7 Amazing Houses (Built by Equally Amazing People)

The world is home to pretty much every shape, size and bizarre form of house you can possibly imagine, but as amazing as these houses are, the stories of the people who built them are often even more fantastic. A house says a lot about a person, and these houses tell the world that its owner isn’t about to conform to it’s rules (or maybe that they just forgot to take their medication).


The Toilet House

No need for a lengthy description here—it’s a house designed to look like a giant toilet. We realize housing markets are in the can and all, but we’re not sure we needed a house that illustrated it quite so literally.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Sim Jae-Duck was born in a washroom. Usually this is the kind of personal trivia you try to keep to yourself, but Sim Jae-Duck isn’t merely unashamed of the fact that the first thing he saw in this world was that the tub could really use a de-grouting, he’s downright proud of it. It was no mere coincidence that his mother gave birth there either, as Sim’s grandmother told his mom tthat babies born in bathrooms were destined to live long successful lives. Normally that kind of advice would be cause to ship grandma off to the nursing home, but it turns out that she may have been on to something as Sim Jae-Duck went on to become the Mayor of the South Korean city of Suweon.

During his term Sim was given the nickname “Mayor Toilet”, and while this is hardly the first time people have referred to politicians and toilets in the same sentence, Sim truly earned his moniker by being completely obsessed by the things. Sim believes bathrooms should be “clean and beautiful resting places imbued with culture” and hopes to transform them into something closer to a garden or art gallery (if those things were filled with the smell of poop).

Yeah yeah, toilets are great. Enough already.

In 1999 Sim Jae-Duck launched his World Toilet Association, and to celebrate unveiled his glass walled toilet house, which features two bedrooms, guestrooms and of course three luxurious state-of-the-art washrooms. Feeling disappointed that you can’t literally live your life in the crapper? Well if you have 50 thousand dollars laying about you too can spend a night in Sim’s toilet house. Just remember to bring some good reading material.


The Scrap Wood Skyscraper

Believe it or not, this thing that looks like some sort of haunted scrap heap is in fact an inhabitable house.

Located in the Siberian town of Arkhangelsk, it’s believed to be the tallest wooden dwelling in the world, towering 13-stories and seemingly defying several laws of physics by not toppling over every time a slight breeze hits it.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Nikolai Sutyagin built the entire house himself by hand mostly from scrap lumber. According to its creator the house was originally intended to only be 2-stories, but looked “ungainly”, so he just kept building, which we’re pretty sure isn’t a technique recommended by most architectural schools.

Despite the quirkiness of his final product, Nikolai sounds like quite the inspiring figure doesn’t he? The kind of guy you tell your kids about when you want them to get their asses up from in front of the TV. Well until you find out that Nikolai Sutyagin was actually a Russian gangster who built his house to be the Russian equivalent of the Playboy mansion.

You're more likely to get tetanus than in the real Playboy mansion. On the plus side, you're also less likely to have to sleep with Hugh Hefner.

The house contains a garden, ballroom, 5-story bathhouse and numerous rooms where Sutyagins business colleagues could “entertain” various women. Come to think of it, he may inspire us even more now.

Of course he's not wearing a shirt.

The Narrow House

Well, clearly this is just a picture of a house in construction. That white structure is just one of the walls of a full house to be built later, right?

Nope, turns out that’s an entire house, the thinnest one in the world in fact. The house measures only about 3-feet wide at the front, expanding to a roomy 6-feet across at it’s widest point. Despite being narrower than a lot of human beings here in America, this Brazilian house manages to pack in two living rooms, three bedrooms and a kitchen.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

A few years ago, Helenita Queiroz Grave Minho found herself out of a job. While some people might use this as excuse to catch up on their daytime TV while hiding inside to keep the disability checks coming, Helenita decided to be proactive. She wanted to build a house that she could rent out for extra cash, but unfortunately the only land she had to build on was a narrow alleyway. That didn’t stop her.

