Grumpy bloke builds 10ft wide, 19ft tall £500,000 ‘SPITE HOUSE’ to annoy his neighbours after bitter row
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A STUBBORN bloke built a tall, narrow house purely to spite his neighbours who tried to get him to sell - and it soon got snapped up. Developer John Atkins built the eyebrow-raising structure in Jacksonville, Florida, deliberately to look over neighbours’ gardens and block their views , all to win an argument.
![[Rear view of a narrow, two-story house with a garage.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/even-space-garage-listing-agent-900898845.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
And the new owner, Mike Cavanagh, 51, is defiantly proud of the nuisance his house causes. John bought a thin sliver of land squeezed between other plots and chalked up plans to build a house on it. Neighbours were incredulous, insisting it was far too narrow and that he should instead sell up to them.
![[Interior view of a narrow, modern kitchen with white cabinets and gray tile backsplash.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/even-space-garage-listing-agent-900898638.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
This only made John more determined to squeeze a home into the space - just to prove he could. He initially had dreams of a 15-foot wide home, modest by most standards, but city officials rejected his plans. Refusing to give in, John slimmed down his drawings even further and proposed a house just 10-foot wide - and a towering 19-foot tall.
![[Illustration of a two-story house floor plan.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NINTCHDBPICT000901632191.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Regulators could find no grounds to reject the narrow house, and so it soon became a reality. Now the house, twice as tall as it is wide, looms over next-door plots, staring right into the gardens of the neighbours who sought to block it. “I still get jokes, too. Some friends introduce me socially as ‘the guy who bought the skinny house.'”.
![[Backyard of a narrow house with a white vinyl fence.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/even-space-garage-listing-agent-900898849.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
