625sqft House Plans Will Blow You Away. Fits in a Cave!

We are 75 feet in the air at the Rockface Retreat. This is a 600 square foot home mounted on the side of a cliff. I have never seen anything like this before. This place is amazing. It'll blow your mind. I'm also talking with the hosts to pick their brain to see how this even came to be. This is a jam-packed video, so sit back and enjoy. Let's take a tour. Welcome back to the channel, everybody. We're here in Red River Gorge, Georgia. I love this area. It's the rock climbing capital of the East Coast, and we're here at the Rockface Retreat. It is literally built on the cliffside right here. The views are amazing, and it is just a phenomenal stay. So the home is mounted all the way up on this cliff. It's 25 by 25, so it's around 600 square feet of living space. It is a couple's retreat, and the hosts did not spare any amenity or any detail. All of the luxuries are here, and I also met with the hosts. So who am I here with? So my name is David Shumate. This is my brother, John. And I asked them all of the important questions. So can you cook a meatloaf in here? Yes, absolutely. It's important to know if you can cook a meatloaf or not at your Airbnb. Some places you cannot, but I do ask them way more questions about this space, including, first off, what this space even is. This is Rockface Retreat. It's our dream slash our chaos all kind of put into one. So what slowly started out as, you know, a fun place for family and friends that kind of just got away from us and became, you know, a much bigger dream. And you guys built this place? So we're part of the builders. So this was a collective between some local builders, and then also we have a design renovation company. So we in-house did a lot of the work. That means this whole idea came from your guys' heads. Oh, very much so. What was the inspiration behind building a house on a cliff? Well, first off, how high is this? We're about like 75 feet up right now. My gosh. So what was the inspiration? Originally it was all, we just wanted a hot tub up here. So I bought the property again. This was like nothing was here, right? So we wanted a little house on the bottom and just wanted a hot tub up here. But as we asked for more and more, trying to get electric and water up here to do the hot tub, it kind of got away from us. And eventually they said, yeah, to do in the whole house. And here we are. So did you get the hot tub up here though? Oh, we did. Right behind us. The dream was made. Believe it or not, it only took four people to get that whole hot tub up here. So is it difficult getting somebody to help you build this on a side of a cliff, 75 feet in the air? There's a lot of just finding inspiration involved, right? So I think across all the different teams we worked with, we found people who were excited about the project, right? It's not a normal thing to do, right? So we found a lot of people were talking to their families about it like excited when they talked to us about it. So now we know what this place is and now we know what inspired these guys to build this home on this cliff side. Let's begin this tour. So we start at the bottom. Of course, we have all of these steps to climb up because we are 75 feet in the air. We have this walkway that leads you up to this first platform. This first platform is actually where you can drop off your luggage. Now, why would you drop off your luggage right here? There is a hoist system right in place for your luggage. They were thinking of this because who wants to carry their heavy bags, even their food, up all of these steps? Well, nobody. So we have this hoist system. You just clip it on and it goes all the way to the top and you can unclip your bags up here and take them inside. It is so easy. And I also asked the hosts how they got things up here and this kind of gives you a hint. So what was the most challenging aspect of building this home? I mean, we can clearly see the challenging aspect, but maybe you guys have more insight. Probably the most challenging aspect is obviously the height. It's how do we get the structure built this high up. So most of it came up in the early days. It was lifted by a forklift and then eventually we built too high that the forklift couldn't reach anymore. And so then we engineered a pulley system in order to get the rest of the materials up. We built a one that came off of the front of the deck with a winch and that's how we ended up pulling up the heaviest pieces like our countertops and things like that. Man, so that pulled up basically everything. Yeah, that countertop I think is a thousand pounds. So after we were able to accomplish that, the hot tub was nothing, everything else was nothing. But that was the stressor, was the countertop for sure. So anyway, you can set yourself here and we have more steps to climb. We got two metal spiral staircases that take you up to your first platform. So we make it to your first platform out here. This is your deck space, your hangout space, and we are underneath the rock. So actually when it's raining, it doesn't rain right here and we can watch the rain pour out in front of us. Very cool feature. I love how this whole back space is just the cliff side. It's so, so beautiful and unique. But we have some seating options out here. We got the gas fireplace going. It's very fitting to have a fireplace or a fire going inside of a cave. It is very warm. I love this so much. And of course behind me, we do have the hot tub. Who can say that they got in a hot tub inside of a cave? Not very many people, but you can here. Now this is the deck space. We do have the home right here in front of us and you can see it's completely inside the cave except maybe for the first three feet. That's where it gets rained on, but it doesn't get rained on on this back half at all. This is a very unique shape. They had to fit it in the cave and I love the green and the black look they have right here. But there's one more thing on this outdoor deck that I want to show you and that would be this outdoor shower. They just added this and I think it is an amazing feature. We have hot and cold water and if we turn it on, the water comes down off of the rock as a real waterfall and you can shower out here. So what the host did was hide the hose around the rocks on the other side and they brought it up to this cliff side so it would naturally fall off the cliff and you