( CNN ) A house is just a house , right ? Even the increasingly popular tiny houses look like standard houses , reduced in size . But some houses are so far outside of the box , they 're worth a trip to see . Here are eight of the most unusual houses around the United States : . Pickle Barrel House Museum in Grand Marais , Michigan . Have you ever found yourself in a pickle ? Cartoonist William Donahey came pretty close when he took up residence in a house shaped like a pickle barrel . Built in 1926 as a summer home for Donahey , Grand Marais , Michigan 's Pickle Barrel House now holds a seasonal museum open from June to September . Donahey allowed Monarch Food Company to use his popular `` Teenie Weenie '' cartoon characters on their pickle jar labels , and out of gratitude Monarch 's parent company commissioned the house for Donahey 's family to use , building him a much larger version of the barrels their pickles were sold in . Purchased in 2003 and restored by the Michigan Historical Society , the museum is on the National Register of Historic Places . Visitors can also take a stroll through the Historic Iris Preservation Society 's Display Garden found on the property , with free admission to the museum and garden . 10 spectacular U.S. waterfalls . Gold Pyramid House in Wadsworth , Illinois . Some people have a guard dog . This house has a pharaoh standing watch . With the enormous statue of Ramses II in front of it , the 6-story , 17,000 square foot Gold Pyramid House in Wadsworth , Illinois , transports visitors back to ancient Egypt . In the 1970s `` pyramid power '' was a popular trend , with some people believing in the supernatural powers of the pyramids . Jim and Linda Onan were two such people , and at the time , their house was full of pyramids . Linda used to joke to her husband that he should build their next house in a pyramid shape so she could stop looking at all of the little ones inside of it , and in 1977 he did , painting it gold and surrounding it by a moat . Visitors can tour the pyramid and public areas of the home , which are decorated in an ancient Egyptian style to match the exterior of the house , visit a replica of King Tut 's tomb and hear a presentation about the history of the gilded pyramid . Admission for adults is $ 15 , children 17 and under are $ 10 . Shoe House in Hellam , Pennsylvania . There was an old lady who lived in a shoe . But in this case , it was a shoe salesman , who built the eye-catching Shoe House in Hellam , Pennsylvania . Standing 25 feet tall and 48 feet long , the giant shoe was created as a structural advertisement almost 70 years ago . Creator and shoe salesman Mahlon N. Haines originally used it as a guest house . With five different levels inside , the house has three bedrooms , two bathrooms , a kitchen and a living room . The house is open for tours from June through October , but private tours are available in the winter and spring . Tour prices are $ 4.50 for adults and $ 3 for children ages 4 to 7 . Winchester Mystery House in San Jose , California . Winchester rifle heir Sarah Winchester believed that spirits haunted her , and it took her 35 years to build an elaborate Victorian mansion that she believed would confuse those ghostly apparitions . Completed in 1919 , the seven-story , 160-room Winchester Mystery House in San Jose , California , has secret passageways , upside down columns and other oddities that the superstitious Winchester believed would bedevil those tormenting spirits . The mystery house hosts guided tours for brave visitors who are fond of the supernatural . There are three different tours available , with prices starting at $ 27 for adults and $ 24 for children . Mary 's Gone Wild Glass House in New Brunswick , North Carolina . People find a variety of ways to recycle old bottles , but covering an entire house in them might be a first . Visitors to New Brunswick , North Carolina 's coast will stumble upon Mary 's Gone Wild glass bottle house and folk garden , located only 5 miles from the ocean . Growing up , Mary Paulsen was known as the neighborhood doll repair woman , collecting discarded dolls and fixing them up . As an adult , she turned her yard into a village for her 6,000 dolls , using whatever items she could find . People started leaving their unwanted good in Mary 's yard for her to make into art and she began work on her bottle house gallery in 2008 , covering the walls with 8,000 different types of bottles , from nail polish to wine . The glass bottle house is open for tours year round . Visitors can also stop in her gallery to purchase art that benefits the hungry , or make a donation , as admission to the house is free . One Log House in Garberville , California . This is n't what comes to mind when most people think of a log cabin . Living in Humboldt County , California , Art Schmock was used to seeing giant redwoods towering above him , but his relatives living in the Midwest and East Coast refused to believe that trees actually grew to be so large . Realizing that most people had never seen giant redwoods , the logger created the One Log House and put it on wheels so that he could tour the country . Schmock and a friend spent eight months hollowing out the 7-foot-tall , 32-foot-long section of redwood . Holding a living room , kitchen and bedroom , the log house was similar to other mobile homes , except that its tremendous size and weight made mobility challenging , requiring special permits to drive on each state highway . Although the house traveled on occasion , it spent most of its time `` resting '' in small towns along the Northern California coast . Now , One Log House Espresso and Gifts sits on Highway 101 , south of Garberville , where it 's been for the last 15 years . The small cafe sells food , beverages and redwood gifts and has some relics of the old-time logging days . Admission is $ 1 for visitors over 5 years old . Beer Can House in Houston , Texas . It all started with a dislike of yard work . Tired of mowing the lawn and doing landscaping work at his Houston home , John Milkovisch inlaid thousands of marbles , rocks and metal pieces into the concrete and redwood of his yard in 1968 . When he finished with both the front and back yards , he began work on crafting aluminum siding for the house out of beer cans , which eventually became known as the Beer Can House . After he finished the practical aspect , he moved on to the decorative , making sculptures and garlands for the house , also out of beer cans . Ripley 's Believe It or Not estimated that 50,000 beer cans went into making John Milkovisch 's tribute to recycling . In 2001 , years after Milkovisch passed away , the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art acquired and restored the house , opening it to the public in 2008 . The house is open for visitors between Memorial Day and Labor Day , costing $ 5 for adults and free for children 12 and younger . House on the Rock in Spring Green , Wisconsin . Are you afraid of heights ? Then you may want to avoid the Infinity Room at Spring Green , Wisconsin 's House on the Rock . The long , thin room stretches 218 feet long and 156 feet above the valley floor , with over 3,000 windows for walls , providing amazing panoramic views . Considered an architectural wonder , the house was built in 1945 by Alex Jordan as a luxurious retreat . Perched on a rock , as its name implies , the house has an amazing view of the surrounding nature . Open to the public since 1960 , the house is divided into three sections that can all be toured . The admission for all three sections is $ 28.50 for adults and $ 15.50 for children . But , each section can also be visited separately for $ 12.50 . Staff recommends that visitors spend at least three hours in the house to experience all that it has to offer , such as a carousel it touts as the world 's largest , complete with 269 handcrafted animals .
Visitors to Wisconsin 's House will find a museum and iris garden . North Carolina 's Mary 's Gone Wild Glass House is covered in 3,000 bottles . Pickle Barrel House on the Rock in Wisconsin features a room with over 8,000 windows .