From people who just liked their homes, to ones who just refused to give their homes
away, join me as I reveal to you 15 stubborn Homeowners Who REFUSED To Move Out
15.
Austin Spriggs As you'll see throughout this list, sometimes
being stubborn is a good thing, but other times, it can bite you in the butt.
Such is the case with Austin Spriggs.
You see, he owned a little property in Washington D.C., and when people came to buy it, he refused
to sell.
The reason they wanted to buy it was because the entire area was getting remade in a grander
image and his place was the last holdout.
And he was so stubborn that he actually attempted to wait out the buyers in order to keep a
hold on his property.
Which ironically, he didn't live in.
The offers even got as high as two million dollars!
All for a tiny piece of property.
To further stick it to them, he went from using the house he had for his own little
business to trying to make a pizzeria.
But it never opened thanks to the banks threatening foreclosure.
Here's where the twist comes in.
You see, because he didn't maintain the property after that, it was later determined that he
had to sell it.
He asked for $1.5 million for the property, but by the end of the deal he only go $750,000
dollars, that's a pittance compared to the two million he was once offered.
So let that be a lesson, just because you can holdout, doesn't always mean you should.
14.
Yang For one family in China, they're facing a
battle that's pushing the boundaries of both good business, and threatening to make a family
worker harder just to live.
You see, a company in China bought up all the land around the house of a family with
the last name Yang.
When they wouldn't sell, the people started to basically sabotage the property.
Including making it so that the house was in a literal hole.
Not an underground hole mind you, but rather they're on a raised platform of earth and
everything around it has been dug out.
But it didn't stop with the landscaping, the company actually went to even darker measures,
making it so that they couldn't get water or electricity to their house.
The family has to now walk over a mile just to get water, and they likely use lamps to
get any light outside of the sun.
While you can understand why the government and builders wanted this land for urbanization
reasons, doing what they did to this family was wrong.
13.
The House In the Middle Of The Road Oh, you thought we were done talking about
China?
Hardly.
Because China has been working on expansion and urbanization for some time, and when they
want something, they'll go to many lengths to get it.
Even if it means just making a road.
You see, China wanted to make a road in a key area, but the problem was an apartment
complex that was in the path of where they wanted to get to.
The owners were an elderly couple, and they refused to move.
China didn't like that at all, but they couldn't exactly forced them out because the couple
owned the land rights.
So what was the government to do?
Easy, China built the road around them, but in a more literal fashion.
The road is literally all around the house, with them barely having anything resembling
a "yard".
The homeowners would eventually move out (how could they not?) but the house remained a
symbol of freedom and defiance against the government and their tactics.
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12.
Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun We already showed you one tale of homeowners
fighting the power against the Chinese government and contractors that would lead to their house
being put on a raised plateau.
Well, Niu Chuangen and Zhang Zhongyun had a similar thing happen to them.
And arguably, even worse.
They too were in the way of "progress" in a province of China, and they refused to move
their houses that were connected.
So, the Chinese construction company dug around them and started making massive skyscrapers.
Along the way, they cut off many basic amenities that the two needed to live.
But they stayed where they were.
Just as bad though, gangsters of the area came in and threatened them repeatedly, trying
to tear down the house illegally so that construction could continue.
The couple fended for themselves and battled for years to keep their homes.
11.
The Duplex Problem Out there in the world right now are plenty
of odd and "unique" houses that are just begging to be stared at, and one such place is a duplex
that is not only more than meets the eye, you'll think your eyes are playing tricks
on you.
You see, one day a person came along and wanted to buy the duplex that resided in Toronto.
One resident in it was all for it.
The other was not, and refused to sell.
Very typical stuff if you think about it.
That was a problem for the deal overall though, but the property buyers made a...uh...unique
solution to the problem.
They proposed (and the residents agreed) to cut the building in half, and seal up the
middle so that the other duplex owner could still live there, yet the business people
would get their building.
And yeah, they agreed to do just that.
There are so many questions I have in regards to this whole idea.
Who agreed to this?
Who suggested this?
Who came to their boss and said, "Well, we could always cut the place in half..."
And why did the duplex owner agree to this?
Be honest with me, if you were that guy in the duplex, would you be ok with it being
cut in half and sealed off?
I don't think I would.
10.
The 360 Road You've already seen a case of a "road going
through it", but how about one being built AROUND it?
This yet again happened in China.
The property buyers were trying to make a highway (a familiar theme by now), but a group
of people refused to sell their houses.
Three families in fact refused to sell.
They actually became known as the "nail houses" because their houses, via the owners, were
"nailed to the ground".
If that's not a battle cry I don't know what is.
Anyway, construction had to happen because plans were already in place for what came
next.
So they literally built a 360 degree highway that went all the way around their houses.
The result is what you see here.
And if you pay attention to the image, you'll notice that the families still have access
to the roads themselves as those couldn't be blocked off.
While the noise must be terrible, the feeling of winning like that must be cool.
9.
House Under the Bridge Would you like to hear how far a company will
go to build what they need to build?.
