# Stubborn Homeowners Who Refused to Move

An episode of [Be Amazed](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1687637469), 20 May 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/1d9bc560-a36d-4ab3-8af2-d626cb331dd7/stream.mp3

From the guy that lives in the middle of a highway to the real-life version of the house in Pixar’s ‘Up’, let’s drop in for a visit with some of the world’s most unbelievably stubborn homeowners that flat-out refused to move. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

## Transcript

[0:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: From the guy that lives in the middle of a highway to the real-life version of the house and Pixar is up, let's drop in for a visit with some of the world's most unbelievably stubborn homeowners that flan out refused to move.
[0:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Edith Maysfield moved into whitewood cottage in northwestern Seattle in 1952.
[0:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But Edith's name only appeared in headlines for the first time in 2006 when she became known as the little old lady in a little old house who was stubborn in a very big way.
[0:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: You see, property developers were buying up properties in the area to make way for the construction of a mall.
[0:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And while other homeowners in the area happily sold up, Edith couldn't be bought so easily.
[0:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In fact, she proves stubborn as a mule.
[1:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, Edith purchased white wood cottage for $43,000 in 1952, the property developers offered her a staggering $1 billion to give up her home.
[1:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: but she still refused.
[1:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Based with no option, the developers were forced to build the five-story, balanced, black, small, around-eated, small, but mighty abode.
[1:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Edith remained in her 108-year-old college until the age of 86 when she passed away in 2008.
[1:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But even in death, Edith was still full of surprises.
[1:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In her will, she left the house to the mall's construction super-intended, Barry Martin.
[1:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Barry had incidentally become a friend and caretaker to eat it in her later years as she had no living family of her own, and Barry was generously rewarded for his kindness, receiving pretty much everything eateth old.
[1:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 2009, Disney attached balloons to the roof of eateth's house to promote the release
[2:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: aging widower who also finds his home surrounded by looming developments.
[2:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While many sight-eated stories as the inspiration behind up, in fact scriptwriting and production on up began in 2004, two years before Edith's story began.
[2:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And as you'll soon see, Edith's tale is far from the only one of its kind.
[2:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Regardless, Edith's story has a real fairytale ending, as her well loved house is still standing to this day, and the new owners don't plan on demolishing it anytime soon.
[2:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And I don't know about you, but that's going to be one of the most moving, unmoving stories I've ever heard.
[2:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While most people look for peace and quiet in a place to live, those driving along Guangzhou city highway in southern China are likely to discover a real surprise between lanes.
[2:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Sandwich between two lanes in the middle of the high-jong bridge is what looks to be a derelict little shack.
[3:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But in fact, someone actually lives here.
[3:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The one-story house containing a 430-square-foot apartment is owned by a woman known as Mrs. Yang, who refused to move out of her home to make way for the development announced in 2010.
[3:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: For 10 whole years, authorities tried to convince Ms. Yang to let them demolish her home, offering her numerous new apartments to relocate to as well as cash compensation.
[3:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But she wouldn't budge.
[3:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In fact, Michigan was the only person out of 47 families and 7 businesses to refuse both relocation and compensation from highway developers.
[3:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In the end, the authorities knew they had to accept a fee and finally authorized in closing Michigan's house and the middle of the new bridges lanes in 2020.
[3:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, Ms. Yang claimed the government had failed to offer her replacement property in an ideal location, and so refusal, I'm not sure you could say that the location she ended up with is exactly ideal either.
[4:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite there being no way for daylight to shine directly through the windows, as well as the inevitable noise from the highway, Ms. Yang claims that she feels the location of her home is liberating pleasant and comfortable.
[4:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I don't know about you, but I'm starting to think that Michigan is the kind of person who will do just about anything to prove a point.
[4:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Michigan's bridge ditch house may seem pretty unique, there are actually many more cases of homeowners refusing to give up their homes to new developments all over China.
[4:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: These homes are examples of what's known as a nail house, named for instances in which homeowners refuse to have their homes hammered down for demolition,
[4:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Sometimes resulting in the homeowner's portion of the developing streets interconnected buildings being all that remains standing.
