A Happy Monday ?

Frankly,  I have had better days. With all our crazy weather changes lately, I think I am working on a major sinus infection...I know -- TMI !  LOL   I can barely breathe and my voice keeps going in and out.  Fun, right?  And the weather here tomorrow is supposed to get cold and rainy and possibly snowy! It was a high of 72 today.  When is this going to stop ?  crazy, crazy weather this year everywhere for sure.  I heard the other day that it was being blamed on El Nino winds.....I personally think it is global warming but I will leave that debate for another day.

Okay, now I am turning a "Not so Happy Monday" into a "Happy INSPIRING Monday" for my blog readers.......Ta Da !!!!

There are some really amazing cool and funky and INSPIRING places around Houston. One of our New Year's Resolutions was to pick a different place around town each month and go for a visit.  In February we picked two..since they were so close together.  Today I will share the first one with you.

First up is the BEER CAN HOUSE...yes, you read that right...A House covered in Beer Cans.  It started off in the mid 1970's or so as a foundation insulation project by a recently retired upholsterer for a railroad company.  One day while his wife was at work, the recent retirer was sitting around drinking some beer...he had a pile of empty beer cans and a house with an exposed foundation on his bungelow styled house.  Being recently retired, he knew he needed to save money and thought all those cans could be recycled somehow. (this was WAY before people were even thinking or acting on recycling).  He proceeded to cut open some cans and pounded them flat and added them all around the bottom of the house.  His wife came home from work and noticed the unusual treatment on the house.  The hubby assured her it was a money saving thing and she went inside.  Day two....through seven...every day her hubby kept adding a layer of flat beer cans to the house, when it got up to about 2 feet all around the house, the wife asked what he was doing?  He said the aluminum was a good insulator and would save them on cooling bills. 

Now here is what I admired about the wife...she made a deal with her hubby right then and there. She told him, you can have the outside of the house but you can not TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE!  So Funny....just take a look at what that deal meant on the outside after many years.....

Keep looking...yes, he eventually covered every square inch of this house plus all of the garden area was paved over and he added sculptures he made as well.

Check out these beer can garlands he made and hung from the roof of his house...all the way around !

And here is a cute pic of Bianca in front of one of the sculpture walls in the backyard of the house...made completely out of beer cans and glass bottles and a wood frame.  AMAZING !!!

This is what I call recycling at the finest stretch of the imagination !  The man and his wife passed away years ago but a local artist preservation group has bought the property and keeps the house up and offers tours to the curious for a very small donation. 

The Beer Can House has been listed on the 100 Greatest Things to SEE on a Road Trip Across the US.   We were surprised to learn that people from all over the world make an effort to come see this house. The foundation has a registery book inside where everyone signs in...it was great fun to see so many countries represented.  Just that day while we were there we saw a family from Norway, one couple from South America and another couple from Asia who had all made a special trip to see the house. Of course, many locals were also there enjoying this unusual site.

This house brought to mind the old saying...."One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure !" .  What an INSPIRATION  to have enjoyed the creativity of this man.