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3 other houses on the block

Other unique houses in the area:

'Boat House'

Photo/Troy Freund

Just north of Locust Street on the east side of the Milwaukee River is a home that is ready for global warming and the rising tides that will follow. That's because the house I speak of is a boat.

Quite possibly one of the coolest-looking homes in Milwaukee, the boat/house is a definite destination to drive your kids past as they ooh and aah at the home's finest accent: its own lighthouse.

Most of us can only enjoy a nice day from our back yard or front porch. The owner of this house can do it from the ship's deck. How cool is that?

'Everything House'

Photo/Kat Berger

This house defies labeling. "Everything" is the only word to describe its decor.

The front, side and back yards are filled with . . . well, everything. From former presidents carved out of wood to terrifying velociraptors, this house has it all.

My personal favorite is the back yard, which has nearly every item from the old-school McDonald's Play Land. An enormous Mayor McCheese head stares back at you from the yard, and it's enough to take you back to a more innocent time when it was OK to crawl around inside of a fictional character's head.

'Witch House'

File photo

Back when my father was a teenage punk, he and his friends would drive up the north shore to Fox Point to catch a glimpse of the Witch House.

Of course, the owner of the house on N. Beach Drive was no witch. Instead, she was Mary Nohl, a Milwaukee artist and teacher whose visionary style of public art crept its way from her studio all the way to her front yard.

The daughter of a prominent lawyer and lumber heiress, Nohl chose a more creative career path. Her art, which rests on her fenced-in front lawn, has become legendary. Her home and the creations living within its fences have been the topic of numerous senior theses, and her yard was used as a photo shoot backdrop for the Violent Femmes' 1985 album "Hallowed Ground."

The yard is something to behold. Concrete dinosaur-like creatures loom high above onlookers, wooden fish hang from strings in the trees, and giant heads peek out of the ground with hollow eyes.

Nohl died in 2001, but thankfully people have taken it upon themselves to keep her residence and artwork alive. The Kohler Foundation was gifted Nohl's house and artwork for preservation after her death, and in October 2005 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

online

Click here to check out Jim Muraco's mini-documentary on unusual houses, including "The Car House" featured in this story.

Uncommon cribs

There's no place like these homes

By Justin Shady

Posted: June 12, 2008

The aesthetic of a home -- its location, decoration, maintenance, etc. - can speak volumes about who resides within its walls.

A suburban home in Brookfield with a Green Bay Packers flag waving above its front porch puts out a different vibe than a house in Riverwest that has an "Impeach Bush" sign crammed in its front window. Each is perfectly fine in its own right, but to say that opinions aren't formulated because of those accents would simply be a lie.

Milwaukee is fortunate, though, to have a number of homeowners who have taken full advantage of creative license when it comes to their dwellings. They are the buildings everyone in the city knows, the homes passers-by point out as they walk through the neighborhood.

But while these homes might not be considered the "norm" for what most people believe they should be, they are still an expression and extension of the uniqueness of some of Milwaukee's citizens.

From an art house to a water tower, Milwaukee is filled with unique abodes that you just won't find anywhere else.

The Art House

2469 N. Dousman St.

Most 83-year-olds choose to spend the rest of their remaining days in a retirement community with people their age. But local artist Bob Watt would rather spend the golden years of his life being interviewed by me while hardcore porn plays on TV in front of us.

I give you this little anecdote to illustrate perfectly what you can expect when you roll past Watt's home in Riverwest.

In addition to a 20-foot-tall wooden portrait of former mayor John Norquist dressed up with a few American Indian accents, Watt has decorated his home with more trinkets than you'll find at a flea market.

"I hit up rummage and estate sales quite often," Watt explained from his home.

And he has the stuff to prove it. The porch is lined with plastic pumpkin pails and American flags. There are old standees with their heads cut out for photo ops, and there are plastic members of the animal kingdom. And then there is his mailbox, which has his last name on it . . . except with the last "T" brought to the front to spell a different word.

Watt is an accomplished painter, photographer and poet, with shows and published works to his credit. You can also find him at the McDonald's on North Avenue quite often for his morning coffee and art group meetings.

"I used to have a sign on my car that said, 'Art cures,' " he said. "People really liked that, and I think it's true. I think Milwaukee should learn to embrace art a little bit more. I think it would help us out in the future."

Whether or not Watt's house is helping out with the city's future remains to be seen, but at least he's trying and giving us something to look at in the process.

The Car House

2659 N. Humboldt Blvd.

When David Jones and Anthony Balistreri bought their home in 1990, they never expected it would become such a well-publicized attraction. But when one starts planting cars instead of flowers in the front yard, people are bound to notice.

"We added the buried Cadillac in July 1998 in honor of Tony's father, who always drove a Cadillac," Jones said. "We added the Model T two years later, and the Volkswagen about two years after that."

Nearly two decades and more than $20,000 later, Jones and Balistreri are known as the owners of the "Car House."

Their home will be featured in an upcoming documentary called "It's My House," which spotlights different homes in the area and the people who live in them.

Balistreri, who owns Downtown Auto Body on N. Holton Street, sees the home as a work in progress.

"We hope to add a car on the northeast corner of the front yard someday soon," he said.

A lot of homes have cars in the front yard, but that doesn't exactly make them unique. This home stands out because of its details.

These aren't just junked cars placed haphazardly on a front lawn, rotting as time goes by. Everything about the space comes across as purposeful, from the cars' glowing lights (they're wired to work) to the Volkswagen's perfect placement. Resting just between the front and back yard, the windshield of the Bug serves as a window for Jones and Balistreri's pet dogs to view the rest of the world through, a site that is hard to miss when walking down Humboldt.

Some people in the neighborhood have used that fact to their advantage, using the Car House as a landmark when giving directions to other locations.

"We once saw a party invite hanging at Fuel Cafe that stated a party was happening 'three houses south of the buried Cadillac.' " Jones said.

The Water Tower House

640 Lawndale Ave., Waukesha

Judy Fuller's life slightly resembles that of a fairytale. But instead of living in a shoe, she chose to live in an old water tower in Waukesha.

Located across the street from Waukesha Memorial Hospital, the water tower was built in 1934 and used by the city as a 675,000-gallon reservoir. After nearly 50 years of use, the city abandoned it.

Fast-forward two decades, and enter Judy Fuller.

She bought the water tower from Waukesha in 2003 for $1,000. Within three years, she put an additional $600,000 into it, creating a one-of-a-kind Wisconsin-based home with a South Florida art deco feel.

The result is a stunning three-story masterpiece that is void of a corner room. With 40-foot ceilings and a curved spiral staircase, you would never guess that this gigantic cylinder was at one time filled top to bottom with water.

Fuller, 51, isn't new to building projects. She's the owner of numerous real estate and development companies. And while the water tower has been both her project and home for a while, she feels that she's reached a stopping point with it.

"The next project is always on my mind," she said, "I want the next challenge! What can I tackle next?"

That next challenge is a new development at Highway 59/164 and Racine Avenue in Waukesha. But that doesn't mean she's bored with her new home.

"The views are absolutely stunning, and the serenity of the third-floor master suite is untouchable," she said.

She also has some advice for anyone out there who might be considering doing something unique with his or her own space.

"Do what you want. Don't conform to industry standards."

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