[4:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Kind of like a lone stubborn nail in the landscape, see?
[4:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Nail houses began popping up after the passing of two Chinese property laws that were passed in 2004 in 2007.
[5:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: These laws dictate that officials and developers are not allowed to forceably remove a structure until all its owners are satisfied with the compensation
[5:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And while many nail house owners stand alone in their plight, one of the most extreme cases involves not just one homeowner, but a whole neighborhood.
[5:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: What villagers of the 900-year-old settlement of Yang Ji and the Guangdong Province found themselves spaced with impending demolition to make way for an office building development in 2013?
[5:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: There was a mixed reaction.
[5:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While 99% of the villagers relocated after signing an agreement with the developers, a handful of residents stood firm, refusing to budge.
[5:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The result was a sporadic community in the midst of a building side.
[5:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When developers got fed up with trying to coax the remaining villagers out of their houses, they diverted a local river to virtually encircle the holding-out households.
[6:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Developers also began cutting off electricity and fresh water supply lines to the homes to put the pressure up.
[6:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Unfortunately, no public update has been given on the status of those houses today, but we can only hope that they're still standing even after the developers tried increasingly extreme measures, presumably ranging from traditional Trebuchet warfare to taking a mild deep trench around the houses.
[6:29] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When varicoking purchased $127,000,000 be a place in Atlantic City for the equivalent of $200,000 in 1961, she never could have predicted that it would end with a legal battle against one of America's most powerful people.
[6:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The three story property was originally purchased as a summertime retreat.
[6:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But 127 Columbia plays eventually found itself in the public eye in the 1980s when Vera turned down a $1 million dollar offer for the home.
[6:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The bitter was publishing Tycoon Bob Gutioni, who wanted to build a hotel casino on the land where Vera's house stood.
[7:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Bob didn't get the chance to demolish the house, he settled on building his proposed casino around Vera's home, but that wasn't the end.
[7:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite starting construction, Bob never actually acquired the necessary gaming license he needed to actually open the casino, so the project fell through, leaving Varys home surrounded by unfinished foundations.
[7:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Refusing an offer from just one of America's top businessmen was quite the feat for the elderly Varys, but there was someone else waiting to swoop into Trump all other offers.
[7:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's right, in the 1990s Varys was approached by none other than Donald Trump.
[7:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Trump Plaza hits to the next door to Ver's House since 1984, but in 1989, Trump also purchased Bob's Philip Casino plot for a cool $56 million.
[7:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The Trump Bears House was the perfect spot.
[8:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That is, the perfect spot for a limousine garage.
[8:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Trump's limousine dreams led him to attempt with Guccioni, never achieved, convincing Vera to sell.
[8:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Vera had found herself in a very real-life game of monopoly with the future president, but...
[8:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: She wasn't falling for any of his attempts to butter her up.
[8:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In an attempt to convince Verita Cell, Trump personally visited her at the house and once even gifted her Neil Diamond tickets.
[8:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But Trump's sparkling personality wasn't enough, not to mention the fact that Verita didn't have any idea who Neil Diamond was.
[8:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Trump offered various much as $4 million for $127 Colombia place to which Vera responded by calling him a maggot, a cockroach, and a crumb.
[8:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Sounds like an extreme response, but Vera had developed a healthy hatred, not just because of the businessmen's persistence, but due to the fact that she claimed his construction cruise at damage to her house,
[8:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: and left the surrounding area unsafe.
[9:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The two locked horns and numerous legal battles over the property all throughout the 1990s, finally in 1998 the courts ruled in Various favor and Trump was forced to back off.
[9:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After beating out America's future president businessman, Vera remained in the house until 2010 when she moved to her retirement community in San Francisco.
[9:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After three years on the market, Vera's iconic house finally sold for $583,000 to financier Carl Ekin in July 2014.
[9:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Vera's former home was eventually demolished by Ekin to make way for a new project, by September 2014, Trump Plaza had also closed due to falling profits and was finally demolished in February 2021.
