Milkovisch loved beer (had a six-pack a day habit) and believed it was a cure-all for everything. He had saved the cans for years and finally come up with a use for them. He sliced off the tops and bottoms and used the sides to cover the exterior of the house. His wife protested, but he kept at it. She just didn’t allow him to touch the interior.

Once he was done with the house, he started using the pull tabs and tops and bottoms of the cans to make curtains, mobiles, fences, sculptures, windmills and wind chimes. ("I hate to throw anything away.") Beer can garlands dangle from the eaves and form a canopy over the driveway. He believed the pull tab curtains helped reduce air conditioning costs. When a hurricane damaged the fence, he simply used the cans to repair it.

After covering the house, he moved onto the fence, trees and rest of the yard. Marbles are embedded in the sidewalk and backyard fence and spell out “CCXXII Malone” (222 Malone is the house’s street address) in a driveway sign. The backyard has statuary and his wife’s tiny tree covered with plastic lemons from the grocery. He built "The Ladder to Success" – a ladder crowned with moon and starts with one rung painted black to show that some people don’t make it. A small medallion in the middle of his back yard commemorates the year his project began (1968). A wheelbarrow filled with his final load of concrete sits in front yard with a sign that reads "Culprit." However, despite the hip Houston community’s interest, he scoffed at the notion that his place was art.

Milkovisch died in 1988, after 18 years of building and 39,000 beer cans later. His wife continued living in the house and she and the sons maintained it. They even did a TV commercial in support of recycling. His son Ronnie carried on the tradition and built a solid beer can fence and gate in front of the house. In 2001, John's wife passed away and the house was bought by the Orange Show Foundation. They are restoring the house and converting the interior into a mini-museum about the place. For more, see these websites: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.