Helenita's a lady who gets her way.

Helenita went through a lengthy battle with the Mayor’s office before she was allowed to build (during which we imagine the phrase “are you completely insane?” must have been common) but eventually the authorities gave in. Despite having no architectural training, Helenita designed and built the house with her husband, and it’s now become a local tourist attraction, with Helenita planning to build another story on it as well. Hopefully she stops there though, since we’re not sure “world’s narrowest collapsed pile of rubble” will have quite the same draw.


The Coral Castle

On the southernmost tip of Florida, an area not exactly known for it’s high culture, lays the Coral Castle, a structure that has been compared to world wonders like Stonehenge and the great pyramids of Egypt, and it was all built by a single man who, if his neighbours are to be believed, may have had magical powers.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin was dumped by his fiancé on the day before their wedding. After a steel toe to the nuts like that a lot of men might fantasize about building a fortress to shut themselves away from humanity in, but Edward Leedskalnin, being a can-do kind of guy, actually did it. Edward moved to south Florida and began building himself a castle using giant blocks of limestone from the nearby Gulf of Mexico. Everything in the castle, from Edward’s two-story tower living quarters, to the furniture, to the strange sculptures in the courtyard, to his throne (he way have been overcompensating just a tad with that one) were made of these stone slabs, with no mortar or cement to hold them together.

While that’s odd in and of itself, even stranger is the fact that nobody knows how the hell the guy did it all. Leedskalnin went to great lengths to make sure nobody saw him working, and it remains a mystery how he managed to move, cut and precisely assemble these chunks of rock (some of which were up to twice as large as the stones used at Stonehenge) all on his own. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, eventually he decided the location he’d chosen for his project wasn’t quite right, so he moved the whole thing 10-miles down the road. Think changing apartments is tough? Try moving when you have to take over a thousand tons of limestone with you.

See this giant hunk of stone? I totally lifted it, and I'm not going to tell you how.

Over the years people have come up with plenty of interesting theories to explain the creation of the Coral Castle, and by “interesting”, we mostly mean batshit insane. Neighbours say they witnessed Edward placing his hands on the rocks, chanting and causing them to levitate, local teenagers claim to have seen him flying the blocks like hydrogen balloons, and some even believe Edward may have discovered the very key to the universe. Edward himself said his amazing building abilities were due to him discovering the secrets of the pyramids. Gee, thanks for the clarification. Even Spock himself demands an explanation…



The Beer Can House

Somewhere in Houston, Texas lays the Beer Can House, which in a stirring tribute to both recycling and alcoholism, is adorned with over 50-thousand crushed beer cans.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

We know what you’re thinking, and no, the Beer Can House was never a frat house believe it or not. The house was actually created by upholsterer John Milkovisch. The whole project started when Milkovisch decided to replace his lawn with cement slabs which he covered with marbles, metal and all sorts of other random junk, because in his words, he just “got sick of mowing the damn grass.”

With his property now officially an eyesore, he decided to really go for broke. According to friends, Milkovisch lived on the route the beer truck drove to get to the grocery store, and like a middle aged beer bellied kid, he’d run out like he’d seen the ice cream truck and clean it out, stocking eight to ten cases in his garage at all times. Perhaps it was the influence of all those beers that made him think sticking the empties on the walls was a good idea, but it turned out fine for Milkovisch as the house is now considered a beloved local landmark. Basically what we’re saying is that if there’s ever a vote on who the awesomest guy ever was, John Milkovisch ought to at least be on the ballot.

John Milkovisch appreciated the finer things in life.

The House on the Rock

Near the unassuming small town of Spring Green, Wisconsin lays one of the oddest houses in America. For starters it’s perched on top of a 60-foot tall column of sheer rock, and inside you’ll find a seemingly randomly assembled collection of bizarre themed rooms. There’s a room full of strange automated instruments, a recreation of an early 20th century town, a large carousel and more. Basically it’s what Disneyland would have been like if Walt had banged his head a few too many times as a kid and spent most of his life doing shrooms.

