A Hand-Built Home With a Spiral Staircase, on 44 Private Acres
$349,000 Ripe for Reimagining
Twenty minutes outside Redway, deep in Humboldt County's redwood country — 44 acres of California homestead land, thick with forest and privacy.
The main home is a genuine hand-built original — a curved turret room with a spiral staircase and arched windows, vaulted wood-beam ceilings, and a second spiral stair leading to more space upstairs. Real repairs are already done, too: a new roof and gutters, a repaired and sealed foundation, and a pumped, functioning septic system, all permitted with invoices available. What is left is cosmetic and personal — the floors, paint, and finish work that turn "structurally sound" into "move-in ready." 3 bd / 2 ba, 2,300 sq ft, built 1980, on 44 acres.
Listed at $349,000. Listing courtesy of Marcus Schaible, Emerald Realty.
Homestead Potential
Water & Infrastructure
Year-round spring water is already piped to the property — a genuine asset in this part of Humboldt County, where reliable water can be the hardest homesteading problem to solve. Confirm the system's current condition and flow rate, but starting from a live spring instead of drilling a well is a real head start.
Crop & Income Potential
Aerial views show cleared, terraced garden ground already cut into the hillside — real growing space, not just acreage. Humboldt County's mix of redwood forest and mild climate supports serious hobby farming here, though on 44 mostly wooded acres the cultivated footprint will stay a fraction of the total.
Sustainability
Starlink and portable solar are included with the sale, and the property already has multiple standalone structures — a yurt, a couple of small cabins — that spread living and storage space across the land instead of asking one building to do everything. Not every structure here is in the same condition; expect a real range from usable now to needing real work, and budget accordingly.
The Boundaries
The main house repairs were done with permits and invoices available, which is worth confirming directly rather than taking on faith. With multiple structures spread across 44 acres, get a current survey and check with Humboldt County on the permitted status of the smaller buildings and any ADU before you count on using them as-is.
Beyond the Property Line
Local Flavor & Small-Town Character
Redway sits just over two miles from Garberville in Southern Humboldt, home to the Mateel Community Center — a solar-designed hall built by hand over 30 years ago that still anchors the area's art, music, and community life, including the annual Summer Arts & Music Festival. This is genuinely rural Northern California, not a resort town dressed up as one.
Agricultural Resources & Neighbor Networks
Humboldt was the first county in California to establish a Cooperative Extension office and the first to organize 4-H clubs, a history that still shows in the strength of its local agricultural support network today, based out of Eureka.
Outdoor Recreation & Natural Surroundings
Humboldt Redwoods State Park, with over 100 miles of trail and the 32-mile Avenue of the Giants driving through old-growth redwood groves, is a short drive away. The Eel River, a federally designated Wild and Scenic waterway, adds swimming holes, fishing, and paddling all along the route.
Listed on Zillow
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