[9:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While neither Vera nor Trump remained in Atlantic City, I think it's pretty clear who really came up Trump's in this real estate smacked-down.
[9:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Vera, vera, vera, vera, as a little girl in Ruby slippers once said, there's no place like home.
[10:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But for the Sam at Family in Sydney, this notion was to be upheld way beyond the end of the rainbow.
[10:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In June, 2023, the Zamit family made headlines when they refused to whopping $33.7 million to sell their treasured home to make way for the pawns of our construction in Sydney.
[10:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thanks to the Zamit's firmness, the developers were forced to build around the family home since construction began a few years prior.
[10:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Once a secluded farmhouse, now the Xamet property and rectangular parcel of land looks more like a mini version of New York Central Park amongst the hundreds of houses erected around it.
[10:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While the Xamets were less than thrilled about the construction of around their once secluded home, which had been in their family for over 20 years, and bears a multi-million dollar property value of its own, for them it was better than moving.
[10:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While you'd imagine the owner of a multi-million dollar mansion to be all about money,
[11:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I'd say the Zamit family or proof that you can't put a price on a beloved family home.
[11:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While the idea of living within a few miles of a busy airport is a turn-off for almost everyone.
[11:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The one stubborn homeowner in Japan living smack bang in the middle of one is the only place worth living.
[11:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Meet to Kao Shito, a humble vegetable farmer that comes from a long line of farmers.
[11:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: His family have lived and worked on the same farm in Nardita for more than 100 years.
[11:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Only thing is, these days that farm is located on the site of an active airport.
[11:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: With Jets flying over his head 247 and underground tunnels as the only means to get in and out of his farm, most people would be desperate to move away.
[11:45] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But not Mr. Shito, Shito's farm was originally part of a small village of around 30 families, but Treble began brewing when the Japanese government announced their plans to build an airport right on top of the village.
[11:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Well, many of the other farmers in the area were convinced a southern land over.
[12:02] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Sheedos' father, Toychi, who was the head of the Sheeto family at the time, was one of few who continually refused to give up his farm.
[12:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After his father died, Sheedos took over the fight and even after being offered 1.6 million dollars.
[12:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: That's 150 years of the average farmer's wages for the region.
[12:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He's stuck firm and refused to sell.
[12:26] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Since then, this monestomer has continued exercising his legal right to force the airport authorities to exist around his farmland, leaving him and his farm squeeze between the airports runways.
[12:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Nadita's airports main international gate handles more than 15 million passengers per year, just one to Kyoshito is enough to have this airport flying for cover.
[12:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Located in Joyting, Shanghai, this is the home of the shoe family, which is yet another nail house that just refused to be hammered down.
[12:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But this family is taking stubborn home ownership on the road.
[13:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 2003, the shoe family found themselves up against city developers who wanted to build a busy main road right through where their house stood.
[13:12] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Because of the shoes refused to move, the four-lane street had to squeeze into two lanes to weave around the house.
[13:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But this was far from a solution to the problem.
[13:22] \[SPEAKER_01\]: As the street became busier and busier, the home of the family of nine felt there while shaking from passing trucks at night, and they would often witness traffic collisions caused by the twisting road around their house.
[13:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Finally, after a 14-year battle against the government,
[13:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: moved out of life on the road.
[13:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The shoe family had lived in their three story house for more than 60 years in total, but it took workers less than 90 minutes to demolish it to the ground.
[13:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And while it was most certainly a bittersweet farewell, the shoe family ended up being granted four brand new flats to live in, $320,000 for their treble, and one heck of a story to tell their future generations.
[14:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: They say that a job have done is as good as none, but for our next unmoving homeowners doing things by houses their way of living.
[14:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Built some time in the early 1890s, this Victoria era home was once one of six identical bay and gable houses on what was then known as Dumber Street in Toronto, Canada.
[14:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: At the time of the house's construction, the area was poverty-stricken, but as the decades went by, developers began spotting opportunities to build revitalized housing in the area.
[14:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Starting in 1957, a developer called Windless Holdings Limited slowly began acquiring the properties on Demer Street, which it's since been renamed as St. Patrick Street.
