World's Most Extreme Homes

Swedish Cabin, Brazilian Soccer Ball, Australian Glass House

Jan 2, 2006

An extraordinary Swedish home was built to organically blend into its surroundings and resembles a prehistoric creature with scaly skin walls, windows that look like shining eyes and even antennae. In Brazil, where fans are intense in their love of soccer, a mobile phone executive and his dog live in a huge red ball atop a pole. Down in Australia, an architect creates a funky twist on the tree house with a glass and steel construction.

African Lodge, Chile Modular Home, New Zealand Haven

Jan 2, 2006

Visit a lodge in the heart of South Africa where the residents have some unusual neighbor, including antelope and rhino, who drop in for a visit. A simple home in Chile was delivered on the back of a truck and goes by the equally simple name of M7. A tranquil haven of a home in New Zealand includes a huge glass conservatory filled with lush green plants.

Whale House, Windmill, Darwin House

Jan 9, 2006

First visit a windmill in Holland that’s still grinding corn. A young family in Mexico lives inside the belly of their whale house. Finally, down in Australia a family beats the heat in an open-air house.

Holland Houseboat, Brazilian Box, New Zealand Earth House

Jan 16, 2006

In Mexico, visit a home in the shape of a snake and in Australia, tour a home perched on a pole.

Towering Cottage, Very Down Under, Hilltop Home

Jan 23, 2006

A typical British clapboard cottage is atypically placed atop a 70-foot tower. At the other end of the housing height spectrum, an Australian family beats the searing heat by burrowing underground. And it’s back in the clouds for a South African couple living in a luxurious hilltop haven.

Haunted English Country Home, Brazilian Tree House, Junk Decor

Jan 30, 2006

Rainthorpe is an English country home filled with quite a bit of history, including the ghost of a previous owner. The Baeta home in Brazil is actually built around a massive tree. A New Zealand homeowner has fashioned most of his decor from castoff junk.

French Dome, Australian Plains, British Banquet Hall

Feb 6, 2006

A family of French circus performers lives in a wooden dome home that rotates 360-degrees with a slight push. A house in Australia can be opened up, allowing for marvelous views of the sun setting over the plains. An 18th century banquet hall includes an ancient ice house 95 feet below the elegant home above.

Merry Olde Water Tower, Tanks for the Home, Rotating House

Feb 27, 2006

A British family built a sleek, modern home around a 19th century water tower. And atop the tower host Ruth England finds a roof garden complete with sun loungers and a hot tub, where guests can lie back and look over the countryside. An Australian woman turns three derelict water tanks into a fun-filled family home. A remarkable home in New Zealand can rotate 360 degrees at the touch of a button.

Welsh Lighthouse, Subterranean in Mexico, Skinny in Amsterdam

Mar 6, 2006

Danielle and Frank Sheahan turn a short, squatty lighthouse in Wales into a fun eclectic six-bedroom home. Magali Mayorga Rivas and Fernando Becker live with their young family in a unique underground home in Mexico, where the garden is on the roof of their house. Teun Van Wely's home is just 8-feet wide, and the Amsterdam house comes complete with a mythical story of its creation.

Netherlands Lighthouse, Casa Dos Estrellas, New Zealand Mud House

Mar 13, 2006

Thijs and Liliane Spijker live a functioning 1839 lighthouse. The Marken Lighthouse also contains the couple's large collection of naval memorabilia. Actress Luciana Paluzzi played Fiona Volpe in the James Bond flick Thunderball. Now she lives in a stunning home in Mexico on the Costa Careyes. New Zealander Donn Groom built a house out of mud bricks and generates his own electricity from a nearby waterfall.

Notting Hill Minimalist, South Africa Lodge, Netherlands Castle

Mar 27, 2006

Architect Alex Michaelis spotted a great plot in London's fashionable Notting Hill district, but planning restrictions limited him from building anything higher than the 6-foot high garden wall. So Michaelis dug a 20-foot pit and built the home in the crater. Mandy and Michael Millsap enjoy a tremendous view from the deck of their South African game lodge home. Kasteel Amstenrade has been in the d'Ansembourg family for over two centuries, and the decor in the 64-plus room castle has hardly changed in that time.

German Castle, Chilean Beach House, New Zealand

Apr 3, 2006

Schloss Sommersdorf is a 26-room fairy tale castle that has been the Von Crailsheims family homestead since the mid 16th century. Francisca and Juan Forch live in an extraordinary concrete creation with unbeatable views on a beach in Chile. Lea Chapman used found objects to create a unique home in New Zealand with touches of American Wild West, Tudor England and even the South of France.

New Zealand Beach Cliff, South Africa Retreat, British Fort

Apr 9, 2006

Karl and Robin Lieffering’s wooden home clings to a rock above the beach near Whangarei. In fact this home is so much a part of the landscape that the rock surface has been left exposed on the interior to make up one wall of the house. Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens built what looks like a safari retreat in Johannesburg, inspired by traditional African design with round rooms and thatched roofs. The Martello Towers on the coast of Britain were built to repel the French Army during the Napoleonic wars, and now surveyor Guy Ruddy has transformed one into a cozy home.