I think I heard about a similar house on HGTV’s “What’s With That House?” where the homeowner decorated their home with pirate-themed stuff, but these people in Nevada take it one step further – they created a pirate wonderland to rival any theme park attraction.  Best of all, it can be open to the public – you can rent it out, you can use it for corporate events, and in one case, you can walk right up to the door and ask to look around.

The blog I linked to above tells about some people who were hanging out at a house down the hill and just decided to walk up and see what was up with the pirate-themed house.  The owner or caretaker (not sure which) welcomed the people in and let them swim, use the water slide, and even invited them to stay for dinner.  I found a few other blogs where people had rented out the home for vacations – I’ve found varying information that says that the house rents for anywhere between $10,000.00 and $25,000.00 per night.  So it’s pricey.

It must have cost a fortune to build – it has two pirate ships, a bunch of fake skeletons, a life-size (if not bigger) Captain Morgan, and lots more.  Allegedly the house belongs to Craig Tillotson, a bigwig with NuSkin, who wanted to create a fun place for people to go.  And I guess he really likes pirates.

night view of Pirates Cove

birds eye view of Pirates Cove

Captain Morgan

Argh, Mateys.

The website for Pirates Cove contains a ton more images, and there is a phone number you can call for more information, if you are so inclined.  If anybody decides to take a trip there send me photos and I’ll post them!

Question – if you had a ton of money what kind of theme home would YOU build?

Related articles

• Creative Energy’s Top 5 Fun Home Improvements (creativeenergyexteriors.com)
• Going On a Caribbean Cruise For Beginners (bestforbeginners.com)

They lived in their “Winter Palace” for the next five years while they built the main building that would be Eliphante, and the surrounding buildings, one of which would be called Hippodome, named this because it looks like a hippopotamus rising out of a body of water.  Livant lives in the Hippodome now – Kahn died a few years ago from a form of dementia.  The Hippodome has a phone and running water and electricity, but no bathroom.  Livant showers in a shower house that is solar-powered (and is pretty much just a hose in a shack), and if she needs to use the restroom she does it in the outhouse, or sometimes right out in the open.  The property is fairly secluded, and is only accessible across a stream.  Sometimes the stream is low enough that a car can just drive across it.  Other times, you have to take a canoe.

Their story is one of magic and tragedy – romance and heartbreak.  Livant was a suburban mother of two, married to a a psychologist.  She dabbled in painting and drawing, but lived her suburban life and volunteered in the community.  When her kids were a little older (one in college, the other in high school), Livant and her husband went on vacation to Cape Cod.  That’s where Livant’s whole life turned upside down.

Michael Kahn was a painter, ten years younger than Livant, and she fell for him immediately.  She left her husband and her kids, and moved in with Kahn, taking housecleaning jobs to support them.  All he ever wanted to do was paint.  When they moved to Arizona they built and when he wasn’t building he was painting.  Livant blossomed as an artist, and learned to weave as well as developed her painting skills.   They were happy together.

The house that was born of their union is part madness, part magic.  It is made of found objects and driftwood and any other thing they could find to build it.  They have mosaic tile work that used salvaged tiles from someone’s kitchen remodel.  They’ve made interesting use of AstroTurf.

Though they started building in 1979, Eliphante &  Hippodome and everything around them was consistently a work-in-progress.  In 1987 Eliphante LTD was formed – a non-profit art company – and in 1994 the Smithsonian listed it with their Save Outdoor Sculpture movement.  The property is in a state of disarray – in need of about $30000 worth or repairs.  Livant doesn’t have the money, and Kahn wasn’t able to secure a grant before he died.  Let’s hope that someone comes in to do what needs to be done to preserve this artistic treasure.

