Hibernate Luxuriously in This 5,572-Square-Foot Cave Mansion

When most people envision their dream home, they describe large kitchens, beautiful hardwood floors and clawfoot tubs. But not John Hay.

In the mid-1980s, Hay - founder of the Celestial Seasonings Tea Company and great-great grandson of U.S. Secretary of State John Milton Hay - purchased the Beckham Creek Cave in Parthenon, Arkansas. He had plans to transform it into a 10,000-square-foot bomb shelter, consisting of cinder-block walls, plywood flooring, 11 coats of clear epoxy on the natural formations of the cave, and an internal freshwater spring.

He stocked it with enough freeze-dried food to keep 50 people fed for up to two years, and he twice had his religious group sit out bomb scares in the cave. By 1987, Hay realized the end of the world wasn't coming quite so soon. Various records indicate the property was sold to a man known simply as "Mr. Richardson," who had a different dream in mind when he came into possession of the property.

Soon after turning the space into a $6 million clubbing venue, Mr. Richardson held a grand unveiling that welcomed over 250 esteemed guests, including Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross and many other Hollywood elite.

It's no wonder that in 1994, John Hay repurchased his now illustrious cave.

In the decades following, several new owners have taken hold of the 257-acre property, each one undoubtedly in awe of the great room’s 40-foot rock ceilings and 2,300 square feet. Stalactites descend from overhead throughout the 5,572-square-foot home, and raw rock has been used wherever possible to maintain the unique character of the space.

Though it's been renovated several times, the sprawling cave has kept its surprisingly cozy charm intact. Part of the reason the cave's natural features have been preserved is surely thanks to Hay, who reverently told People magazine in 1988 that the home's "original architect was God."

More impressive than almost any other feature, however, is the spring that leads to a waterfall in the living room. The waterfall flows down, below the floor of the house, and continues out beside the front, where it becomes a pool. Finally, it spills out into the spring-fed pond 1,000 feet below, right beside the helipad.

The bad news - every dream home comes with its own downfalls, after all - is that a few of the stalactites drip. However, the whole property is climate-controlled thanks to geothermal units throughout.

The 4-bed, 4-bath cave home will run its next owners somewhere around $2.75 million. And while it doesn't have those coveted hardwood floors or the clawfoot tub that fantasies are made of, we still consider this incredibly cool residence to be a real gem.

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How to Move Cross-Country: See How These Renters Made It Work

When former New Yorkers Erica Warren and Cici Harrison drove across the country and settled in the Pacific Northwest, they had a list of criteria for their new rental.

They’d need a parking space, a home office so Erica could work remotely and, of course, a yard so they could adopt a dog. And this rental couldn’t be too splashy, because a cross-country move is expensive enough.

All of this complicated their search in Portland’s tough rental market. Luckily the couple were able to stay locally with friends until they found the right rental. And their new home ticks all the boxes - while requiring some minor compromises to make it all work.

We chatted with Warren to hear how she and her wife navigated a cross-country move, including finding a home in a new city and making their new rental feel like home.

Where is your home, and how long have you lived there?
We're in the Southeast, specifically the Richmond neighborhood. We moved there in March of 2017, and we've been there a year and a half.

How did you find your rental?
When we got here, we were staying with Marty and Tera, our friends who live here locally. The day after we arrived, there was the biggest snowstorm Portland had ever had in 30 years. That put a damper on our apartment searching, because we couldn't drive our car or get anywhere. This place was actually the first one we saw, because it was in walking distance from Marty and Tera's house.

We heard about it because Tera had sent an email around at her job asking if anyone had a lead on a rental. Someone else who worked with her had recently purchased a duplex and was looking for renters for the other side.

We walked over and saw it, and it was a very nice place. But it was the first place we looked at. We had no context for if it was a good deal or not. Of course, it seemed like a good deal to us, coming from New York. I was like, "It has a washer and dryer, it has a yard - I'll pay any amount of money for that!"

So we didn't say yes right away, and then we probably spent the next two or three weeks looking at places. We looked at about a dozen places all over the city. We saw all the different variations.

At some point we were almost ready to sign a lease on a 1 bedroom in a new apartment complex. It was, on paper, everything we were looking for. And Cici, out of nowhere, goes, "Why didn't we want that first place that we looked at?" The one we were going to sign a lease for was 1 bedroom, and this was 2 bedrooms, and it was bigger, and the monthly rent was less. And we were like, "Oh, that was a much better place!" So we emailed the landlords to see if it was still available, and it was.

