83-Year-Old Restores Mold-Filled Hobbit House Solo

At 73, when most people are thinking about retirement hobbies, Paul Johnson took on a project that terrified everyone else. He bought a unique 1970s round house in Himatangi, New Zealand that had been abandoned for eight years and was covered floor to ceiling in black mold.

"I've always been a MacGyver. I can fix anything," Johnson says with the confidence of someone who's proven it time and again.

The house is unlike anything else in New Zealand. Every doorway curves in an arch, every window sits just inches from the floor, and the entire structure forms a perfect circle. When Johnson first saw it in 2018, most people would have run away.

Instead, he saw a challenge worth living for. His own son, who works for Peter Jackson on animated films like The Hobbit, told him he was crazy. Johnson's response? "This house will keep me alive."

He started by attacking the mold with industrial foggers, feeling like he was in a Men in Black movie. Three days later, the black coating was gone. Then came the real work: realigning curved walls, restoring a smashed fiberglass sunken bath, and fixing a roof that followed the building's circular design.

The plans added another twist. The original builders had constructed everything backward from the blueprints, putting every room on the opposite side from what was drawn.

Johnson mounted a mobile scaffold with wheels and pulled himself along the curved corridor ceiling, painting and repairing overhead. "I felt like Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel," he laughs.

Now 83, Johnson and his wife Gillian have lived in their restored Hobbit house for several years. Locals constantly talk about the famous round house, frustrated they can't see inside. One neighbor who'd lived in town for 12 years lit up when Johnson mentioned where he lived, saying everyone was "pissed off" they couldn't tour it.

Why This Inspires

Johnson's story flips our assumptions about aging upside down. While society often expects people to shrink their ambitions in later life, he expanded his. The restoration wasn't just about saving a building. It was about proving that challenges keep us vibrant, that it's never too late to tackle something ambitious, and that the word "impossible" is really just an invitation.

The couple is now selling their circular home, reluctantly, to move closer to family. "I'll be broken-hearted to sell, because it's got half of my spirit in it," Johnson admits.

But somewhere in New Zealand, a unique piece of architectural history stands restored, a testament to one man's refusal to act his age.