Apparently Godzilla lives somewhere in this house.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

The house’s creator, Alex Jordan Jr., was famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s biggest fan. Jordan travelled to meet Wright so he could show him the plans for a building he had designed, hoping to get his idol’s approval, and well, Wright basically straight-up told Jordan he was the shittiest architect in history, dropping the following awesome line on him…

"I wouldn't hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop. You're not capable." There’s only one thing to say to that. Ouch.

Frank Lloyd Wright: The Don Rickles of the the architecture world.

Well after that Jordan turned in his Frank Lloyd Wright fan club badge, and decided he was going to make Wright eat his words by building a house on top of a rock spire he spotted while driving home in a huff from the fateful meeting. 80-years later Wright is America’s most respected architect and Alex Jordan is one of seven crazy people mentioned in a Cracked article. You sure showed him Alex.

Not even Alex Jordan's hat could compare to FLW.

Le Palais Ideal

Somewhere amongst the French countryside, near the town Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, lays Le Palais Ideal (“The Ideal Palace”), a large incredibly ornate palace built out of small stones, and decorated with imagery from the Bible, India and many other cultures from around the world. It may seem like a monument from some sort of long-lost civilization, but in reality the Palais Ideal is only celebrating it’s 100th birthday this year, and it’s creation was all the result of a man tripping over a stone.

So Who the Hell Built This Thing?

Le Palais Idea was entirely the work of Ferdinand Cheval, a mailman who tripped over a stone one day while on his route. Cheval could have simply tossed the rock aside, or perhaps gone with his mailman instincts and hurled it at somebody’s head, but instead he found himself fascinated by it’s shape and was inspired to create the Palais. From that day on, and for the next 33-years, Ferdinand Cheval would collect stones along his route, at first stuffing them into his pockets, before upgrading to a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow. Fortunately the backhoe wasn’t invented yet because we’re sure Cheval would have taken one on his route if he could.

Clearly not the kind of man you say "no" to when he asks to pick stones off your sidewalk.

After collecting the stones, Cheval would then painstakingly piece together his ideal palace, usually working at night by the light of an oil lamp. Cheval wanted to be buried there, but unfortunately that was against French law. Since Cheval was a mailman, and thus possessed that unique postal worker combination of insanity and love for pointless rules, he decided not to fight it and instead spent the next eight years building a mausoleum using the same techniques he had used for his palace. He made sure the mausoleum didn’t get all musty before he moved in either, promptly dying less than a year after he finished it.

Nathan Birch also writes the solidly constructed webcomic Zoology.

6 Creepy Urban Legends (That Happen to be True) Part 3!

As we’ve already proven twice that friend of a friend people keep hearing things from may not be as full of shit as you always thought, so get ready as Cracked once again makes you wet yourself with cold hard facts.


The Deadly Elevator

The Legend:
The metal doors clamp down on a hapless victim, who can do nothing but scream in terror as the elevator dings and begins to rise, shearing off their head or limbs as it does. We’ve watched scenes like this in enough movies that we all have that twinge of panic as the doors start to close on us as we try to catch an elevator. But surely this kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life. There are safety measures, right? Right?

The Truth:
Well yes, there are, but for whatever reason they were of no help to Dr. Hitoshi Nikaidoh on August 16th, 2003. Why didn’t the elevator open again, or shut down when the doctor became pinned between the doors at the shoulders as he was getting on? To this day nobody’s exactly sure, but inspectors have suggested the tragedy may have been caused by a single out of place wire. Think about that little morsel next time you’re debating whether to take the elevator or the stairs.

