You can buy an entire underground stone fortress for less than the price of a mid-size sedan. In Armington, Illinois, a 2,300-square-foot earth-sheltered house just hit the market for a mere $59,000. That breaks down to roughly $26 per square foot. Local market data shows standard homes in Tazewell County hover around $77 per square foot, making this bizarre piece of architecture look like an absolute steal on paper.
Yet there is a catch. Andy "Caveman" Davis didn't build a conventional suburban box back in 1977. He built a literal bunker to fight soaring energy bills during the oil crisis. Every single river rock lining the walls, arched corridors, and ceilings was hand-collected during annual road trips to Colorado and hauled back to the Midwest.
Nearly fifty years later, the structural skeleton remains intact, but the interior is basically a massive blank slate. If you are eyeing this property thinking you can pack your bags and move right in, stop right there. You cannot.
What Living Inside a Colorado Rock Pile Actually Entails
Let us talk about the reality of unconventional real estate. When people see a $59,000 price tag on a sprawling 2,300-square-foot home with five bedrooms and three bathrooms, they assume it is a quick cosmetic fix. It is not.
The kitchen is completely unfinished. You are staring at raw framework, concrete curves, and a property that demands serious construction experience or a very healthy contracting budget. Sure, the listing notes include two brand-new, uninstalled argon-gas circular windows valued around $15,000, but you still have to put them in yourself.
The aesthetic is wild. Circular hobbit-style windows punch through undulating concrete walls. A rock-surrounded bathtub anchors one of the bathrooms, and a masonry fireplace waits for someone to clear out the dust. It feels like an underground earthship meets a DIY passion project from the seventies.
The Math Behind Earth Sheltered Housing
Energy efficiency was the original mission. Earth-sheltered and bermed roofs naturally insulate living spaces against freezing Illinois winters and brutal summer humidity. Andy Davis designed the house to beat utility monopolies, utilizing the thermal mass of the dirt and stone to stabilize indoor temperatures naturally.
If you convert this place into a finished home, your heating and cooling bills will likely stay remarkably low. But you have to factor in the renovation capital required to get it up to modern code. Financing an unfinished underground structure with non-standard construction methods can also be an absolute nightmare with traditional lenders. Most conventional banks hate collateral they cannot easily appraise or resell if you default. Cash buyers or specialized renovation loans rule this domain.
Who Should Actually Buy This Property
Buying a 1970s cave house isn't a passive investment. It is a full-scale creative commitment.
If you are a contractor, a DIY wizard with deep pockets, or someone looking to build a unique Airbnb rental, the raw bones offer endless potential. Armington isn't a bustling metropolis, so a standard long-term rental might struggle to recoup heavy rehab costs. However, a hyper-niche vacation retreat featuring genuine Colorado river rock ceilings could turn heads on booking platforms.
You are paying for a story, a structural framework, and a mountain of manual labor left behind by a man who refused to pay high utility bills. Just make sure you bring a contractor before you sign the deed.
