Unusual Life

This is an amazing set of guest residences located in Taiwan. Where Hello Kitty Hell sees pink, I see a charming and unique vacation spot.

Uni-Resort site in Taiwan

Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, CA

Unusual Life needs to share this gift with you and asks that you share it with those you love. PLEASE PLEASE watch this most astonishing video that has been released free on the internet today, World Environment Day. Find time to watch this 93 minute documentary, preferably by linking to the HD and view full screen. Please share the love.

This image is unidentified, but is on a great design blog called Home Sweet Home featuring dozens of whimsical and creative interiors. Tip o’ the hat to Dan Dean!

Sent in by Frank Synopsis. Thanks Frank!

The PCI Residence glows, literally — the home’s exterior is made up of 100 percent recyclable polycarbonate walls, which illuminate the home from dawn to dusk, as well as a custom LED lighting system. Chris Pardo, co-founder of Pb Elemental Architecture, says the design plan behind this home “was based on the concept of interacting with and utilizing nature.” Among other green building techniques, the PCI Residence incorporates rooftop solar panels, in-floor radiant heat, a rainwater-harvesting system and low-impact materials such as raw concrete, raw steel, glass, concrete board and bamboo.

PlantAmnesty’s mission is to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs, and this photo is used as an example of terrible pruning.

But I must admit, I kind of like it! I would love to have Happy Face shrubs outside my front door. But that’s just me.

PlantAmnesty has a whole photo gallery of plant and shrub mutilation. While most are pretty bad, the more topiary-style shrubs are rather cute.

Voodoo has too many extreme doughnuts to feature just one. Some aren’t suitable for Unusual Life — we’ll refer to them as “anatomical” — but others are at once outlandish, deliciously addictive and rated G. Like the Bacon Maple Bar: a buttermilk topped with maple frosting and slices of crispy bacon; it sounds odd but really just mimics that marvelous moment when your pancake syrup runs into your breakfast meats. Voodoo also does wonders with cereal — try the Captain Crunch, Fruit Loop and Cocoa Puff doughnuts — and before health officials stepped in, patrons could even feast on NyQuil and Pepto-Bismol varieties.

Extreme Doughnuts at Voodoo Doughnut
22 SW 3rd Ave. | Portland, Ore.

Built in 1999 as a snowy mountain retreat, the two foot thick stone castle walls were built by laying up double walls of split ashlar rock to create a permanent formwork for the hidden steel reinforced concrete core and layers of waterproof insulation. Hydronic floor heat hidden in the stone and hardwood floors throughout the castle keep the interior toasty warm in addition to two stone fireplaces. Stone arched handcrafted walnut windows,stained glass, torches, and hand forged light fixtures. Includes 4-car garage, indoor pool, 3 towers, and real stone & carved hardwoods.

Castle is for sale and located in Sandpoint, Idaho. Castle Magic will build you your own castle on your lot!

There’s a guy from New York who builds mega-treehomes for rich people and movie stars, complete with kitchens and baths. Here’s a video from the Today Show. You have to wait through a commercial before you get to the good stuff…..

Treehouse Video

Manmade Beach in Japan — Ocean Dome

If you can’t find a nearby crowded beach, make one! Only in Japan…

Ocean Dome is known as the world’s largest indoor water park
with a retractable roof. The air temperature is always kept around 30º C and the water temperature is kept at around 28º C.

The name Seagaia is a combination of the words “sea” and “gaia”, which is Greek for earth. It’s located near the Pacific Ocean on Kyushu Island.

Impact Lab’s photos of Ocean Dome

More photos of Seagaia

More photos here of Ocean Dome

Online Archive of Cereal Boxes from The Imaginary World

Cover Pop of cereal boxes

General Mills retro cereal boxes at Target

You can build incredible homes with ferro cement. It is extremely strong and durable and the thing I love most is that you can build the whole building, walls, roof, gutters, cabinets, etc. out of the same material.

You build a cement home by first building the frame, which is made of metal. You wire rebar, remesh and lathing tightly together. You can make the design as fanciful as you wish.

Stage two of the process is stucco, covering the frame with concrete. Stucco goes on in layers. The first is called a scratch coat, for which the concrete should be a little drier than the subsequent coats. It’s called a scratch coat, because you have to scratch it up before the mud sets. This gives the second coat something extra to grip to.

The finishing coats are called brown coats. The stucco needs to be almost runny. It goes on a lot faster than the scratch, and can even be applied with a hopper gun.

Want to build your own ferro cement home? Start here at FerroCement.com

Caveland is the home of William Sleeper and Family. They have built this home in a cave found on ebay over the last five years.

Curt and Deborah Sleeper find themselves in a predicament millions of other Americans find themselves in these days: they own a house in which the mortgage payment is about to reset and they can’t afford it. Except the Sleepers’ house isn’t just any old house. It’s a cave, and a pretty cool one at that. Boing Boing ran a post on the cave house last Friday. Apparently, it’s listed for sale on eBay as “Unique Cave Home over 15,000 sf. Beautiful setting — 2.8 acres, commerical or residential.” Starting bid is $300,000.

Read story on Zillow blog by Diane Tuman

CAVELAND