Herndon woman building tunnel system at home now selling 'underground' merchandise
Northern Virginia woman continues building tunnel system at home
A northern Virginia woman from northern Virginia is busy digging a tunnel under her home and she's gained so many fans they're even willing to pay for tunnel merch.
HERNDON, Va. - A woman from northern Virginia is busy digging a tunnel under her home and she's gained so many fans, they're even willing to pay for tunnel merch.
Kala’s nights and weekends are spent creating her own personal cave as she calls it and she is famous on TikTok for it. Her followers began as engineers and contractors as such but it quickly grew into a fascination from curious fans across the globe.
The backstory:
It was a simple idea back in 2022.
"When I first started this, I was like, ‘I want a small storm shelter/emergency shelter’ and I don’t know how difficult and complicated tunneling is going to be so maybe I’ll just go five feet,"
But that five feet turned into 30 as Kala pushed her skills further.
"It is not easy, but it was easier than I had imagined," she said.
And so she kept going, as one bucket turned into over 100 tons of rock being lifted from below her home.
She had to overcome some bureaucracy but is back at it with the goal of creating a miniature workshop that she plans to extend another 30 feet, so she can work on other projects—underground.
"So the mess doesn’t cause the house to get dusty. Because a lot of the things that I like to do whether it’s cutting stone or cutting steel there’s a lot of grinding. There’s a lot of sanding and that just makes a huge mess in the house," Kala said.
Big picture view:
While she claims she's only a hobbyist engineer, her posting the videos to her nearly one million followers has inspired others to get into the profession.
"I’ve been contacted by so many people saying that, ‘I joined engineering because of your content’ or, ‘my kids watch your channel. They’re interested in going into engineering and it’s so inspiring to us,'" she said.
She says she reads every comment from what she posts and while there are critics, she has a lot of support and people want a piece of this process. She has been selling tunnel cubes for $35 a piece and so far has sold over 400.
And if there’s a zombie apocalypse? Kala’s the one that’s ready.
"I know my critics will be the first to be knocking on the door," she said.
She hopes to be done with the tunnel in the next six months.