[14:50] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite some resistance, the owners of the six homes on St. Patrick Street sold in different times, and the row was painstakingly pulled down.
[14:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: And due to the attached construction style of the buildings, this happened one half house at a time.
[15:04] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The construction style also contributed to the street's strange house numbering system, which, oddly, went up in halves.
[15:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Home to the Volkos family, number 54 and a half, was a holdout against these buy-outs, and no win-less holding spot hard to acquire the property.
[15:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The Vokus is warned having any of it.
[15:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: By 1975, number 54 and a half found itself next to a fully fledged apartment building and remained standing to this day.
[15:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Today, the halfway house at 54 and a half-saint Patrick Street may look like an optical illusion, and it's perfectly sliced exterior was a big undertaking.
[15:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Because of the low-bearing walls dividing the house from its prior neighbors, the process of extracting just one side of the structure was extremely risky.
[15:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In fact, just one small slip from the demolition could have seen both halves of the house come crashing down.
[15:57] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thankfully, the demolition of the previous neighboring house was successful, and the remaining wall was bolstered covered and insulated to make the half house into its own single structure.
[16:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While the half house has passed through numerous hands since the Volkos family, in 2018 and underwent a little makeover, which included redecorating its half-cut wall, bringing its exterior a little more in line with its 21st century surroundings.
[16:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 2007 Portland State University had managed to convince everyone on Jackson Street in Portland, Oregon to move out of their homes to make way for their new $90 million college building.
[16:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Everyone that is accepts for the owner of this house, a attorney Randall Acre.
[16:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Randall purchased the 1894 Queen Annstile property known as the Figo House in 2005 as an office space for his small legal practice.
[16:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But little did he realize that he and his house were set to end up the center of a legal drama for the ages.
[16:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The city government attempted to dessees Randall's property for the redevelopment which, infuriatingly, many governments around the world do actually have the right to do, thanks to a legal term called eminent domain.
[17:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But it turns out Portland officials weren't quite the clever clogs they may have thought they were.
[17:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: As Randall was a lawyer, and he wasn't afraid of a courtroom smackdown.
[17:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But it wasn't only Randall's legal prowess the university had to fear.
[17:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Randall was able to rally various neighborhood groups to his cause and even manage to charm his way to some positive media coverage.
[17:32] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This coupled with Randall's convincing legal argument that the city was exceeding the reasonable limits of imminent domain property law worked very nicely for the homeowner.
[17:41] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Finally, in 2008 Randall received a letter telling him that officials had ultimately decided to drop the issue and let him and his business remain on Jackson Street.
[17:51] \[SPEAKER_01\]: On opening day of the new university building in 2011, Randall attached 400 helium filled balloons to the Figo house's chimney as a nod to his home striking similarity to that in Pixar's up.
[18:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: University officials even showed up at his door with a plate of cookies to congratulate him on his victory.
[18:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Ah, the sweet, sweet taste of success!
[18:13] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Nestled in Charlotte, North Carolina's Plaza Midwood neighborhood, the thirsty beaver may look like an unassuming one-story American dive bar.
[18:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But in the early 2010s, this North Carolina neighborhood became the center of quiet this showdown.
[18:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Charlottes' thirsty beaver had been known as the local watering hole since it opened in 2008, five years later the owners were approached by developers planning to erect a large apartment block on the land.
[18:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite its tiny stature, the thirsty beaver is a local legend in Charlotte and the owner's Mark and Brian Wilson flan out refused all offers to sell.
[18:49] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This was in part because they both opposed small businesses constantly being bought out by large conglomerates, having seen much of the local area lose its unique character for that exact reason.
[19:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Their steep beaver patrons were also quick to rally in defense and the developers quickly realized they had no chance of winning.
[19:07] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Regardless, in 2015, CW development paid $8.5 million for the land bordering the thirsty beaver and built 829 apartments in circling the tiny saloon.
[19:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But the dive bar stands strong on the same and Mark and Brian still say they have no intention of parting with their beloved saloon.