Entrance - the central curved beam looks like an elephant's trunk

Interior shot of Eliphante

Ms. Livant

ceiling and ceiling fan - mylar decor

photo by the constant skeptic

He is Nikolai Sutyagin.  He is a man who has seen it all.  Well, if not “all”, he’s seen quite a lot.  He was born and raised in a lowly communal flat in Arkhangelsk, Russia.  That’s in the northern part of European Russia, near the White Sea.  He got in some trouble at the tender age of 14 and got sent to a boy’s prison.  When he got out he worked in construction to support his single mom and his sister, and because of his insane work ethic he got referred into an “outside the box” type of working in Russia.  It’s called shabashing, and shabashniks work for the money they merit, instead of the general working system inside a socialist (read:  in this case communist) government.  He was earning way more than guys who were far more educated, and when Gorbachev came in and made Perestroyka happen (the restructuring of the government so that people could own stuff) he used his money to buy a lumber yard and start his very own contracting company.

He got rich.  Really, really rich.  He decided that he needed a house that reflected his status in the Arkhangelsk society (his status was the richest dude in a very poor town) but that he had all this lumber and labor, so why not build his own?  What resulted was the house you see in the image above.  It started out as a mere two-story building (two-story is the limit in those parts) but he didn’t like the look of it and made it taller.  And taller.  And taller. It’s a tower of a ramshackle log cabin.  It’s a log cabin mansion. And it is in fact so tall now that it’s a danger to even walk around on the highest levels, and the idea of building a fence or railing on the higher levels has been floated. But what would the fence look like? Well, unique-looking fences are all around us, whether they be London, England fences or Richmond Va fences, you can find unbelievable, pristine fences in every city of note. So, it shouldn’t be too hard for Mr. Sutyagin to find inspiration.

The owner of this cabin eventually got put in prison for 4 years.  Some accounts say it was a racketeering charge, others say he kept a dude imprisoned in a shack.  Either way, his enemies took the opportunity to put all his vehicles into the river, and to steal all his stuff.  He came out of prison completely broke, but lives in the first two levels of the house with his wife.  In squalor.

The government and the townspeople are not impressed with the structure, and are lobbying to have it demolished.  Sutyagin has gone on record saying the top 12 or 13 stories of his house are “purely decorative”, thus making the building proper a mere two stories tall.  Who will win?  Who do you think should win?  Leave a comment below.

photo by Baron Moe

This palatial summer home was built by Amir al-Mumenin al-Mutawakkil ‘Ala Allah Rab ul-Alamin Imam Yahya bin al-Mansur Bi’llah Muhammad Hamidaddin, Imam and Commander of the Faithful.  Why don’t we call him Imam for short?

Imam was the King of Yemen from 1926 to 1948, when he was assassinated.  We don’t go too far into politics or anything here on YLW, but apparently he was a pretty fair and nice guy, and he had 14 sons, so they were probably pretty sad.

Back to Dar Al-Hajar, though, because is that a beautiful place or what?  Imam had the place constructed as a summer home, and it was constructed on an already-existing prehistoric structure.  This particular valley that Dar Al-Hajar overlooks is a fertile ancient land that is talked about in rock drawings, for Pete’s sake.  Scholars speculate that the old construction on top of the mountain where Dar Al-Hajar was built was older than recorded history.  That’s, needless to say, pretty darn cool.

The structure itself is 7 stories tall, with open courtyards and little pools everywhere.  It has 35 rooms and the stairs look like they were built into the rocks.  They probably were.  The entrance has a 700-year old tree in it.  Even though Imam had the place built in the 1930′s, it looks like a place completely out of time.  A place of beauty and wonder that I’m sure his 14 sons enjoyed – from ducking in and out of the courtyards to exploring the caves beneath (unless the caves were really used for corpses, as rumors say).

Dar Al-Hajar is open to the public now as a sort of museum, though the Yemen travel website says that its “only jewel is the building itself.”

