The Beer Can House

Howdy folks. Thomas Calder reporting from Tatiana's post. The Misses is slacking on all the wild fun we are (were) having (the fun has since passed, as Tati landed a full time gig, while work and classes have turned me into a real life ghost).

Anywho, this here is the Beer Can House. John Milkovisch began the project back in the late 1960s after he retired from the Southern Pacific Railroad. Long story short, this corky Houstonian drank a lot of beer and decided he never wanted to paint his house again, so he decked it out with leftover cans and bottles. In his honor I am drinking a beer right now.


Here's the man of the hour: John Milkovisch with his lovely wife Mary. Cute as cornflakes, wouldn't you say?

It's a bit hard to tell, but what we are looking at here is the front door of the house. Now if you click on this picture and look real hard you'll strain your eyes, but once the agony from the strain subsides, you might see the slit near the upper right hand side of the door, which was how the Milkovischs saw who came a-knocking.

Now Mrs. Mary Milkovisch made a deal with Old John that he could do with the outside whatever he want, but that the inside of the house was not to be touched. Thus, we are looking at Tatiana's dream kitchen.


Next on our tour: the backyard. This whole project actually began from the ground up, when Johnny Boy decided he was done mowing the lawn. To make this dream a reality John began inlaying all sorts of stuff (marble, rocks, metal pieces) into concrete in order to cover up the grass.

A close-up on the backyard wall.

This here is part of the front yard.

A view from the porch. As you can imagine, when the wind blows it makes a nice bit of noise. I spoke with the sole tour guide working the place to ask what happens during bad storms/hurricanes. They have a wire system in place that allows them to remove the can tops in sections.

This concludes our tour. Above us now is the ladder that Mr. Milkovisch painted and placed in his front yard. If you return to the first picture you might notice that one of the steps on the ladder is black. John said he painted it black as a reminder that as you climb your way up in life, there is always the chance to fail, but that failure ain't nothing but a minor misstep. I like that.