[19:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While named after a beaver, you can be damn sure this saloon is far from going up the river.
[19:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: One of the oldest, hold-out houses still standing, 249 Westend Avenue in New York City was built in the 1890s, but today it sits alone sandwiched in between some very different neighbors.
[19:47] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Once part of a row of five lavish townhouses, the property was originally home to the prestigious Cook family.
[19:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Ferdinand and his wife, Mary, who were believed to be descended from one of the earliest American settlers.
[20:00] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Life was sweet for the cooks and their five children until the night of January 3, 1913.
[20:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite the severe windstorm raging that night, Mr. Cook left his home in the Upper West Side to go to a store on 72nd Street.
[20:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But, he never returned home.
[20:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After searching the streets and hospital beds for almost a month, Mr. Cook was eventually found across the East River and Queens on February 1st, tragically deceased.
[20:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Though the details of his demise have not been made public, while Hartbrook and over the loss of her husband Mary stage strong for her five children and went on living under the roof of 249 West End Avenue.
[20:40] \[SPEAKER_01\]: but in 1915, another blow was looming.
[20:44] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Other properties in the area that previously housed families just like the cooks were being demolished to make way for modern apartment buildings.
[20:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When the developers approached Mary to sell, she completely refused and continued to hold out in the home she'd lived in with her late husband.
[21:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While the rest of her neighbors sold the developers Mary stood firm and by the mid-1920s
[21:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Mary remained in the house until her death in 1932, but the legacy of 249 Westend Avenue lived on.
[21:19] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 1941, Mary's iconic townhouse was converted into apartments, but kept its size and exterior design, and this day still sits tightly squeezed between its giant neighbors.
[21:31] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Zing Maiju of Ruanchina had lived on the end of an apartment block since the year 2000.
[21:38] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But when developers of a new business-ploss-up project came knocking in 2010,
[21:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: My Jew wasn't in a welcoming mood, while developers had offered compensation to vacate her property to make way for the construction of the plaza, my Jew felt the amount didn't justify the hassle of moving, so she refused.
[21:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Seeing as my Jew was the only person in the apartment building who refused to move out, developers went ahead and demolished all but the small slither of the building housing her apartment in 2012.
[22:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The demolition included cutting all the electric and water supplies to the apartment and an attempt to force her out.
[22:14] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But even this didn't deter hard as nails might you.
[22:18] \[SPEAKER_01\]: My juice survived without running water or electricity for an entire year through a daily 30-minute round trip to a friend's house to collect buckets of water.
[22:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Eventually, my job began spending most of her time staying at her water generous friend's home, but she would return to her crumbling crib every day to check developers weren't secretly planning to tear it down in her absence.
[22:39] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After persisting for three whole years, my juice apartment block was finally demolished in May 2014.
[22:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's unclear whether Maiju got the compensation she wanted in the end or if she was just tired of finding.
[22:53] \[SPEAKER_01\]: I mean, living somewhere that looks like it could topple into the ground at any moment can't be all that desirable, right?
[22:59] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Forget Netflix, when you've got the thrill knowing your house could topple over at any minute, every day is full of entertainment.
[23:15] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While he started off as a factory worker, Salah always dreamed of opening his own cafe.
[23:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 1965, he finally got his wish.
[23:24] \[SPEAKER_01\]: However, in 1991, officials announced they were planning an ambitious urban renewal project to revive districts around Robot, including Salah's neighborhood.
[23:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The project was sent to spread across 80 hectares at new housing for 240,000 people, and in 1999 developers began buying up the existing landlots in the area.
[23:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: However, when they came knocking at Chesa-Law, the owner accepted their coffee orders, but flatly refused to serve up a side of her mission for them to demolish his property.
[23:56] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This wasn't enough to stop the project and developers felt sure that the little older man would bend to their will eventually.
[24:03] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But stubborn Chesa-Law wasn't going anywhere.
[24:06] \[SPEAKER_01\]: By 2007, Chesa-Law's phone electricity and gas lines were intermittently cut off because of
[24:17] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite mounting pressures, Salah went on as if nothing had happened.
