'I live in an underground bunker with blast-proof door and 18 beds - I love it'

One woman has waved goodbye to natural sunlight and expensive rent to live in an underground bunker. Despite the lack of windows and limited space, she believes it's well worth it to save over £1,000 a month on rent.

Caitlin Johnson, 44, moved from New York to California in April 2024 but found the eye-watering cost of rent to be extortionate. She said the average cost of a one-bedroom apartmentin California would set her back around $1.5k to $2k (£1,095 to £1,461) every month.

In a bid to save some cash, Caitlin was offered the chance to live in her friend's 1,200sq-ft underground bunker found in their garden in Bakersfield, California. It boasts a master bedroom with an ensuite, fully equipped kitchen, living room, a bathroom, two more toilets, an extra shower and a whopping 18 bunk beds.

Caitlin, who works in entertainment, pays just £365 ($500) a month in rent to live in the bunker while taking care of the shelter and the garden. She shared: "On average a one-bed rental in California is like $1.5 to $2k a month. I rent part of the yard and the bunker for $500 a month - I also don't pay utilities.

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"The trade-off is that I take care of the bunker and yard so she doesn't have to take care of it. I could easily buy somewhere, but my job is constantly moving, and I don't know how long I will live in one location."

As it stands, she has no plans to move out of the bunker and says it's larger than some studio apartments she had in New York. It's also super secure, with an entrance through a hydraulic door, before walking down 15 stairs, and entering a blast-proof door.

Caitlin said the underground bunker is "super quiet" and, after she added some touches, feels like any other apartment. "It was empty, I slowly filled it with stuff that would fit down there, and I popped the rest in storage," she said.

"It just feels like an apartment to me." Despite it being underground, Caitlin is still able to get a phone signal and internet access, so she's not completely cut off from the outside world.

A downfall to the bunker could be the lack of natural light, with artificial sunlight installed in the bedroom, but it doesn't seem to faze Caitlin, as she has ways around it. "There are two 10 feet by 4 feet hydraulic doors into the bunker, so during the day when I'm home, I'll have them open to let light in," she explained.

"It's harder in the winter for sure, but I work outdoors a lot of the time. I'm gone most of the day working, I come home when it's night time, I go down to the bunker and it doesn't feel weird as it is night time."

Her friend had moved into the property in 2022 and discovered the underground bunker in the garden, which had been empty for some time and had been originally built by the previous owner. "When she bought the house, she was saying how she didn't take any care of the bunker", Caitlin shared.

"One day I convinced her to let me move into it and rent it off her. I rent a part of the yard and the bunker for $500 and I have been doing it for a year."

While she won't stay in the bunker forever, Caitlin has asked to stay for another year, and her friend has agreed. "The bunker is obviously not a forever home, but I love living here," she said.

"I have had way worse apartments in New York. For my friends, this feels very on brand for me, so it is not a massive shock for them.

"I've done a lot of crazy things in my life. I work in entertainment, so nobody I know is shocked. But it does shock a lot of strangers."

On the safety of being in the bunker, Caitlin added: "The silver lining of the situation is that if anything goes wrong, I'm safe. I've always joked it would protect me from a zombie apocalypse, and then the world started turning, and I was like 'wow, I'm set up here'.

"I don't live somewhere that would get bombed, but if there were looting or riots, I would be safe as nobody can get into the bunker."