About five years ago Shelly and I had the great fortune to help her sister and brother-in-law (Lisa and George) build their home. It was a great experience, and the house is absolutely beautiful. It also inspired us to build a home of our own. We lived out in the country for a while during our first year of marrage and loved it. The problem was, we were only renting that house and we wanted a house of our own. We bought one in the suburbs and lived there for seven years. Three years ago we decided to start looking for some land and spent a fair amount of time driving around in the areas that we were interested in. We looked at some raw land, some land with existing houses and just about everything in between.

During that time Shelly's sister Christine called to tell us about a property for sale that we should look at. It had a lot of the qualities that we were looking for in a piece of land. First and foremost was the view. We really couldn't see the view too well through all the trees, but we kind of got an Idea by looking past the neighbors house and down the valley. It seemed to be a pretty nice view.

At one point George brought out an extension ladder, carried it through the woods and put it up in a tree. We climbed up about 25 feet to check out the view. Second, it was wooded. Lots of trees with a few spots that were cleared for the deer and turkeys to forage. Another big factor was that it was on a small lake of about 7 or 8 acres that is shared among the subdivision. We were fortunate to have about 1,000 feet of lake frontage with this particular plot. The land being just under 13 acres gives us some room to play without being unmanageable. Plus, there are only 14 properties in the subdivision and that makes it kind of quaint. Our property sits at the end of a cul de sac so there is no through traffic. That means, at the end of the day, and at the end of the road....There's home.

Taking on a project like this can be quite intimidating, even for someone who had been in the construction industry for 20 years. I'ts one thing to be a carpenter and spend all your days framing, and quite another, to be responsible for every aspect of the project. From securing the financing to the last coat of paint, there is a lot to plan for. I think our one saving grace is our faith and our family and friends. We know that if we have faith and leave all of our problems in Gods hands, we will not fail. We also know that without the unbelievable help and support of our family and friends, we would not have even attempted this.