Related articles

• Free Rain? Not in Colorado (lawsome.net)
• Top 5 National Parks That Will Make You Feel like You’re on Another Planet (makethelist.net)
• Geothermal Heat Pump Systems – The Most Power Effective Heating & Cooling Solution (frommyexperience.com)

photo by Yogi

Imagine having a contracting job that went on for almost 40 years.  That was the case with the Winchester mansion, a grand estate located in San Jose, California.

If the name Winchester sounds familiar it’s not a surprise.  William Wirt Manchester was the magnate of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, maker of Winchester rifles.  William’s father, Oliver, was the first president of the company, and developed the famous “Henry” model of the Winchester rifle.  The famous “Gun That Won The West”, the model 1873, was developed a short time after.

Young William took over the company, but died soon after from tuberculosis.  His grief-stricken wife, Sarah, looked for ways to cope with the death of her husband and the earlier death of their only child, Annie.  She was sure that ill had befallen her family because the family was cursed.  She sought spiritual and occult guidance from The Boston Medium, who told her that her family was indeed cursed – by the souls of individuals who had been killed by Winchester rifles.

A medium with an anti-violence agenda, or truth?  Sarah believed it to be the truth, and took it to heart when the medium told her that to break the curse she must move to California and build a house – to keep building or Sarah, too, will die.  Perhaps it was a medium with anti-gun beliefs and a contractor brother in California?  We’ll never know, I guess.

Either way, Sarah purchased an 8-room farmhouse in San Jose, California and embarked on a 38-year construction project with absolutely no architectural plan or forward-thinking.  The construction went on every day, ALL day, for that entire time period.  The result is a house full of twists and turns, supposedly designed to confuse the many ghosts that were supposed to haunt it.

Sarah died in 1922, leaving an unfinished, sprawling mansion with 13 bathrooms, 40 bedrooms, 2 ballrooms, and a few quirks.  Sarah was obsessed with the number 13, so all the windows had 13 panes, and the number 13 carries through many of the details of the house.

The Winchester Mystery House was auctioned in the 1970′s and the owners turned it into a museum.  You can take tours there and in honor of Sarah they ring the bell  every Friday the 13th – 13 times.

Trump bought the home in 2004 in Abe Gosman’s bankruptcy.  With the help of Kendra Todd, winner of The Apprentice, he performed a $25 million dollar renovation on the home that included manicured gardens on the outside, 24-carat gold fixtures in the bathrooms, and a marble-coated kitchen.  The house has 15 bedrooms, a guest cottage, 15 full baths, 8.5 half baths, and a 30.4 meter swimming pool.

Donald Trump paid $40 million for the property originally, and put about $25 million in renovations.  When he sold the property for $95 million he made a profit of $30 million dollars.  Not too shabby.

Rybolovlev has had his share of media attention in Russia.  In 1996, he was suspected of murder, though he was found not guilty.  In 2010, after being spotted in the company of young models aboard yachts, and his wife decided to take action.  They divorced in 2009.  In addition to Elena’s interest in Rybolovlev’s business holdings, she also filed an action in the City Court of Palm Beach to protect the Maison de l’Amitie from sale or destruction.  As of September, 2010, the fight was still on.  As of a 2011 GeoEye view shows, the house is still standing.

Related articles

• Best Blogs About Living in Key West (verybestsites.com)
• Bizarre Online Purchases (bizarrebytes.com)
• Celebrities With Mental Disorders [Infographic] (thisblogrules.com)

Thomas Whaley moved to California during the gold rush, and moved to San Diego in 1851.  He lived there until 1853, when he moved back to New York to marry his sweetheart, Anna.  They moved back to San Diego right away, and Thomas started building their dream home with bricks from his own brickyard.  They moved into the house in 1857 with their children Francis and Thomas.  Immediately, although the house was beautiful and unlike any other in San Diego, they began to hear strange noises in the night.

