Perhaps the most quintessential nail house ever, in Chongqing, China, 2007.

Edith Macefield’s famed nail house in Seattle.

Luo Baogen points to his nail house in the middle of a new highway in Wenling, China.

Another holdout in Chongqing, China, 2009.

Changsha, China, shopping mall, 2007.

The Citigroup Center skyscraper in New York was forced to build around St. Peter's Lutheran Church.

Zhao Xing’s nail house in Kunming, China, 2010, collects water in a moat around his home.

When a local family refused to sell their shop, Wickham’s department store in London built around it.

Nail house in Hefei, China, 2008.

Nail houses sit in the middle of a construction area in Hefei, China, 2010.

(© Linda Davidson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A Washington, D.C. man refused a $2 million offer to buy his house, which was valued at $200,000.

Hefei, China, 2010.

Perhaps the most famous (albeit fictional) nail house belonged to Carl and Ellie in the movie 'UP.'

After a dispute, city officials and owners agreed to run a freeway right through the Gate Tower Building in Fukushima-ku, Japan.

Meet the world's 14 most stubborn homeowners

11/28/2012

“Nail houses,” as in a nail that’s stuck in a piece of wood, is the term for a domicile owned by iron-willed inhabitants who resist selling out to urban developers. Some held out for more cash that never came, while others were making political statements. And some were just clinging on to the things in life that they hold dear. China appears to be the world leader in nail houses, but as this gallery shows, stubbornness is universal. That said, the last image proves that with a little ingenuity, both sides in a dispute can end up winners.

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