live here, I don't seperate the two. I can still be a wildlife photographer here and if I have kind of an unspoken mantra it's really: you have to live for today. If you can make it happen without too much hardship, why not, do something cool!”