The land where Thomas built the Whaley house had once been home to gallows where one James “Yankee Jim” Robinson had been hanged for trying to steal a boat.  Upon his arrest he had been hit upon the head and he suffered some wounds.  During his time in jail, his medical care was seriously neglected, and he suffered infection and delirium.  He was hanged, and it took him forty five minutes to strangle to death.  The Whaleys were quite sure that it was Yankee Jim who haunted their house.

The Whaleys suffered personal tragedies (Thomas Jr. died one year after they moved into their new house – taken down by Scarlett Fever and their wooden store burned down), and personal joys (Anna Amelia was born six months after Thomas Jr. died) and moved back to San Francisco for almost a decade.  During that time, Anna gave birth to George in 1860, Violet Eloise in 1862, and Corinne Lillian in 1864.  Thomas Sr. returned to San Diego in 1868, fixed up the house, and the family joined him in 1868.

The house was not only the residence of the Whaley family, but also the location of the town theater.  The theater was set up in a rented second-floor bedroom and could seat 150 people.  In 1869 Whaley rented the courtroom (good thing he had the foresight to build one of those!) and three upstairs bedrooms.

Both Violet and Anna wed their suitors in 1882.  Violet and her husband divorced, and distraught about the situation, Violet shot herself through the heart with her father’s gun in 1885.  The elder Whaleys and the kids who still lived at home moved to a smaller home in San Diego.  That would be the place that Thomas Whaley would die, in 1890, and in 1905 Anna passed away in Modesto, California.

I909, Francis, eldest son, decided to restore the old family homestead.  He advertised the home as an attraction, and would play his guitar for visitors.  Anna (the mother), Francis, Corrine, and George all lived in the house until their deaths.  Anna in 1913, Francis in 1914, George in 1928, and Corinne in 1953.  They all died in the house that they loved so well.

In the 1960s, the United States Commerce Department would designate the Whaley House as an official haunted house.  Yankee Jim’s footsteps can still be heard, and he is the most consistent haunt of any of the paranormal sightings and experiences that have been recorded.  Though he did not die there, people have claimed to see the ghost of Thomas Whaley in the house, and others have seen Anna in the garden and in the downstairs rooms.

source

Other ghosts have been seen in the upstairs rooms, and a descendant of Thomas Whaley’s who ate ant poison and died is said to grab people’s arms as they walk by.  Even the Whaley’s dog, Dolly Varden, is known to lick women’s legs, and children have tried to pet her.

Related articles

• Top 10 Most Haunted Cities in the U.S. (toptenz.net)
• The Scariest and Most Famous Female Ghosts (bizarrebytes.com)
• Top 10 haunted homes in the U.S. (msnbc.msn.com)

What happens when you combine an architect, activism, and a latrine?

Don’t be alarmed. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you; that is a toilet-shaped house and it’s real.

Sim Jae-Duck, an architect from Seoul, Korea, is the mastermind behind this what some might call a masterpiece and others might call a master piece of s*** (pun intended). Surprisingly, the inspiration and meaning behind this $1.6 million home is a lot deeper than you might think. Sim has felt a deep connection to toilets as long as he can remember and even before that; his mother intentionally gave birth to him in a bathroom due to a family belief that bathroom births led to long and healthy lives.

Already in his 70s and still going strong, Sim took on the toilet house project with an activist purpose in mind. Sim, who is chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association, has been campaigning for clean and beautiful toilets since 1995 when he was major of Suweon Korea, when he spearheaded efforts to spruce up the country’s facilities before hosting the 1998 Summer Olympic games and 2002 World Cup. He says that 2.6 billion people live without toilets today – a problem he is trying to remedy, in part, with the toilet house.

The house was unveiled in 2007 as part of the annual World Toilet Association meeting. The “Toilet House,” as it is affectionately called, is the world’s only latrine-shaped building. Sim chose to build the house 30 miles south of Seoul in Sim’s hometown of Suwon after tearing down his former home.