What price range were you looking for, and what did you end up paying?
We were looking in the $1,500-$1,700 per month range. This place ended up being right in the middle. It was $1,600 when we started the first year we were here, and it's now $1,685. It seems like a pretty reasonable price for the neighborhood we're in, because the rental market in Portland seems to be growing so fast.

What was the application and approval process like?
It was really straightforward. Our landlords live on the other side of the duplex, and they're really nice people. I think they were looking for good neighbors as much as they were looking for good tenants. So I think that also helped with the relationship.

Were there any surprise fees?
We paid first month's rent and a security deposit. The only extra fee when we moved in - we had just adopted Billie, and they had a $25 monthly dog rent. Which they told us about beforehand, because we were very particular about wanting a building that would allow us to adopt a dog. We got her a month after we moved in.

What was your cost of moving across the country?
We paid about $5,000 total for a full-service moving company, which is a lot of money. It was our biggest moving expense, but all we had to do was box up our things. They sent a whole team of people, packed our stuff into a storage cube, stored the cube for us, and then when we found a place, shipped it across the country. We didn't have to do any of the logistics, and we didn't have to do any of the carrying of things - we just had to pack a few boxes and unpack the boxes when we got here.

New York is notorious for small apartments. Is your Portland space bigger or smaller?
It's slightly bigger, and I feel like it's most noticeable in the kitchen. The kitchen that we have here is two or three times bigger than what we had in New York. I didn't know how much I wanted a really nice kitchen, but now that I have one, I'm like yes, this is exactly where we needed the extra space!

We also have outdoor space, which makes a huge difference. It's not huge - it's more like a patio than a yard. We have a little grill, and we can sit out there on a nice day. Plus, it's got a fence, so we can let our dog out.

Did you have any challenges making the place functional?
Nothing major. It was built in the ’60s or ’70s, but the landlords had renovated our unit before we moved in, so the kitchen, bathroom and flooring were all brand new - you know, everything works and is nicely designed, so that helped.

I did a little bit of work in the yard, just because it was a little muddy, and it's Portland, so it's wet in the winter, and Billie likes to dig. I got some pebble stones to fill in some of the muddy areas. We got into some light container gardening, because we never had outdoor space in Brooklyn. So we have a little blueberry bush, some star jasmine and some other little things I'm trying not to kill.

What else have you done to make your rental feel like home?
We painted a couple accent walls, which our landlords were totally fine with. We have this wide picture window in the living room that faces the road, but because of that you can see right into our house. So we got a custom shade that you can pull up from the bottom or pull down from the top, just so that we can have privacy but also sunlight if we want.

How long do you think you'll stay?
I don't know specifically. When we moved in, we talked about how we'd love to stay here until we're in a position to buy a house. One day I'd like to own a house - a dining room would be nice at some point in my life. But where we’re at right now, this is the right amount of space, and it’s a really great neighborhood.

What do you want from your next place, other than a dining room?
A big fenced-in yard for Billie! Cici’s mom sent us an article about how the thing that's finally getting millennials to buy houses is their dogs.

I'd also like a little bit more guest space so we could have people visit more frequently, because all of our family is on the East Coast.

And this is 100 percent because Cici has already claimed it - whatever house we buy has to have a basement so that she can play drums there. Number one is a yard for Billie, and number two is a basement for a drum kit and band practice.

Erica's tips for finding a rental in a new city

1. Look around to get a sense of the market

Look at as many places as possible. Because even if you don't want that unit, it gives you a sense of the market. So when you do find a good deal, you know that you have a good deal.

2. Know where you're willing to compromise

If you have enough money that you don't have to make sacrifices in renting, you probably don't need to be renting. So everything’s a trade-off. There's not a perfect rental out there. So it’s like, “This place has 2 bedrooms, but it's more expensive, or this place has a bigger yard, but it's farther out.”

3. Get a little help from your friends

We were so lucky to stay with Marty and Tera in their guest room until we found our own place. And Tera emailed co-workers to see if they knew of any rentals, which is how we ended up finding this place.

4. Conserve your energy and hire a full-service moving and storage company (if you can)

There’s enough stress in moving at all, amplified by moving cross-country. We probably could have gotten a U-Haul, packed it up, driven it cross-country and put our stuff into a storage unit here. But the logistics, let alone the physical labor, were not extra pieces of stress we needed. And even though it was really expensive, it was worth every penny.

