Weird Homes

Keeping up with the Jones's is tough when the Jones's have homes full of strange and wonderful objects. How about a Texas garden with a great crop of cacti and baby doll heads? A water tower home that is a landlord's nightmare and a child's delight? Or Rancho Shazam, where battles with City Hall are routine?

Think waaaaay beyond beige: these homeowners have. One woman in small-town Ontario never met a paint colour (or zebra or jungle) she didn't like. A backyard in Michigan is so full of strange delights it gives Disneyland a run for its money. The Karmen Miranda house has 'produced' a colourful tribute to a festive actress.

Pop art, postcards, sock monkeys, smiley faces, chrome, cartoons, bright-work, missiles, space suits, kitsch and flamingos overwhelm the houses of these folks who just can't resist crowding one more item into the cupboard. Just don't talk to them about dusting...

It takes a special kind of person to turn a cast-off into a custom creation. Joe in Ontario uses scrap metal to create giant birds and insects that fill his yard and cover his home. In the BC forest Jan draws from his Vietnam experience to create a little of everything in his sculpture garden. Joe in Pennsylvania uses toilets to create his metaphysical sculptures.

For 70 years Cougar Annie carved a paradise out of remote, rugged, Pacific wilderness, surviving four husbands and dozens of cougars that invaded her yard. In Portland, Oregon, dumpster-diving is the source of ornaments for this creative garden.

The Rainbow lady of Seattle welcomes us with a song and a home full of rainbows. In San Francisco we visit the home of a belly dancer whose home takes us back to Egypt. A fisherman in Nova Scotia has built a liar's club full of incredible sea-life creations.

Passion is the principle behind these homes. A champion of energy-efficient, affordable housing lives in a converted ore-bin. A renowned glass artist in Seattle has blown a lot of personality into her place. A Georgia sculpture yard is aimed at the art of laughter.

A life-long love of music led a Brooklyn man to create a shrine to his favorite tenor Enrico Caruso. Every square inch of the home and yard of a Pacific North West couple is given over to their obsession with model trains. In Georgia, Tubby Brown's yard is inhabited by his life- sized human sculptures.

Visit a Voodoo princess at her home in New Orleans. Joe Coleman in New York has a fascination with death and has filled his home with freaks of nature and more. In Nova Scotia every aspect of the McKnight home is designed with the spirit of feng shui in mind. Three homes filled with spirits.

Issiah Zagar has spent over 40 years covering every square inch of his home inside and out with colourful ceramic tiles. A Georgia artist has taken to painting the trees in his yard. In New Jersey, Faust has filled his acreage with moving metal creations.

These homeowners go the extra mile. One man's carvings have sprawled out of his Nova Scotia yard into the rest of the town. 'Art is life;' that's the motto of a Georgia man who has crammed his yard with sculpture. Heiress/artist Jaina Davis has collaborated with talented friends to make every room in her Victorian home something spectacular.

No cookie-cutter condos here. In California, visionary and veteran recycler Grandma Prisbrey transformed her life of sorrows into a witty and whimsical bottle village. Sculptor Howard Solomon built the castle of his dreams in Florida, complete with dragons, knights and a boat in the moat.

Sometimes the past is more fun the second time around. That's why Big Al Taplett's shoe shine home puts a polish on New Orleans's colourful history. PQ LeBoom's medieval castle has 'phun' with physics. The Leaning Tower of Lethbridge lends some pizzazz to a yard in southern Alberta.