Featuring two bedrooms, two guestrooms, and four deluxe toilets, including one in the center of the house with clear walls that fog up and play classical music when occupied, the house can be rented out for $50,000 per night. Visitors have to pay $1 for a glimpse of the “porcelain” wonder. All proceeds from the house go toward improving subpar bathroom sanitation in impoverished nations.

“The toilet revolution should start with talking about toilet issues freely,” said Song Young-kwon, head of the organizing committee at the time of the house’s unveiling.

The building has been aptly named Haewoojae, which translates to “a place of sanctuary where one can solve one’s worries.” Its steel, white concrete and glass construction emulates the feel and industrious nature of its real-life counterpart. At 24.5 feet tall, the second story of the toilet bowl opens onto the roof with a garden and includes a water collection system to conserve drinking water.

Guest Post by Dana Bashor

Dana Bashor is a multi-faceted talent. Dana Bashor is known for many things but most of all she is an actress, model, and singer. Dana has been working in the industry as a model and Actress for 5 years. She is currently running her own business as well as freelance writing on topics such as consumer awareness and astronomy. Dana currently helps contribute to topics such as planet antares for Wikipedia and other websites.

The entire property is 9 acres, and juts out into the Cohasset Harbor on the coast of Massachusetts.  On that nine acres rests a 20,000 square foot private residence, an inn called The Cohasset Harbor Inn, two restaurants (the Atlantica and the Olde Salt House), and the Mill River Marina.

The house was built in 1850, but the original structure came down in 1931 or so.  The current house was built right away, and probably finished in the mid 1930s.  Mr. and Mrs. Roy did many improvements, including a renovation of the kitchen, all of the outbuildings, the addition of a roof deck, and the addition of a pond.

The Great Room (seen above) was added in 2006 and opens into the new kitchen, also renovated during that time.  The room has panoramic views of the harbor and an advanced entertainment system.  The room also has a wet bar, an alderwood cross-beamed ceiling, and many other lovely features.  I sound like a realtor.  I swear I’m not being paid to sell this house.  I’m just super impressed with it.  I’ll keep my commentary to a minimum from now on, I swear.

The kitchen.  Nice, huh?  You get a workout WHILE you cook dinner.

Frank Sinatra hung out in here.  No kidding.

I hope there are more books on the other side of the room, otherwise this isn’t much of a library, folks.

I hope there’s a service elevator somewhere…

The side yard.  For when you absolutely must play chess with pieces as big as yourself ala Harry Potter.

The marina.

A table at one of the restaurants.

All in all, I think you get a lot of bang for your buck for $55 mil, if you want a whole inn, marina, house, and two restaurants.  I don’t think the $55 mil includes people to work at all those places for you, so you might be kinda busy.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Top Five Haunted Holiday Destinations in the UK (makethelist.net)
• All About Bamboo Floors (frommyexperience.com)
• Decorating 101: Kitchen Islands (frommyexperience.com)

The structure itself was built in 1877, but remodeled and finished in 1906 by Antoni Gaudi and Josep Maria Jujol.  Gaudi, who was born in 1852 and died in 1926, was a very creative and unconventional architect who fought through the initial ridicule and judgment of his peers to create his own special visions.

Casa Batllo, also called “The House of Bones” or Casa dels Ossos, makes use of sculpted stone and mosaic to create a totally unique exterior.

The roof is arched like the ridged fin of some strange fish or dinosaur, and one legend says that the turret and cross on top stand for Saint George’s sword – which of course he used to kill the dragon.

The roofline of Casa Batllo

The man who commissioned the building was a rich aristocrat named Josep Batlo.

As for the interior of the structure, Batllo himself lived in the building for a while – the first floor apartment is included in the tour.  Batllo and his family lived on the first and second floors of the building, and they rented out the upper floors to residential tenants.

It only costs 17.80 Euros per person to tour this historic structure.  That includes an audio guided tour and can observe the grandeur and charm of this true work of art.