Unique Homes Built in Extraordinary Locations

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Creative architects, designers, and more were called on to turn these unique locations into actual homes.



Converted Home from an Abandoned Water Tank
Sixteen years ago when the opportunity arose to purchase a cistern perched on a hillside just outside of New Haven with views of Long Island Sound and the Gothic spires of Yale, architect Peter de Bretteville didn't hesitate. "There's something extraordinary about industrial buildings like warehouses, mills and water tanks. They are bigger than life-taller, wider and more robust-than normal residential buildings," says de Bretteville. "And there's something so appealing about living in an old relic."

See the amazing images of a home build inside an abandoned water tower.



Converted Barn from Roxbury Landmark
Connecticut is famous for its barn-style homes, a type of dwelling that allows ex-urbanites to live in a loft that looks humble-appealing to our Yankee desire to avoid flashy fanciness- but is loaded to the rafters with cool stuff. And this 15,000-square-foot conversion may be the coolest barn home we've ever seen. Kudos go to owners Katie and Steve Hylen, both photographers (he an Academy Award-winning one), who took this Roxbury landmark and made a chic home out of it. Its most stunning feature is the entire wall given over to windows, held in place by steel girders and overlooking hayfields, meadows and sunsets. The home's central space also boasts 17-foot vaulted ceilings and a tall, freestanding sculptural fireplace, encircled with built-in sofas. There is also a professional kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, three en suite bedrooms, a screening room, a sauna, a gallery space with a fountain and an open-plan top floor that has been used, variously, as a photo and art studio and a dance space.

See more million dollar homes for sale in Deeds and Don'ts



Live in a Lighthouse
With unrivaled views, this one-bedroom, 28-foot-high antique lighthouse is a 3,600 foot dinghy ride from the mainland. Now here's something you don't see every day: A bona fide antique lighthouse that was built in 1881 and remained in service until the mid-1950s, when it sold for $1 to a former Stamford mayor. The lighthouse sold again in the 1980s-this time for $230,000-to a banker who thought the decommissioned structure would be an excellent and "cheap place to park my boat." He spent a reported $300,000 on renovations, which included a new kitchen and dock. In 2009, the 28-foot-high, cast-iron lighthouse, also known as Chatham Rock, has again hit the market, advertised as a "one-bedroom loft" just a 3,600-foot dinghy ride away from the mainland, accessed via a private, floating dock. While it appears to lack certain amenities (there is no bathroom, for instance) its views are unrivaled-the Stamford and Manhattan skylines and sunrise and sundown seascapes.

See more million dollar homes for sale in Deeds and Don'ts

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