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How would you like to live in a castle, a tree house or
even underground? This might not be as unusual as you
think. It seems that these days more and more people
want to live somewhere special and out of the ordinary,
and if they can't buy what they want they are quite 5
prepared to build it from scratch.
If an underground home doesn't appeal to you, how
about living in the tree tops? Dan Garner, a tree surgeon
from Gloucestershire, certainly thinks that this is the way
to go up in the world.
35
For John Mew and his wife Josephine their home really
is their castle. They have built their own English castle in
the Sussex countryside. The building is brand new with
all the luxuries you would expect from a house that cost 1
more than £350,000 to build. However, when you first see
it from the outside it would be easy to think that you are
looking at an ancient monument. The building has a lot
of the features of a traditional castle, including a keep,
a moat and a drawbridge. "My choice of house is 1
somewhat eccentric and building it was very hard work,
but we've got the perfect place to live," Mew says.
Although some would say that the building is impractical
and may be cold in harsh British winters, he certainly has
got a unique and spacious home.
"When our family became short of space at home our
solution was to build a luxury tree house in the garden.
The tree house is built into a spruce tree six metres
above the ground. It has one main room, a bedroom and
a balcony running around two sides." Garner is so happy 40
with this practical extension to his home that he thinks he
can convince more people of the benefits of living in the
trees. He wants to set up his own enterprise making more
of the deluxe tree dwellings, saying, "Tree houses are
airy, secure and comfortable and the only disadvantage 45
is that they might not be suitable for people who suffer
from hay fever or a fear of heights!"
2
If you don't look carefully, you might not even see
the home that Jonathan Ridley-Jones and Shanon Ridd
built at all! That's because the house is a converted
underground water tank. The only thing that can be seen
from the surface is a door leading into the hillside. "We've 2
never wanted to live in an ordinary house," Shanon says.
"Living below ground means that our home is quiet
and very cosy
none of the usual draughts. It doesn't
damage the local surroundings and has very low fuel
bills. Some of our friends find it dark and feel shut in 3
when they first visit, but they soon get used to it!"
Even people who live in more ordinary settings
sometimes can't resist doing something to make them
stand out from the crowd. One extreme example of this 50
is Bill Heines' house in Headington, Oxfordshire. Until
one morning in 1986, his house looked much like all the
others in his street, when suddenly overnight a 7.5 m
long fibreglass shark appeared to have crashed through
the roof. The shark was a sculpture by local artist John 55
Buckley. At first some people complained that it might be
dangerous or that it spoilt the look of the neighbourhood,
but engineers checked that the sculpture was safe and
the 'Headington shark' has become a well-known and
popular landmark. It seems that no matter where you live, 60
you can always do something to make sure your house
says something about who you are.
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