A 44-Million-Won Abandoned House Becomes a Family Home

Shocked to hear that his daughter had suddenly bought an abandoned house in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do, her father, Choi Chan-seok, worried about her well-being and visited the house, which led to the two living together.

Choi Byeol was drawn in by an online thumbnail offering 299 pyeong for 44 million won, and clicked through to the listing.

The house, sitting like an island among rice paddies and fields, gave her the feeling of being by the sea. Captivated more by the surroundings than the condition of the house, she decided on the contract right away.

Choi Byeol, who worked as a broadcast PD, used her vacation and spare time to document the process of directly repairing the abandoned house.

Content about renovating the house unexpectedly drew great attention, and it took off within three months. This coincided with the country-life trend of the COVID-19 period, akin to 'Little Forest,' which drew even more attention.

As Choi Byeol prepared to return to work in Seoul, she worried the house would fall into disrepair if left empty and sought a solution.

She opened a bookstore so that people could come and go, and now her father takes on the role of looking after the books, with the two living together.

When she first renovated the house, Choi Byeol intended to live alone, so she removed the doors and chose an open-plan layout.

Even after the renovation greatly improved the living environment, her father expressed puzzlement at the rooms without doors. This reflects her past experience of preferring independent space.

Choi Byeol started at a goshiwon at age twenty, then moved through a semi-basement, a first-floor unit, and a rooftop room before settling in her current house.

Reflecting that the closed doors of the goshiwon felt like walls, she considered window size the key indicator of quality of life, and expressed great satisfaction with the excellent natural light in her current home.

The closet that once stored bedding has become a special space that holds Choi Byeol's late mother's scripts.

She keeps traces of her mother, who was a radio drama writer, inside the closet, reflecting on memories of her.

Nostalgia for the family's happier past played an important role in her choice of the country house.

Choi Byeol suffered deep wounds after her mother suddenly passed away when she was in high school.

Describing the absence of one family member as a missing chair leg, she expressed that the family relationship became unstable and emotionally destructive. For more than ten years afterward, they lived apart, sustaining a conflicted relationship in which they hurt each other.

Father Choi Chan-seok expresses his affection for his daughter through tending the garden.

The garden is a space reflecting her father's wish to let his daughter live surrounded by flowers. Choi Byeol feels that her father's gardening is like ascetic practice, washing away the karma of many years.

Eldest daughter Choi Jin recalled that after their mother passed away, their father struggled, relying on alcohol.

She was moved when she realized that her father had known about her younger sister's outings and had felt deep sorrow and regret.

Choi Byeol set out a drinking table for her father, recreating the ordinary mealtime scene she had seen at a friend's home.

There, her father shared his loneliness and innermost feelings for the first time. He opened up about the personal wounds of outliving his siblings and parting from his wife, and shed tears as he shared them with his daughter.

Choi Byeol said that without the house, it would have been hard to reconcile with her father.

The father and daughter, whose conversation had been cut off, began to communicate by sharing this space. The daughter welcomes bookstore guests and the father looks after the garden work, and through sharing daily life and staying together, their relationship has become much closer than before.

Choi Byeol arranged the kitchen as an open layout by the entrance so she could spend time with her father over meals.

She made the spot where the largest window originally was into the kitchen, securing a view where the Gimje plains can be seen at a glance.

She wanted a kitchen overlooking the plains, and stressed the value of a space where conversation flows over meals.

Father Choi Chan-seok defines the house as a place where the family can gather.

The house is a refuge the family can return to in any emotional state, whether joy or loneliness, and it is here that they reaffirm the meaning of family and the essence of home.