I’ve spent eight years digging a CAVE in my garden – it was all going well until I had a visit from the council
IT all started with a familiar story – a teenager fed-up with arguing with his parents and desperately wanting his own space.
However, Andres Canto, aged 14, took his frustrations to new depths by deciding to embark on an eight-year project to build his own home underneath their garden.
Andres worked on the excavation by-hand in all of his free time, taking a pix-axe to his parents garden in La Romana, Spain.
Eight years later and the now 22-year-old has turned his hole into a home 16.5ft below ground, with his own living room, bedroom and staircase.
The student has now kitted out his underground den with some luxuries including WiFi, a music system, and even a stove.
Remarkably, he says his parents are fine with their garden being torn apart and filled with tools and equipment.
And yet his plans were almost scuppered when the news of his hidden lair reached local authorities.
The council questioned whether his new dwelling had been built legally.
Andres explained: “I have had to ask for a building permit hahaha, now the municipal government is coming to see everything and process paperwork.
“The thing is already serious.”
Thankfully he updated his fans on X/Twitter: “The Seprona and Civil Guard have already come to certify the cave.”
They couldn’t declare the cave as an illegal build because they were unable to classify it as basement, extension or storage structure.
“Everything in order people, they are very nice,” Andres said.
When he was younger, the frustrated teen used the cave as more of a chill-out zone away from his family.
But during the pandemic his passion for renovating and expanding his underground retreat was re-ignited.
He started sharing his journey online this April, beginning with: “THE CAVE, the thread of how a 14-year-old boy started a cave.”
As he dug deeper, Andres then began to fortify his rooms using arched entrances and vaulted ceilings so they wouldn’t collapse.
“Brutal physical change, less gym, more caves,” he joked.
Footage inside his underground lair shows some beautiful DIY craftsmanship.
Shelves and cubby holes have been carved to store homely objects like a mirror, plants, and a drink collection to keep him refreshed.
Recently, he has been busy lowering all the floors of the rooms by 50cm, building a corridor to lead to a new room and extended the bed space to fit a bigger mattress.
“It’s great,” Andres told The Mirror. “I have everything I need.
“It can be tiring to work here as it is wet and there is not much air going around, but I have found my own motivation to keep on digging every day.
“I have always liked to build little huts….I was a kid with a lot of imagination,” he added.