Free House anyone?

[MICP2823 0]

All I can say is WOW

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/62579.htm

April 17, 2006 -- Real-estate prices keep going up, but that doesn't bother Kyle MacDonald - who hopes to land a house for the price of a single paper clip.

Before you call in the men in white coats, get this: The 26-year-old Canadian dreamer started his bizarre quest last July with one red paper clip, has been trading up ever since, and could soon achieve his incredible goal.

His latest swap got him a year's free use of a one-bedroom bungalow in Phoenix, Ariz., and he's not stopping there.

"I wanted to buy a house but realized I didn't have the money," MacDonald, who lives in Vancouver, told The Post.

"Then I remembered how in school we'd play a game called 'Bigger and Better,' trading what we could for something more valuable. And when I looked down, I saw this red paper clip and thought, 'Hmm . . .' "

MacDonald, a writer who's also worked as a pizza deliverer and tree cutter, went on the Web offering to trade the paper clip on www.oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com.

"People were intrigued with the idea, so I decided to make it an adventure and go out there and meet interesting people - and also try to achieve my goal," he said.

An amused Vancouver couple offered him a pen shaped like a fish for the paper clip, and he made the swap. Then he traveled to Seattle to meet an artist who gave him a doorknob for the pen.

MacDonald handed over the doorknob to a journalist who gave him a Coleman stove in Amherst, Mass., and finally, he met a Marine to swap the stove for a 60-pound, 1,000-watt Honda generator in San Clemente, Calif.

He brought the generator to Maspeth, Queens, where he swapped it for a keg of beer and a neon Budweiser sign, then headed for Quebec, where somebody gave him an old Snowmobile.

That same week, he declared on Canadian TV that the one place he'd never go for a trade was the remote outpost of Yahk, British Columbia.

Guess what. A magazine called SnoRiders offered him airfare there, with skiing and meals thrown in.

He swapped that for a 1995 Ford truck. The vehicle then went to a record producer, who offered in return 80 hours of recording time at Toronto's Metalworks Studio.

That sounded great to aspiring Arizona singer Jody Gnant, who offered MacDonald a one-year, rent-free stay in her bungalow in Phoenix.

Still, is somebody really willing to give him a house?

"Well, I started with a paper clip, so I think it's possible. And I'm not going to stop. It might take another week, it might take another decade, but it's going to happen," MacDonald vowed.

"Things are heating up now. I think I'm going to have a new deal in another few days. It's exciting," he said.

[Guest]

That's really awesome, I'm suprised he got so much...

I guess if you catch the right people at the right times you can get anything.

[Guest KFD236]

Thats pretty cool. Way to go.