From Fantasy To Reality: Local Couple Builds ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ Inspired Home
Article from The Greenville Sun | November 22, 2024
If you were to visit Jonathan and Laura Haley in the Caney Branch community of Greene County, you might think you had fallen into the pages of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series.
The Haleys have built a hobbit home, a type of underground dwelling favored by the pint-sized fictional hobbit race in the best-selling book series, complete with a trademark large round door on the front.
Jonathan Haley said the home, burrowed into the side of a hill, tends to surprise those who come by, from neighborly visitors to delivery drivers.
“There’s no in between. People either love it or they hate it,” Jonathan Haley chuckled during a visit to the home. “We even get comments from the FedEx guy.”
“They probably think we’re crazy people,” Laura Haley laughed.
At the end of the driveway, a sign saying “Welcome to The Shire” is planted. The Shire is the idyllic countryside where hobbits make their home in the book series, and the view on the property jogged Jonathan Haley’s memory of the location.
“I looked out at that view, and I was like ‘yeah this could be The Shire.’ It’s really nice bucolic scenery, so I though ‘yeah this will work,’” Jonathan Haley said.
The Haleys did not intend to build a hobbit home when they bought the property, but they knew they “did not want a normal house” according to Laura Haley.
The couple thought about building a small Queen Anne Victorian house, before Laura Haley floated the idea of a hobbit home.
Jonathan Haley, who is a longtime fan of the book series, which was also adapted into an award-winning movie series by director Peter Jackson, agreed to the idea.
“When I was in college I started reading ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ I read straight through all three books in the trilogy. I liked it so much I read it straight through again. I don’t think I’ve ever done that with a series,” Jonathan Haley said. “Then Peter Jackson did a masterful job bringing the series to life in the movies and that kept it sort of fresh in my head.”
However, it was until Jonathan Haley saw the picturesque scenery of the area that he committed to building his own hobbit home in his own version of The Shire.
“I didn’t think I’d build one actually, but when we bought this lot and started talking about it, it brought back those memories of Tolkien’s hobbit homes. The green round door, the round windows, the landscape and everything. It could work,” Jonathan Haley said.
The couple began working on the home in 2021, and it took two years to complete the home that measures a little over 600 square feet.
“It was not easy,” Jonathan Haley said of the construction process.
When digging into the side of the hill, excavators hit rock and had to jackhammer it out.
Haley said that Sammy Brooks and Brooks excavation worked diligently to get the space ready for the home.
Haley said having the home built into a hillside made the home more “authentic.”
“We wanted this to be authentic. This is actually the natural slope of this hill. We wanted it to look authentic and not something that you just stuck on a flat part of land and threw a bunch of dirt on top of,” Haley said.
A company from Missouri, American Earth Sheltered Concrete Construction, then came and constructed the home out of feet-thick poured concrete and rebar.
“It’s strong enough that you can drive a bulldozer over the top of it,” Jonathan Haley said.
Crews from Westmorland Electric Heating and Cooling installed utilities for the home.
Drywalling the inside of the home required finesse due to large domed ceilings and archways.
“We wanted it rolled. Of course it’s easy if you just say you want it done, but it’s really hard to do,” Jonathan Haley said. “We finally found a craftsman.”
Haley said the installation of the large round door on the home was the most difficult part of the process.
He noted the door weighs over 300 pounds, and multiple people worked on it.
The circular door was carved by local woodworker George Wurtzel, and blacksmith Jamie Tyree fashioned the door’s massive hinge.
Using local companies and contractors was important to Haley, and he was happy with the results, including the landscaping done by Love’s Landscaping.
“I tried to get everything locally. We had some really good vendors. We had good luck with them. They did a great job,” Haley said. “I want to give them all credit.”
It is hard not to feel as though you’ve been transported into “The Lord of the Rings” when standing in front of the hobbit home, and the feeling continues inside.
The home is cozy, and set up in an open plan studio style, with open archways connecting the kitchen, living area, sitting room and bedroom. The only doors in the home are the front door, a closet door, and a door on the bathroom.
The fireplace sits in the corner of the home, which features all the amenities a traditional home would have. A map of Middle-earth is hung on one wall, while a box set of “The Lord of the Rings” book series, as well as the prequel novel “The Hobbit” sit on an end table. A replica of an Old Winyards wine barrel from South Farthing in the fantasy series serves as a fold out bar in the home.
Initially, the couple considered offering the home as a vacation rental. However, after it was completed they decided it would be their home.
“We were going to rent it as an Aribnb, but after got it done we just had so much of ourselves in it. We had poured our heart and soul into this thing, so I was thinking, ‘No I can’t have somebody else in here and maybe trashing the place.’ It’s my baby, and I don’t want to give my baby to somebody else,” Jonathan Haley said.
Somewhat humorously, while Jonathan Haley loves “The Lord of the Rings” books and movies, his wife Laura has not even watched the film trilogy all the way through.
Ironically, the films have never been screened in the home based on them.
“I hate it. I tried twice, but it’s not my thing,” Laura Haley said laughing.
“We have never watched it here because she won’t watch it, and it’s kind of a one room house. I tried to show her ‘The Fellowship of the Ring,’ and she barely made it through. ‘The Two Towers,’ forget it, wasn’t going to happen,” Jonathan Haley chuckled.
However, Laura Haley watched just enough of “The Fellowship of the Ring” to get an idea of the home she wanted. As the film begins, the wizard Gandalf visits Bilbo the hobbit in his hobbit home.
“Right in the beginning of the movie with Bilbo and Gandalf. I made a note of every single frame. I was like ‘stop here and stop there,’ trying to get all the ideas and memorize to try to make it as close as I can,” Laura Haley said. “That was my favorite part of ‘The Lord of the Rings.’”
There were times in the difficult building process that the couple became frustrated, but they have no regrets now.
The couple loves “the peace and tranquility of the countryside,” and the local community. The pair, originally from Florida, feel like they have been welcomed with open arms.
“We have never doubted our decision to buy a home here in Greeneville. The community is fantastic. It’s been great. The folks here are fantastic people, and our neighbors are great. They really accepted us,” Jonathan Haley said. “There’s always that stigma with new people, but they look out for us, and they look out for the house when we’re gone.”
“We do love the community a lot,” Laura Haley said.
As Tolkien wrote in “The Hobbit,” the new underground home in Greene County is much more than a simple hole in the ground.
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort,” Tolkien wrote in the first line of “The Hobbit.”
You may not find a hobbit in the hobbit-hole in Caney Branch, but you will certainly find comfort.