As the doors held Dr. Nikaidoh in place like a vice, the elevator began it’s ascent, slicing his head in two at mouth-level, leaving only his left ear and lower jaw attached to his body. Found that a little nauseating to read? Well suck it up, and try to imagine how the nurse who was already in the elevator and had to spend up to an hour in a blood-soaked box with the good doctor’s head felt. We’re surprised they didn’t find her scaling the elevator cables like John McClane in scrubs to get the hell out of there after 5-minutes.

While Dr. Nikaidoh’s story was certainly gruesome, he’s far from the only one to have been done in by an elevator mishap, as around 30-people are killed by elevators each year. Yes, 30 people a year have to die while listening to elevator muzak. If there’s a God out there he’s one cruel bastard.


The Case of the Killer Collar

The Legend:
A man shows up at a bank, and informs the tellers that he’s very sorry, but he’s going to have to clean the place out. You see, around his neck is an explosive collar that will deposit his brains all over the walls unless he robs the bank. A film favourite, explosive collars have made appearances in movies like Battle Royale and Transporter 3, but could this kind of Jigsaw killer-esque plot exist in real life?

The Truth:
On a day like any other in late August 2003, pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was about to end his shift when a fateful order came in. The directions given to Bryan led him to a winding deserted dirt road that ended at a lonely TV tower. Now most people upon arriving at the spooky deserted road would have just tossed the pizzas in the ditch, but not Brian Wells. He was dedicated to his minimum wage delivery job.

What exactly happened on that dirt road is still subject to debate, but what we do know is that around an hour later he reappeared at a nearby bank, with a strange collar around his neck, a homemade shotgun shaped like a walking cane in his hand, and a note demanding a quarter million dollars in cash. While supposedly all those responsible for putting the collar on Brian Wells have since been caught and charged, the wacky walking cane shotgun leads us to believe that there may have been another perpetrator that hasn’t yet been brought to justice.

Never count out the Penguin.

Unfortunately for Brain he was about as good at robbing banks as he was at avoiding obvious horror movie set-ups, and was apprehended by the police in the parking lot. The cops quickly discovered the collar, but just took it for a stylish ticking fashion accessory, and didn’t bother to call the bomb squad for nearly half an hour. By the time the bomb squad did arrive, the collar had gone off, blowing a “postcard-sized” hole in Wells’ chest.

The police found a list of tasks on Well’s body, each of which were to be completed in a set period of time or the the bomb would go off. Poor Brian was doomed from the start though, as it was later determined it would have been impossible for him to execute all the tasks even if everything had gone according to plan. He simply hadn’t been given enough time. These are the kind of tragedies that happened before the world had Google Maps.


The Body Farm

The Legend:
Near where you live there very well may be an isolated patch of land covered with unburied corpses, some of them posed, or even stuffed in car trunks, rotting in the midday sun. Is there a serial killer on the loose? Has the gravediggers’ union gone on strike again? No, in fact what’s going on here is, surprisingly, completely legal.

The Truth:
You won’t see much mention of this on CSI since it would take away from the usual 30-minutes devoted to David Caruso putting on and/or removing his sunglasses, but body farms are becoming an increasingly important tool for forensic scientists. These patches of land have bodies scattered over them by scientists so they can study how bodies decay under a variety of conditions.

Think checking out the local body farm sounds like a fun weekend excursion? Well if you live around Knoxville Tennessee, San Marcos Texas or Cullowhee North Carolina, you’re in luck, because that’s where the country’s three body farms are located. The one found in Knoxville is the oldest and most elaborate, covering 2.5 acres and containing 40 to 50 bodies at any one time. If there’s not one near you yet, just wait, as scientists are looking to start new body farms faster than Wal-Mart opens new stores, with some hoping for a future with a body farm in every state. Because apparently the way bodies rot in Nebraska is completely different than in Iowa.

Now, check out this video of a kindly grandfatherly type showing off his collection of molding cadavers and discussing wearing human skin gloves.

The Chainsaw Suicide

The Legend:
A man decides to use a chainsaw to end it all in an incredibly gruesome (and honestly kind of awesome) way.

