BY: DANIEL WATERBORNE
When Angelo Mastropietro was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, he decided to do something most faced with his situation wouldn’t…
He excavated 70 tonnes of stone by hand to build the ultimate cave-home inside an 800-year-old sandstone cliff.
Mastropietro had been riding his bike with friends over 10 years earlier in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire when the sky opened up and they were forced to take shelter in a cave.
When he saw the cave advertised as a property listing in 2010, he believed destiny was calling. So he bought it.
But he didn’t just buy a cave; he bought a piece of history. The simple beauty of the Worcestershire woodland inspired JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
For years, he had been working as a Recruitment Manager for an Australian corporation. Then, a short period of temporary paralysis forced him to confront his diagnosis and drastically shift his priorities.
He sold everything he owned and moved to the serene woodland, spending eight-months carving out the four rooms with nothing but power tools and his imagination.
With a renovation budget of $142,000, he created a hideaway complete with under floor heating and Wi-Fi. His elf-like architecture and cozy decorating even caught the eye of Grand Designs.
Mastropietro’s story is about making the best of a bad situation. The burden of his illness revealed to him the burden of living a lifestyle that was overflowing with stress.
Hopefully we don’t wait for health problems for a wake-up call.
Image sources: dailymail.co.uk, therockhouseretreat.co.uk, panoramio.com, wildlifetrusts.org
