Some strangely cantilevered farmhouse in the Ukraine.
Dunno why, but some farmer in the ukraine really likes his privacy.
Or really wants to be prepared for the next flood that brings max. 15 feet of floodwater. More than that and he’s in trouble. Doesn’t look that ridiculous when you think of all the ridiculous roadside objects we have here in the U.S. World’s largest ball of twine and such…
From the Detroit News:
This quaint little Detroilet area home (below), last sold in 2006 for 65K, the home foreclosed last summer, and the home was re-listed for $1,100. No takers… In the meantime, the house was stripped down by looters and squatters. So the home was listed for $1. No one’s seen a deal like that since you last cheaply bought out Baltic Ave. from your dim-witted friends at Monopoly.
Talk about a motivated seller. Obviously not motivated by greed. Apparently it’s already cost the bank that owned the home 10K, and constant looters and squatters weren’t helping the situation.
The siding was the first to go. Then they took the fence. Then they broke in and took everything else.”
The company hired to manage the home and sell it, the Bearing Group, boarded up the home only to find the boards stolen and used to board up another abandoned home nearby.
Scrappers tore out the copper plumbing, the furnace and the light fixtures, taking everything of value, including the kitchen sink.
The kitchen sink thing sounds like a bad pun, but the fence?!? Is there a big market for used fencing? I know there is for copper as I’ve heard many a story about copper wiring and piping being ripped off from abandoned homes, job sites, and even more brazenly, freeway medians. And stealing the plywood that had been boarding up the home to board up yet another home…. really? I mean, what does plywood cost anyhow, a couple of bucks a sheet? Well of course that’s too much because you could buy a few houses for that kind of green.
But most disconcerting of all, is stripping the siding of the side of an abandoned house. Really though, what could that be good for? ….
Oh, of course…. to line your shower, now who’s laughing? Only shower on the block with a 30 year weatherbeater warrantee, ….bitch to clean soap scum off though.
More from this article here.
From the LongCountdown.com,
With earthquakes, tsunami’s, and various natural disasters happening on a seemingly monthly basis, here’s one of Japan’s answers to providing temporary shelter after the fact.
So, for 150,000 yen (approx. 1400$) you get two 90 pound boxes of cardboard pieces.
Then, you begin assembling your cardboard igloo over a plastic sheet.
And provided that you have a couple of friends clad in painter’s outfits, you can neatly roof your highly flammable new bachelor pad.
And then, a wonderful silver tarp and duct tape along the seams waterproofs your shelter, so long as that rain falls perfectly vertically downward.
The only way this could be more comical would be if it was used as a prop in a Japanese game show.
OR…..
There’s another recent development in temporary shelters, real cutting edge technology you may want to try. They’re called Tents. Very hard to find (Wal-Mart, target, drugstores, basically anywhere), but if you can manage to track one down, you’ve got a temporary shelter which repels rain, weighs only a few pounds, and if you’ve spent a hundred bucks on one, you’ve likely bought the family size. Someone should have tipped off those cardboard guys..
Check out the story, and many more great pics at Longcountdown.com.
An environmentally conscious effort by two Michigan companies has taken old residential asphalt shingles, and given them new life as roads and parking lots.
(Press Photo/Lori Niedenfuer Cool)
Reduce, Recycle, Re-use is all great and I doubt you’d find anyone brave enough to slam anyone trying to save petroleum-based shingles from sitting in their landfill when they’d be better suited as new roads. The largest factor for this niche in recycling, however, is based on economic factors.
From mlive.com,
For shingles, the key ingredient is petroleum. An average house of 2,000 square feet with two layers of roofing will have five tons of recyclable shingles. That equates to 10 barrels of new oil not needed in the asphalt mix
Wow, what’s the going rate on barrels of oil nowadays? 125-130$??? From five tons of shingles? And according to mlive’s article, each of their trucks hauls off with 26 tons. I’m not so good with math, but I’m glad to see someone (other than big oil) is seeing a positive side to this oil debacle.
If you’re interested in recycling construction materials from your home, I’d suggest looking up your state’s department of environmental quality, here in California, there’s the integrated waste management board with a searchable index of construction materials by county. – (CIWMB)
A British couple recently found out their coastline home was only valued at £1 when trying to use the property as collateral for a business loan. The reason why? The coastline and cliffs at the rear of their property has receded from 500 yards to 65 over the past 20 years.
They had assumed their home was worth around £80,000 but the loan was refused after a NatWest valuer decided it was virtually worthless due to ‘chronic coastal erosion’.
Seems like by my math, they’ve got another few good years with a beautiful view, at which point I’m fully interested in buying the property for 3 dollars, U.S., so long as they toss in that riding mower…
Full article at This is London
I see from time to time these quirky stories of world’s smallest house. This one, in Toronto, however, I see pop up the most.
Estimated at around 300 square feet and roughly 6 feet wide at the interior, the home is on the market for somewhere between 170-180K. Seems like alot for something that looks as if it started off as a shed for the brick home on the right there.
On the plus side, now you’ve got a reason not to go all out with a giant plasma tv, as it may not fit on the wall. Behind that wall is the bathroom, kitchen, and at the rear is the bedroom. The bedroom sports a murphy bed which couldn’t possibly fit any tighter.
Seems tight… Don’t suppose a young married couple in a starter home could get along with sleeping in bunk beds? Perhaps these from a previous post?
Anyhow, also found on youtube was this news clip of the home when it was previously up for sale in 1993. The bathroom looks to be the trickiest part as taking a seat on the commode would be like trying to fit in your old high school desk with that sink positioned where it is.
More pics here at Joeydevilla.com
Similar pics here at TeamSugar.com, as well as a floor plan at the bottom of the article.
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