have a natural waterfall shower. And yes, there is hot water out here, so you can have a hot water shower over here. I love that, but let's continue over here now. So you continue walking around the deck space into the front deck right here and we have chairs out here. You can sit out and enjoy the views. We get amazing views of the nature and trees around us. And of course, if we look up, the cliff continues above us. It is so tall and now we get to look at the home and the structure itself. We have amazing floor-to-ceiling windows up here, triangular windows, square picture windows. I love the green exterior. It fits in with this cave aesthetic and the nature here. And then we can walk through the front door, which is right here, and check out the interior. Walking inside, the space is very, very beautiful. I think they did a fantastic job with the interior design in here. It's high-end, it's cozy, and it is very, very functional. It has a living room, kitchen, your bedroom, and your full bathroom. And we're going to be exploring all of the space today. Where should we start? There's so many good places in here. Let's just start with the kitchen right here behind me. This kitchen is very spacious. Look how much room I have to walk around and cook. Look at all the countertop space in here. Starting over here, we do have the countertop space. This also is a table. You can see it's empty below. We have four barstool seats on both sides, so this can really seat four people at a table-like setting. I actually really like that feature because I'm not a huge fan of barstool seating, so having normal seating that can be pushed under the table is what I enjoy. And then we can continue along. We have floating shelves on this wall. I love the lighting they chose in here. It's subtle, it's warm, and of course the vertical shiplap boarding they have. Very timeless look. Cottage, cozy feel, and of course the white brightens it all up. This first shelf has all your dishes, and then below this we have the microwave hidden below the countertop, and then more storage below. And if we take a look actually under the table, we have hidden storage down here for additional supplies. So this place doesn't run any short of the storage. And then of course we have our oven. This is a Whirlpool oven or range. I think it fits very neatly in here. It's a little bit smaller, but it has four burn tops right here, and then your cookware is down below. But we can in fact bake a meatloaf in here if we need to. We have a hood vent above, and then now we have this other side behind me. More countertop space. We can see the backsplash even matches the countertop. That's a nice little feature. More floating shelves. And then we have the sink. The sink has a beautiful window that lets you look out into the rock. Now I know you might be thinking, oh you're just looking out into the back of the rock, but this is extremely beautiful. Just looking at the cliff side, it makes you feel like we are in a cave, which we actually are. So really cool feature there. Of course we have a deep sink. We have the rest of our coffee supplies over here on this side, and they leave everything you would need for coffee and tea. I love that they did that. And speaking of coffee, I want to Mocha Master, who helps make this video possible. What is Mocha Master? Mocha Master makes the best drip coffee machines. If you care about your coffee, you care about your guests, Mocha Master is the way to go. This one's my personal one at my home. White. Mocha Master sent me this one. I asked for it actually, for my tiny house, and it's in the colorway Dutch Chocolate. I love it so much. Their website will be linked down in the description below. They have a bunch of different options. This one is just my favorite model. Get yourselves one. I think the color I chose would look amazing in here. Maybe I should gift them mine. Anyway, we'll continue with the refrigerator. We have the Black Classic Fridge. I really like that brand, and they chose the bigger option with the freezer below, and it just fits in really well with this kitchen space. Let's move on to the living room now. This living room space is about the same size as the kitchen, plenty of room for all the furnishings you would need. We have a leather couch here on the right side. Sit here, relax, enjoy the view you get, because what are we looking at over here? This is like the staple inside the home if you're asking me. A big point was to try to create a space that could be used year-round, so one of the biggest focuses was putting this tunnel fireplace into the middle of the structure. This basically could be a really nice amenity to use during the winter time when the outside space isn't as usable, but really one of the coolest things we did was because of the tunnel fireplace and the open shelving, we created a place for the bed to be that really gives a cool aesthetic going out into the open, the outside cliff lines. First off, I love how the TV is inlaid into this tile. Very sleek feature we have, seamless, and a lot of thought and planning went into that, so I want to remember that for the next time I build one of these. I love that. No need for a frame TV because you build it in. Love that. As well as the storage below. So if we take a look down here, we do have storage in these drawers below, and there's something down here that I've never seen before. That is a box of Legos. Look at this. My son would absolutely go crazy over this. Dinosaurs are his favorite, and green is his favorite color, so green T-Rex. He would love this. Anyway, they leave Legos for you. That is fun. Sometimes better than board games. Anyway, we'll put that back, and we have two additional seats over here if you'd like to read. There's a reading light here behind me, and of course, we have the window over here in front of us. There's plenty of windows in here for natural light and good views. Also, what helps with the space is the extremely tall ceilings. So on this side, it is 16 foot, and it swoops down all the way to six foot. The roof was an interesting concept of building this home, and I asked the hosts about it. So another thing you mentioned is the roof system is different because of where we're located, clearly on a side of a cliff. We're kind of under the cliff too, so what was the process behind that? Yeah, so we're actually in a cave, right? So it was really important to us to have a