For one property owner, they wanted to buy a house so that they could make a bridge of
sorts.
Which is totally fine.
The homeowners refused, which is also totally fine and within their rights.
But the bridge needed to be built anyway.
So...they built it over the house, like directly over it, which they can legally do.
The results speak for themselves, but it's no less striking of an image.
Can you imagine the construction going on and the fear that homeowner must've had about
a piece of rock or other material smashing into their house?
Makes you glad it wasn't your house they did this to, huh?
8.
Souvenirs, Anyone?
Ok, I'll admit, this one was actually rather creative.
You see, a place called the Victoria Hotel was attempting to be built, but the problem
was that two little houses were in the way of them finishing construction.
And...yep, you guessed it, the homeowners refused to sell.
So, like you would expect, the hotel got built around these little homes, creating quite
a visual as a result of that.
But here's the twist, the houses that are still there?
They aren't owned by the homeowners anymore, they're now full-on souvenir shops!
Rather creative, don't you think?
7.
Grave Situation Another interesting case from China didn't
involve a house, but a grave site.
As anyone who has buried a loved one knows, digging up the remains of the lost for a reason
such as urbanization is a bridge too far to cross.
So one Chinese family refused to give up the land that their family was buried on.
Not unlike other houses on the list, they found themselves looking at a column of dirt
as construction work was built around it.
Eventually the family was bought out, but not before a unique story was born.
6.
Macy's What's that?
You think only the common people get jammed up by property deals and such?
Not exactly...
. Let me take you back to the 1900's, when a man named Macy was going to open up his
store on the legendary 34th street.
He had everything he needed, except for a spot on the corner.
A very important spot you see.
This one building was on the corner of 34th street, and another buyer got the property
to try and mess with Macy's plan to build his store there.
Sadly for that guy, Macy still went through with it, and Macy's endures to this day.
But, in a twist, Macy's still doesn't own that corner building.
Though they've made the most of the situation via putting ads on the building.
5.
Shop vs. Mall Massive malls are built all the time, and
China has been building them in bulk to try and urbanize the area.
But in the Hunan Province, there was a holdout, a small old store that refused to leave because
they owned the rights to be there.
The mall was still built, but the house still remains.
And it's still open for business.
In a way, it shows off just how much times have changed in regards to how stores were
to how they are now.
4.
Randall Acker Usually, people want to avoid living on campus'
when they're not students because young adults can be quite a problem.
One homeowner from Oregon though didn't care though, he wasn't leaving for anything.
His name is Randall Acker, and he owned a small, but lovely, Victorian home.
When a buyer came around to try and get his property, he promptly refused.
Which was his right to do so.
One problem, he lived in Portland, Oregon, and the people that were trying to buy his
property were building something for a school.
A residence hall for a university to be exact.
Yet, because he refused to move, they had to improvise.
They went and made the residence hall around the plot of land.
So if you head to the Portland State University Residence Hall you'll see a small house right
next to it.
Who won here?
You decide.
3.
Holy Apartment!
What is it with people wanting to tear down beautiful homes just to make gaudy apartments?
Well, in the case of this Queen Anne House, the homeowner refused to budge an inch and
give the people wanting to make the apartments what they wanted.
And sure enough, the apartments had to be built around the place as a whole.
Here's the twist though, there's a brand new reason why the building can't be taken down
now.
It's a church!
And one does not simply remove a holy building from a place.
2.
The Coffee Shop It's not just homeowners who have refused
to sell their places, it's shopowners too.
And for Salah Oudjani, he had a coffee shop in France that he refused to sell.
Mainly because he had worked in it for 46 years.
Talk about a long tenure!
He is literally the last building standing in his old neighborhood, and that's fine with
him so long as the coffee shop stands.
1.
Edith Macefield Congrats!
You have made it "Up" to the end of the list, and you've heard a lot of stories about great
houses and homeowners.
But Edith Mackfield earns a high spot on this list because of what her story inspired, a
classic movie by Pixar.
You see, Edith owned her home in an area of Seattle (Ballard to be precise) that was getting
bought up by big businesses.
She was seeing all the old homes being taken down and shiny new ones being constructed
in their place.
Well, she decided to refuse every single offer made to her in regards to selling her home.
She was even offered 1 million dollars!
But she refused.
Eventually, as you can see, her home is still there, and big business literally had to build
around her plot of land.
Which became a shopping mall, so imagine that visual as you're going to one of those shops.
If this sounds familiar, it's because this is the story of Carl from Up.
He did the same thing, and wouldn't sell his home for any amount of money.
The story of Carl was based on what Edith did.
And those balloons on her house?
That was put there after UP came out and her story was revealed.
The biggest irony of this story is that Edith became friends with the chief contractor of
the mall, and when all was said and done and she passed at the age of 87, she left the
house to him in the will.
Talk about faith and friendship, huh?
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these very stubborn homeowners and the houses they refused to
sell?
Which of these stories was the most uplifting?
Which of these were the most heartbreaking to hear?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!