Steve Demarest took advantage of the huge boulders covering his land in the Cascade Mountains to build a home that is part cave and part megalith dwelling. The location was originally a cave where his children played, but when they outgrew it, he moved in with his tools and began to craft the rock into a shelter.
source/image(PrtSc): Kirsten Dirksen
After an initial excavation, he found the space too small for a cabin so he built a stone hot tub and then continued to push back into the hillside.After a month of drilling through an intersection of two boulders at the back of the cave, the rock “finally gave up” and Steve could move into a second chamber that would become the house.
Enclosed by huge boulders for walls, the space just lacked a roof. Demarest devised a spider web of steel I-beams attached to a center column to cover the space. Covered in waterproofing and insulating materials and finally, with dirt, the home is insulated from the region’s extreme winters and summers.
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On the property, Demarest has also built a stone and wood cabin with one boulder wall and rock refuse of another. One summer, he and his son built a stream-fed, wood-fired hot tub underneath the shade of a boulder. Demarest admits it would be easier working with dirt or wood, but he feels challenged by the rock and wouldn’t have it any other way.//Kirsten Dirksen
