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From Neighborhood Eyesore to Designer Home

Woman Buys Water Tower for $1,000 and Transforms It Into Huge, Eco-Friendly Home

Judy Fuller recycles, but she goes way beyond cans and bottles. The Waukesha, Wisc., native converted a neighborhood "eyesore" into a beautiful eco-friendly home that also helps her raise money for charity.

An eco-innovator from Waukesha turned a decripit water tower into an extended care facility for those in dire need
Judy Fuller bought a decripit water tower for $1,000 and turned it into a fabulous three-story eco-friendly home.
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The city was planning to demolish an old, rusty water tower, nearly 40 feet tall and 50 feet around, that could hold 675,000 gallons of water.

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The tower had sat unused and neglected for years but the demolition would cost the city about $100,000.

"So I walked up to the water department and said I wanted to buy it," Fuller said.

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For $1,000, Fuller became the owner of the giant tower in 2004.

"The concrete had oxidized and it was scaling off the building and it was old porous, concrete [that] rebar was poking through," said Fuller, the owner of Pinnacle Building Inc. who exceeded her budget of $200,000 on the water tower project.

After three years of drilling, painting and renovating, the water tower was transformed into a three-floor, 6,000-square-foot designer home that looks unlike any other in this community of 65,000 people.

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