Plenty of people repurpose wood flooring, but, in most cases, those people at least have to buy the material first. Canadian Joel Allen, on the other hand, found it for free on Craigslist-and then installed it in a secret cabin in the woods.
It was the fall of 2008 when Allen began construction on Hemloft, a clandestine egg-shaped cabin hung off a hemlock tree in an isolated, sloped patch of forest near Whistler, B.C. Prior to that, Allen was working as an apprentice carpenter in his second bid at a career after his first one-software development-ended when he retired at the ripe age of 26 (actually, he failed at "retiring" in the traditional sense after a scheme to "petition the masses" to fund his blatantly premature retirement fizzled out).
In February 2011, after investing more than $6,500 and countless hours in building Hemloft, Allen calculated it would cost another $12,000 to finish it by his target date of August 2011. That's when he turned his eyes to Craigslist and found 200 square feet of solid ash flooring-for free. "A fellow did his house and had that amount left over," Allen said. That discovery kicked off a new routine for Allen's: After his workday building custom homes was over, he would go home and bide his time looking at Vancouver's Craigslist offerings, "compulsively refreshing every few seconds," he wrote on his website, TheHemloft.com, which includes the full story of this sanctuary.
Eventually, his entire apartment was filled with free things garnered from Craigslist: "Our bed was enveloped in piles of wood, there was hardwood flooring under our couch, there were glass sheets leaning against the walls, and there was a towering pile of lumber outside our patio door," Allen wrote. For the exterior cladding, he used clear cedar that was once used in a sauna. In the end, Allen found at least $10,000 worth of free building materials for Hemloft using Craigslist.
Once all the supplies for Hemloft were already acquired, Allen also found 1,400 square feet of sport court flooring for free on Craigslist, which he picked up and later sold for $2,000-a fine free find if there ever was one.
Technically, Hemloft is an illegal structure. It's built on what Allen calls "Crown" land, i.e., government land, and he doesn't have a permit for it. But what he lacks in legality could be compensated for in the court of public opinion: Hundreds of supporters have left comments on his website, and the structure recently garnered design props in a special issue of Dwell magazine.
The egg is a universal symbol of re-birth, so, in Allen's case, the shape reflects his transition from software developer to failed retiree to craftsman. Today, according to Dwell, Allen is building custom lakeside homes around Salmon Arm, B.C. Ironically, he's building those homes in retirement communities.
