5,000 Square Foot Underground Home?

In Kirsten Dirksen's Mike Ohler video from 2015 Mike talks about a home he built for someone in Idaho in 1980 for $20,000. This starts around 21:25 (


Here it is from his website:


Does anyone have any more details, floor plan or specifics about this house?

I am going to assume that the greenhouse was 2,500 sqft and the house itself was 2,500 sqft also.

Given that these house are usually only 2 rooms wide, it was probably 25ft wide by 100ft long.


One could even create something like the picture below but with 4 "bedroom" vs just the current 3 bedroom.

78ft by 25ft

This is very interesting and some good observation. I thought I saw that this home was mentioned on HGTV "The Subterraneans" but maybe it was referring to one of the other builds since it seems he runs things together a bit sometimes inadvertently. I really hoped we could get more details about this particular house (build) to know some things for sure.

It would be really interesting (and neat) if was less greenhouse and more covered space.

Learned that this was indeed a 5,000 square foot home with 8 bedrooms. Here are some more photos of this home, but have not yet figured out who's home it is. I would love to know the history of this home, especially since the roof was poorly (wrongly) engineered to be flat and it was predicted to have leaks:

In the last photo above, showing the rounded front, are those 2 whiter beams single trees that have been bent to fit? How do they do that? Love this look, and all the raw timber! Looks very sturdy, and there are multi levels!!?? Wow, Just Wow. Do we know what sort of ground it began on? Flat, steep hill!? Is that a dozer going up the left side? Are those people in that same shot, standing to the right and on the top layer? There is growth on that uppermost soil covering. It must have been planted after piling.

So many questions, so few answers!! I tried to study to be an architect many many moons ago, then life got in the way. I still have an appreciation for architecture and the beauty in the materials used. (heavy sigh)

Cindy Haskin wrote:In the last photo above, showing the rounded front, are those 2 whiter beams single trees that have been bent to fit? How do they do that? Love this look, and all the raw timber! Looks very sturdy, and there are multi levels!!?? Wow, Just Wow. Do we know what sort of ground it began on? Flat, steep hill!? Is that a dozer going up the left side? Are those people in that same shot, standing to the right and on the top layer? There is growth on that uppermost soil covering. It must have been planted after piling.

So many questions, so few answers!! I tried to study to be an architect many many moons ago, then life got in the way. I still have an appreciation for architecture and the beauty in the materials used. (heavy sigh)

Yes, there are a lot of questions and I would love to find someone that has the answers, but to date I've hit walls. It would be wonderful to find the owners who built this home originally. It sounds like they must have had leaks according to Oehler since they refused to build the roof correctly. Nonetheless, this is really amazing work and it would be so nice to learn from it.

That house may have been built in Northern Idaho.
I doubt those white beams have been bent by humans, but may have been leaning trunks??
I think I can see a join at one point with a vertical line.
Its is a bulldozer on the left above and behind the house.
If the rainfall in the area is low, a flat roof may work, otherwise its a strange decision to have made.

If you have an address for the property, find the local property appraiser office/website, look up the address and you'll find the owner and the very basic floor plan schematic.

Gerald Smith wrote:Learned that this was indeed a 5,000 square foot home with 8 bedrooms. Here are some more photos of this home, but have not yet figured out who's home it is. I would love to know the history of this home, especially since the roof was poorly (wrongly) engineered to be flat and it was predicted to have leaks:

Good luck finding and fixing those leaks without creating more!

Check out Davis Caves. Marty Davis built my earth sheltered 1750 sq. ft home near Libby, MT. Many thanks to local excavators and Charlie Kack, the concrete guy, who were willing to do this other than stick built structure. There are three “pillars” that support the roof, no steel cross beams up there and the design is unique to Davis Caves and proprietary. I have been here for 15 years with no leaks. There are ten inches of concrete, lots of rebar, and three feet of dirt on top. I garden on the roof. I’m at the top of a ridge and have great Mountain View’s, lots of windows facing due south.