June is National Homeownership Month.
When you’re the owner of the house, you can make the place almost any way you want.
Like a guy in Rockport, Massachusetts who made almost an entire house out of old newspapers.
The king of this paper castle was Elis Stenman.
He was a mechanical engineer who designed machines, including some that made paper clips.
In the 1920s, Stenman and his wife decided to build a summer home near the coast.
They started the way most people do, with a wood frame.
But the walls that they put on that frame were made of newspaper, which Stenman would roll and glue into little logs.
The exterior walls are covered by an extra-wide roof, so they get some protection from the elements.
They also get a fresh coat of varnish each year.
The interior walls have been varnished, but not as much, so that visitors can still read the papers.
The furniture is also made of the logs: Stenman made couches, tables, desks and more out of them.
There are a couple exceptions: the house’s piano is an actual piano, it’s just covered in papers, and the fireplace is made out of brick.
Yes, there’s a fireplace. In a house made entirely out of paper.
Now, if you’re wondering why the heck Elis Stenman decided to do all of that folding and gluing and stacking of newspapers to build himself a house, we don’t exactly know.
One theory is that it saved him money, because the papers were cheap and easy to get.
But there’s also this explanation, from a relative who later inherited the Paper House: “He wanted to see what would happen to the paper.”
This weekend in northern Indiana, it’s the Mentone Egg Festival, celebrating an area that’s been called the “Egg Basket of the Midwest.”
There’s a parade, food, games and more, all in the shadow of Mentone’s most famous symbol: a 3,000 pound plaster egg, right in the middle of downtown.
In that town, the chicken did not come first.
The Paper House—made of 100,000 newspapers—has a working fireplace, electricity, and running water (Roadtrippers)
Mentone Egg Festival (Visit Indiana)
Our Patreon backers always come first
Photo via The Paper House website.