Andres Canto's cave
Andres Canto, 20, built an underground cave after arguing with his mom.
@andresiko_16
  • Andres Canto fought with his mom in 2015. To channel his anger, he started digging a hole.
  • Over six years, he transformed the hole into an underground cave with a bedroom and living room.
  • Canto has plans to further improve the cave by adding a jacuzzi, he told Insider.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Six years ago, Andres Canto got into a fight with his mother. "My mom wanted me to change my clothes before I went out with my friends," he told Insider. "But I refused and had to stay at home.

Instead of sulking in his bedroom, as most 14-year-olds might be expected to do, Canto decided to release his anger from his "prepubescent tantrum" in a more productive way.

The Spanish actor, who is now 20-years-old, began digging a hole in the backyard of his family home in Alicante, Spain. "I was an angry teenager with a pick axe," he said. "After I started digging, I came back every afternoon for three years to continue digging that hole."

Six years on, Canto's continuous digging has resulted in a dusty pit being transformed into a fully-fledged "man cave." The underground bunker is complete with stairs, a stereo system, heating, an oven, and a single bed.

He spoke to Insider from inside the cave, where he spends up to five hours a day relaxing, using the WiFi system he installed himself.

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Canto said that while the argument motivated him to start digging in March 2015, he'd long considered embarking on such a project. "I was bored and alone in my neighborhood and I wanted to do something athletic," he said.

His initial plans were just to dig a bottomless pit. "For the first three years, I just wanted to see how deep a hole I could dig," Canto added.

andres canto cave
Andres Canto started digging a hole on March 9, 2015.
@andresiko_16

But, in 2017, he began realizing that he could transform the hole into a liveable space. He called on his best friend, Andrieu, to help out. Andrieu lent him a pneumatic drill to speed the process up and came every afternoon to assist in the digging.

Within a year, the pair had more than doubled the cave's depth from five feet to 11 feet deep.

The Alicante cave in 2018
The cave, by 2018, had stairs and was several feet deep.
@andresiko_16

Canto has worked tirelessly over the past few years to build a functional underground space, spending around three hours every day on the construction.

A video tour, shared on his social media, shows that the cave now has many of the features of a standard home.

"When you enter the cave down the stairs, the first room has heating pipes and a coat rack," he told Insider. "That's the hallway."

The second room, Canto continued, has a seating area and a stereo system. "In the center of that room, there's an oven," the 20-year-old added.

The underground cave even has a bedroom with a single bed, shelving, and seating for four friends.

His friends think the underground cave is "awesome," he said. "They come every week to see any improvements or to simply enjoy a beer down there."

Canto's parents, on the other hand, are less thrilled by the construction. "Whenever I finish a room, they ask if I'm done already," he said

The underground bunker is far from finished, Canto told Insider. "What hooked me on the project was that it is never-ending. I think I'll probably add a jacuzzi next," he said.

The 20-year-old has no regrets about the six-year project. "It's been a long and rough adventure but, in the end, I love what I've achieved," he said. "All of the bad memories have disappeared."

Read the original article on Insider