big open space. Again, only having about 600 square feet here, being in an open space, and being able to like walk around and feel like you're not crammed under a cave was really, really important. So with that, in the back of the house, the cave comes down and goes up. So what our framers ultimately did was follow the cave line as it goes up. So we go from about six feet in the back all the way to 18 feet up in front. Okay. Really cool kind of like gradual. It's just like a slope kind of. Exactly. Yeah. But you almost don't even need it because we're under the cave. Believe it or not, water only falls on the first three feet of the cabin. No water issues here. That's nice. Anyway, this is the living room. Let's continue on the back side of this cabin. So walking around the bookshelf in the fireplace, we enter into the bedroom nook. This is very cozy in here and we get a really good view of the six foot tall ceiling when we walk back here. I'm only 5'10", so I'm still able to stand up here in this corner, but this bed fits perfectly here in the I love the wood detail they have behind us with the wood little shelf. We have floating nightstands on both sides and pendant lights that hang from the ceiling illuminating both nightstands. Really, really nice touches in here. I also love the black beams going along the wood ceiling. So the black, the wood, and the white, it goes well together. And then of course this all faces this wall. And this wall is basically identical to the other side. We have the TV. It's not inlaid on this side though, but it is here. We do have the fireplace right here. It is level with the bed, so you can be sleeping with the fireplace on or you wake it up, turn it on with the press of the button. Very romantic, very cozy. And then we have more storage down below. And these drawers, no Legos in that one, but that's okay. And of course we have the books over here. So one interesting detail they did was every other book they alternated which way they faced. So half the books face in the living room. And I just love this bedroom nook and everything they did in here. There's a couple more rooms to show you though. There's clearly a bathroom up here, right? Was that difficult? So the bathroom was a whole story. So where does the toilet flush to? Does it flush all the way down to the ground? It does. Yeah. Wow. All the utilities come up from the ground and all the waste goes back down into a septic tank that's on the property. Yeah. So that makes it easy as well. So we're pulling everything up basically along the stairs and everything back down. I see. That makes sense. This first door opens up into the bathroom space. This is a full bathroom and there is a full plumbing system in here. Flushing toilet. This toilet is a bidet toilet. We have water as well, of course, with the sink, nice countertops, and then this huge mirror in front of this takes up this entire wall. I always love when they include the light mirror. I don't know what these mirrors are called, but you can even change the tone if you want to bright blue, medium, or even warm. I have it set on warm right now. Here's my favorite feature. This is a steam shower. I love the matching black tile as it was out there in the living room. We have a shower head above us, even a shower head right here. And then we have a bench over here that we can sit in and enjoy a steam shower. And we get beautiful views as well because in the shower we have this huge picture window that outlooks into the cave and the rock. So David approached Caitlin and I. Caitlin is our designer, my wife, for this space and he had a crazy idea. He goes, what if we put a window in the entire back wall of the shower? And we quickly both said we could do that. Yeah. And we figured out how to do it. We wanted that cave aesthetic coming through the bathroom and it was all David's idea. Too much gratitude. I love that feature. So overall, this is an amazing bathroom. And when you walk in, you might notice that your feet are a little warm. That's because there's heated floors in here as well. So the amenities just continue. And lastly, there's one more thing to show you. It's through this door. This is the storage closet. Your washer and dryer is in here as well. So you can wash your clothes in a cave. I bet you didn't imagine all of these amenities being inside of this home, mounted up here on the cliff side. I could never imagine it as well. I'm sure this was very difficult, but the hosts, David and John, did a fantastic job. There's also AC and heating up here in case you were wondering. So that's above me. That's everything in this home. Now, if you saw this place and you thought, I have to have this for myself, even if it's not on the cliff, I want this exact home on my plot of property. I asked the hosts if they sell plants to this place. So the big question is, if you guys like this layout and you might be curious about plans, do you guys sell plans to this house? Yes, we can sell plans to this house, and then we can also custom curate plans if people want to work. Because we have a background in design and renovation, we can work with people to actually help them design their own Airbnbs internal. Well, that's amazing. How do people reach out to you guys? The best way to reach out for plans would be reach out to servicesattrieaglehome.com. That'll be linked down below. And where can people book this place if they want to book it? That's rockfaceretreat.com. That'll be booked down below as well. Thank you guys so much for having me, and this place is truly awesome. You guys did an amazing job. Thank you. Guys, I'll see you in the next one. We did. We built this place. It was a combination effort between some local builders and our personal building company. Let's say that again. Okay, I'll re-ask the question. Like I think the other day, we just got a review on the scent of the soap, and believe it or not, believe it or not, that was purposeful. So what's the square footage of this house? So can you cook a meatloaf in here? Yes, absolutely. That was perfect. Let me look real quick. We can elaborate on it too. You've got 500 square feet, but you've got a full family room, a full kitchen, and a bedroom back there. Yeah. Wash the dryer in the back of it. That's true. You can do anything. This is a whole house. In the air. Yeah. 75 feet up. In the frame. You're so much smoother than we are at talking. It's like you do it every day.