[24:21] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Although the construction of the new development could have been a lot smoother without this architectural relic from a bygone age, developers decided to simply include Chessalah in their construction plans.
[24:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While Salah lost a lot of customers thanks to his newfound location in the middle of a building site, he remained happy to have held on to his prize cafe.
[24:42] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In April 2019, Mr. Ujani passed away at the grand age of 90.
[24:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Let's surprisingly, Chessala is still standing as of August 2023, while there's been no word on the future of the structure.
[24:54] \[SPEAKER_01\]: It's reported that Salah left the cafe to his surviving family.
[24:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But if there anything likes a lot, let's just say these developers have another thing coming if they're thinking of stopping by for a cup of Joe at Chesselaa ever again.
[25:08] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While nail houses and holdouts are fascinating enough, there are other stubborn homeowners out there that have taken a more passive aggressive approach to the picket fence life.
[25:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: This house had 44-hole street and Boston Massad Chooses is what's known as a spine house.
[25:25] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But how did it end up like this?
[25:28] \[SPEAKER_01\]: According to local legend, two brothers inherited a plot of land from their father at some
[25:37] \[SPEAKER_01\]: When one of the brothers returned from serving in the war, he found that his other brother had built a large house for himself right on top of their shared land.
[25:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Furious at his brother's betrayal, the returning soldier built his own house on the skinny plot of land that remained.
[25:52] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Dubbed the skinny house, the four-story property, is 30 feet long and just 10 feet wide.
[25:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The house doesn't even have a proper front door, and is only accessible via a door down the house's narrowside halley.
[26:05] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While it might not look like the most convenient living space, the Skitty House served a block sunlight and views of the nearby harbor from his sibling neighbor, a building made of pure spite.
[26:16] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Thanks to this ingenious act of petty pass of aggression, future houses built across the USA under similar circumstances became known as Spide houses.
[26:27] \[SPEAKER_01\]: However, Spide houses rarely occur these days thanks to strict modern building codes, but thankfully the Boston skinny houses still thriving to this day.
[26:36] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In September 2021, the newly refurbished skinny house was sold for an incredible 1.25 million dollars.
[26:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Who'd have thought a sibling rivalry could be so expensive?
[26:46] \[SPEAKER_01\]: In 2012, Lil Bouchen from Winning China made headlines when he and his wife refused to move out of their apartment block to make way for the construction of a large main road.
[26:58] \[SPEAKER_01\]: The road was being built to connect a newly built railway station on the outskirts of Winling, but as far as the wall was concerned, this matter was a one-way street.
[27:09] \[SPEAKER_01\]: He wasn't going anywhere.
[27:11] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While almost everyone except Luo accepted the demolition of their homes in exchange for compensation, developers still went on with their project leaving Mr. Luo's house sitting right in the middle of the highway.
[27:23] \[SPEAKER_01\]: While some of the other stubborn homeowners we visited have been offered far more than the value of their houses to move, Luo found himself at the raw end of the deal.
[27:33] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite recently completing renovations on his home valued at $95,000, the road developers were offering just $35,000 in exchange for moving out in 2007.
[27:43] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Though it was so determined to stay put that he stayed in the building practically 24-7, and he and his wife even slept in separate parts of the house to deter any partial demolition.
[27:55] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Effectively using themselves as human shields against any sneaky demolition missions.
[28:01] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Despite being a duck farmer by trade, Louis was certainly no sitting duck by nature, but sadly Louis' home wasn't long for this road.
[28:10] \[SPEAKER_01\]: After eventually accepting $41,000 compensation, Louis and his wife finally moved out of their house in the middle of the street in December 2012.
[28:20] \[SPEAKER_01\]: But if the mouse and family ever find themselves missing the tarmac of their old home, it's nice to know a trip down memory lane is only ever a night's sleep in the car away.
[28:30] \[SPEAKER_01\]: Which of these homeowners do you think put up the best fight to hold onto their home?
[28:34] \[SPEAKER_01\]: How far would you go to protect your home?

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.