This House Gives the Term 'Living in a Car' a Whole New Meaning

"Look for the house that's different." That's what Karl Wanaselja's daughter reportedly says to friends she invites over to the family's unusual house.

This Berkeley, Calif., house is not unique because it's a human-sized hobbit house, a colony of tiny homes, a 72-square-foot apartment or a movable dome home (these are some of the other living spaces the Blaze has covered). This residence is different because it's made of carefully-salvaged car parts.

Check out the house and its owners in this Fair Companies' production:

Fair Companies reports that Wanaselja, an architect who owns Leger Wanaselja Architecture with Cate Leger, also his partner in life, collected metal and windows from cars for three years in order to create siding for the second story and awnings.

Wanaselja said that the upstairs siding is composed of 104 car roofs. The color and quality took some time to collect from junk yards, as he obviously preferred parts without dents.

He said, "The most I ever got in a day was 16 [roofs]." The awnings are made from "America's best-selling mini-van," the Dodge Caravan, according to Wanselja.

Wanaselja was even a considerate neighbor when he made his "siding" color choices. He put the lighter siding on the north side of the house in order to help reflect more natural light into the neighbor's home.

Fair Companies has more:

Because they wanted to blend into the neighborhood as much as possible, Wanaselja and Leger played with perspective to create a home that looks small on the outside, but feels big on the inside.

The home is only 14 feet wide on the ends, and it pitches forward and pinches in at the ends so from the street the home looks small. And it is just 1,140 square feet- more than half the U.S. average- and only 700 square feet on the ground floor.

“We're not fans of giant houses really. Small on the outside, big on the inside is kind of what it's about. It's kind of like Dr. Who's TARDIS. He's got this little phone booth, he goes in and then it's a giant space inside so it's kind of.

“Or the Harry Potter tent,” adds Leger. “You go in this little tent and then it's giant inside".

In this video, Wanaselja and Leger give us a tour of their home, their car part shed and their shipping container architecture studio in the backyard.

Fair Companies reports that the home's cost per square foot is similar to that of other area homes (not including trips to the junk yard). The whole house is about 1,140 square feet.

(H/T Treehugger)