Apartment photos by Erica Warren.

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• 3 Design Tricks That Will Make Your Small Space Feel Big
• How to Perform a Landlord Background Check

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An Up-Close Look at Housing Insecurity (and How to Help!)

Five years ago, Timothy C. Acena was living - and sleeping - in his wheelchair behind a busy fast-food restaurant. At night, he'd park himself on a fresh piece of cardboard near the restaurant's dumpster and clip together a makeshift awning of eight umbrellas to protect him and the five backpacks full of his belongings from the elements.

During the day, he'd sit in front of the restaurant and ask customers to buy him a meal, which they always did, he says. He used the restaurant's bathrooms and traveled for showers and laundry. All the while, he waited for an affordable apartment to open up.

Today, Acena, 52, has his own bed and a roof over his head. The former construction worker, who lost the ability to walk when he was 40, lives in a studio apartment in West Seattle in a building that provides affordable, stable housing and mental health and addiction treatment services to him and 65 other people who had been sleeping in shelters or out in the cold.

In the building’s lobby, letters cut from beige construction paper hang over the mail slots on the wall, spelling out the season's message: "Be thankful." Acena says he lives those words every day. He knows he would probably be dead or still homeless had other people not cared enough to build and manage a place where he could afford to live - and where he could very well spend the rest of his life.

More than a half a million Americans were homeless in 2017, a number that increased for the first time since 2010, according to a one-night count by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Experts agree the count doesn't capture all the people sleeping outside and say the number is likely to be much higher.

In some cities, homelessness has reached crisis levels as the economy continues to expand and people flock to urban areas for jobs, driving up rents that were once affordable for people earning low and middle incomes.

Many people are one emergency away from a missed rent payment. Today, only 52 percent of renters say they would be able to cover an unexpected expense of $1,000 if they had to, according to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2018. Gen X renters, who are between the ages of 39 and 53, are the most vulnerable: Only 44 percent say they could weather a $1,000 hit to their budget.

In some cities, the share of median income spent on rent exceeds 40 percent, according to Zillow economists, whose research also ties rent increases to moves and even homelessness. In Los Angeles, for instance, a 5 percent increase in rent would add 1,993 people to the ranks of the homeless.

Colin Maloney, project manager for Cottage Grove Commons, the Downtown Emergency Services Center building where Acena lives in West Seattle, said homelessness affects a broad swath of humanity: families, people with advanced degrees, people with mental and physical disabilities, and people with job skills no longer in demand.

Some residents of the Grove apartments grew up in homelessness or bounced through the foster care system only to end up alone when they turned 18. Others, like Acena, have struggled with addictions or remain yoked to criminal records that keep them from jobs and homes. At times, it's hard to for them to see a path back to home, Maloney says.

But, he adds, "We have to believe that a better future is possible."

Acena is proof of that. Before he became homeless, he lived in a $60 a night motel room, paid for with a combination of his Social Security disability check and funds from a church youth group. When the group's subsidy stopped, Acena made a temporary home behind the restaurant rather than return to shelter living.

Acena smiles recalling the day he moved into his current home. He could finally sleep lying down. "It was like somebody took a Tyrannosaurus rex off my shoulders,'' he says.

His apartment costs him $215 a month, about 30 percent of his $720 monthly Social Security income. He spends his days there building plastic models, watching TV, indulging in pancakes with peanut butter and staying healthy.

"I don't think it's unsolvable,'' he says of homelessness. "It's just difficult. Anything difficult has got to have something good in the end if you go through it."

This holiday season, you can help these organizations that are working to bring housing security in communities across the country. Their success brings hope to all of us.

Alabama	Hawaii	Massachusetts	New Mexico	South Dakota
Alaska	Idaho	Michigan	New York	Tennessee
Arizona	Illinois	Minnesota	North Carolina	Texas
Arkansas	Indiana	Mississippi	North Dakota	Utah
California	Iowa	Missouri	Ohio	Vermont
Colorado	Kansas	Montana	Oklahoma	Virginia
Connecticut	Kentucky	Nebraska	Oregon	Washington
Delaware	Louisiana	Nevada	Pennsylvania	Washington, D.C.
Florida	Maine	New Hampshire	Rhode Island	West Virginia
Georgia	Maryland	New Jersey	South Carolina	Wisconsin
				Wyoming

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