Over the last two years, I’ve been sharing the journey of building a home abroad and a base for my travels. Basecamp Balifornia. Now that the adventure of construction is over, and the world is open for business, I’ll return back to exploring the world – with Bali-fornia as my home between wandering, my place to surf and recover, and the place I’ll continue to build a tribe.
(If you have any questions about this build (Balifornia) or building on Bali, feel free to email me at [email protected])
But, no story should be left unfinished, without a clear conclusion, especially one that’s gone on two years. Moreover, most of the travelers, nomads, and aspiring expats I meet hope to build their own “basecamp” abroad, and are wondering, how feasible is it? Though my other article does a better job answering the question of how much does a villa in Bali cost I couldn’t finish this story out without sharing the finished product of this adventure.
If you have any questions about the project, I’ll keep a running FAQ at the end of this article, so if you email me a question, I’ll add it to the answers at the end.
Thanks for following the journey!
THE INSPIRATION FOR BALIFORNIA: YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, ROCKS, AND TREES
Before I was lucky enough to call Bali home, many weeks were spent wandering the national parks of the US, with Yosemite National Park being my favorite. Also before surfing consumed my days, camping anywhere I could to hike, trek, and rock climb was my favorite kind of vacation, and how I spent my best weekends in my other home of California.
Though my life in California is long in the rear view, my love for the rocks and trees that make up my favorite places in the outdoors aren’t. They’re beautiful, and literally timeless, lasting the worst of weather and times.
Balifornia was planned to exemplify all of that. Brutatilist (an architectural style aiming to expose as much of the construction materials as possible) design combined with modern industrial design were used to make a villa that stands up to the heat, sun, humidity, wet, and mold that destroy most villas in Bali.
The layout is airy, spacious, open, and simple, with windows wrapping on most sides, to give the feeling of being outside in the ricefields, even when inside, and making the most of enjoying Bali’s rainy season from the dry of inside.
And the lot is oversized, at 530 square meters. Most foreigner owned builds in Bali use 200 to 300 square meters for the building, the pool, and the lot. With Balifornia, we accidentally ended up with more land than necessary, and are filling it to the brim with a functional garden (vegetables, fruit trees, crawling vines) and decided to keep it and grow as many trees as we can fit – achieving the original goal of a home of rock and trees.
It ain’t perfect, but its home.
A FINISHED VIEW OF BALIFORNIA
THE BUILD
Note: Only the 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom main house is pictured, I will update with the 1 bedroom mezzanine loft guesthouse later.
THE LAND
