These are not cookie-cutter colonials. Instead, in some parts of the country, cliff-side compounds and remodeled lighthouses are being listed.

Perhaps after sailing into your home port after an international cruise, you wished that you could have stayed on the boat--permanently.

Maybe you're irritated by the walk from your car to your front door. You'd rather step from your vehicle right into your room.

Yahoo! BuzzOr you feel that the trees surrounding your home provide too many hiding places for your enemies, and you yearn to live in an isolated desert landscape--but only on a hill, in a retro, above-ground dome where you have the terrestrial advantage over approaching foes.

These might seem like uncommon needs, but they've all been addressed by architects and contractors--resulting in outrageous, unconventional homes. And those whose very specific requirements could be met by an apartment in a "residential community at sea," a "floating" California home that includes a Batcave-like elevator for your car, or a "volcano home" in the middle of the desert are in luck--all these homes exist, and they're on the market right now.