The Truth:
So David Phyall, a 50-year old British man, really really didn’t want to leave his apartment block, which was set to be demolished. Alternative accommodation was offered to him 11-times, but David just wasn’t taking. One by one all his neighbours moved out, leaving David the one holdout rattling around in a condemned apartment building all on his own.

David Phyall's aparment block. We're thinking maybe he overreacted a little.

Something had to give and it turned out that something was going to be David’s vertebrae. See David had a plan that was definitely going to cost him his safety deposit, and make a hell of a chore for the cleaning staff. David tied a chainsaw to the leg of a table, laid down with his neck against it, set the saw on a 15-minute timer, then took a stiff drink. David’s plan, and head, went off without a hitch.

A superior asked the police Sergeant that found Phyall if discovering the body was a shock to him.

"In some ways it was sir" replied the Sergeant reportedly.

He was promptly fined by the British police for being too bloody excitable and not showing proper stiff upper-lippishness in the line of duty.


The Call from Beyond the Grave

The Legend:
People receive numerous calls from a loved one, only finding out later that the person calling them has been pushing up daisies for hours. Believe it or not, it’s actually happened (texting from beyond the grave on the other hand has yet to be verified).

The Truth:
On September 12th, 2008, a California commuter train ran through a red warning light, crashing into a freight train, killing 25 people. The family of Charles Peck, knowing he was on the train, watched the news with dread waiting for news of his fate—and then they got a call. Then another, and another, all from Charles’ cellphone. One family member after another was called, with Charles’ cellphone sending out 35 calls in total, at which point, ghost calls or not, we’re sure they just started letting the things go to voicemail.

The police managed to find Charles’ body among the wreckage by tracking his cellphone signal, but it was not a happy reunion. Brian was dead, and to this day how those calls were sent remains a mystery. Now, how about some irony with your creepy? Guess what the train’s engineer was distracted by when he ran past that red light? Yup, in a twist that would be cut from a Twilight Zone episode for being too cheesy, it was his cellphone. God’s not only a cruel bastard, but a hack horror writer as well apparently.

Qualified to be a train engineer apparently.

Shrunken Heads

The Legend:
Head shrinking has been the subject of legend, jokes and old Looney Tunes sight gags for ages, but the practice couldn’t actually be real, could it? It’s just one more bit of bullshit white people made up about folks a shade darker than them, right? Well…

The Truth:
Head shrinking was in fact a real thing, practiced mainly by tribes located around the Amazon River basin. For those looking to throw the perfect head shrinking party, here’s the recipe:

Make a cut on the back of the head, then painstaking peel all the skin and flesh from the skull. Sew the eyes and mouth shut, then boil the flesh up good, dry it with hot rocks, then mold it back into a head-like shape. Viola! A handy miniature version of the guy you nailed with that arrow last week!

While head shrinking was real, it was quite rare even amongst the tribes that practiced it, that is until collecting shrunken heads became the Pogs of the late 19th century. The shrunken head trade actually became big business, with numerous South American and Polynesian tribes (most of whom never shrunk heads in the first place) going to war with one another just to collect heads. In a tactic that was amazingly dickish even by white people’s extraordinarily low standards when it came to dealing with natives, traders would give the tribes guns in exchange for the shrunken heads, ensuring a steady supply of new product.

Pictured: A large collection of shrunken heads and one horrible human being.

The sale of shrunken heads continued in the United States for years until it was finally officially outlawed sometime in the 1940s. Yes, as late as the 40s people still thought it was cool to trade human face jerky. By the way, wondering what price was put on a human life back then? How about 25 bucks a pop? Yeah, people paid as much for an actual human head then as a modern day head shrinker charges every half hour to listen to you babble about your childhood while he writes out his shopping list.

Nathan Birch also writes the always disgustingly cute webcomic Zoology.