World's Most Extreme Homes

An extraordinary Swedish home was built to organically blend into its surroundings and resembles a prehistoric creature with scaly skin walls, windows that look like shining eyes and even antennae. In Brazil, where fans are intense in their love of soccer, a mobile phone executive and his dog live in a huge red ball atop a pole. Down in Australia, an architect creates a funky twist on the tree house with a glass and steel construction.

Visit a lodge in the heart of South Africa where the residents have some unusual neighbor, including antelope and rhino, who drop in for a visit. A simple home in Chile was delivered on the back of a truck and goes by the equally simple name of M7. A tranquil haven of a home in New Zealand includes a huge glass conservatory filled with lush green plants.

First visit a windmill in Holland that’s still grinding corn. A young family in Mexico lives inside the belly of their whale house. Finally, down in Australia a family beats the heat in an open-air house.

In Mexico, visit a home in the shape of a snake and in Australia, tour a home perched on a pole.

A typical British clapboard cottage is atypically placed atop a 70-foot tower. At the other end of the housing height spectrum, an Australian family beats the searing heat by burrowing underground. And it’s back in the clouds for a South African couple living in a luxurious hilltop haven.

Rainthorpe is an English country home filled with quite a bit of history, including the ghost of a previous owner. The Baeta home in Brazil is actually built around a massive tree. A New Zealand homeowner has fashioned most of his decor from castoff junk.