It all started like this.

Once the decision was make to get started, the first thing to do was determine a floor plan for the garage. I knew I wanted it to be large enough to house both vehicles (my truck, Dana's car) and I wanted a wood working shop once the house was built. The first objective was to get the apartment completed in the end of the garage so we'd have someplace to live while we rebuilt the house.

After drawing up many different ideas I decided on basically a retangle that would measure

24' X 48'. This would allow three overhead doors each 9' tall by 10' wide. This meant I had to go with 10' sidewalls which I wanted anyway. I framed the wall with the doors with headers with the idea I would enclose one of them now and install the overhead doors in two of the bays. This would leave one bay that we would use for the living area.

I was fortunat enough to have a land surveyer as my next door neighbor and he was kind enough to bring one of his crews down on July 5, 2003 to lay out the garage.

I had planned to do ALL the work myself, with help whenever I could talk somone into helping.

I have two boys, only one of which lives close enough to be of much help. And then I had my father-in-law, thankfully!! Without his help, I'd still be tring to finish the garage!

It turned out that I needed to move my sewer line and water line as a first step in this process.

This seemed like a simple enough project but, it turned into a story I have told many times.

While preparing to get started, I called several dirt contractors around the area to get quotes on the dirt work. More on this later. One of the contractors that came out told me that he had done the initial work and put in the sewer and water lines going down the street.

I should tell you that being on a lake away from the city, sewer and water are difficult at best.

Initially when my cabin was built, it had a typical septic system and somewhere down the road a little municiple water and sewer company was formed to provide these services for a fee.

Since this contractor assured me where the water line was buried, I rented my Ditchwitch and started digging a new trench to move the water line.. I had barely started when as you might have guessed by now, I broke the water main and a coupld of hundred homes down line from me were without water!

I celled the water company and they sent a crew out to fix the line which wasn't that big a deal. While talking to the crew chief, I ask him to explain to me exactly how the sewer system worked as I was going to have to break into the line at the street and tie in my new line. He assured me it was no big deal and that it was not pressured up unless my pump was running. This didn't sound kosher to me so I asked him if he would come make the cut over for me the next morning for $50. He was more than willing to do it and agreed to show back up at 6:30 the next morning ready to do the job.

This was the best $50 I ever spent in my life! When this guy cut into the old sewer line, the _hit hit the fan!!!!!!! I mean it went everywhere. I had dug out a bell hole next to the area he would have to tie in the new line and it and the trench began to fill up rapidly. I'm at a loss but, this guy runs to his truck and grabs a huge can of pipe glue and a swab about 2-3" in diameter. He took the fitting I had laid out, dobbed some dope on them, underwater, and stuck them together! He did this like it was no big deal, asked if I had a hose he could rinse off with and commenced to take a bath with all his clothes still on right in my front yard.

Like I said, the best 50 bucks I ever spent!

Picture description: date 5/7/03 shows the area the garage will be built looking from the road. You can see the south end of the old cabin and the lake off to the right side.

Picture to the right of the one dated 11/07/03 shows the same area where the garage will sit and if you look real close you can see the stakes placed by the surveyors.

Picture dated 11/7/03 shows the same area with the ditching complete and pvc ready to go in the trench. Pic was taken from in front of the cabin looking back to where I was standing when I took the previous two pics.

Picture above and to the right of the last pic and also dated 11/7/03 shows pvc again from east side of lot looking west.

And last picture dated 9/8/03 shows the area just in front of the cabin with the trench backfilled and grass growing once again....lots of other work on the slab during the time from July till Sept will be shown in the next segment.

The way it is now.

Before going through the building process, I thought it would help if I showed a few pics of where we are now, some three and 1/2 years later. If these are of interest then perhaps you will want to see more details on how the whold process went from start to finish.

The pic in the top right is dated 4/3/05 and shows the first phase of our building plans. We first wanted to rebuild and add on to the existing cabin but, realizing it would be a huge job and take a long time, we decided to build a garage with an apartment in one end to give us a place to stay while working on the new house. This pic shows the completed garage as it now exists.

The pic stamped 1/29/06 shows the garage in relation to the old cabin before we had it moved off the lot. When it finally came down to starting on the cabin, it became apparent it would be much easier, faster and probably cheaper to start from scratch. This pic is just prior to the old cabin leaving us forever!

The picture dated 12/17/06 on the left side shows the front of the house, lake side as it now stands from the outside. I have been doing a lot of work inside and except for paint and closing up the underside of the deck with stone, finished with it.

The last pic shows the old boat house but, notice the new retaining wall. This was an unexpected expense that was very much needed but, didn't plan to replace for a few more years. More pics of all this later, these are just a few to wet your appetite if you are a diy home builder!

This maybe is a good time to also add a comment. Financing of this project has come out of our pockets. We have paid for everything as we go and that is one reason it has taken so long. If we can't afford the next stage, we wait until we can. We don't really have a budget for the house. We know what we want and if we can't afford something we change our plans or do without. So far that has worked well and hopefully, we can finish the house this year.

And one other thought. I have always had the opinion that if someone else can do something, I can too. Not that I am any better than anyone else, it's just that I can learn how to do what they can. This is not rocket science and people have been building houses since the stone age.

I'm sure that those that do this for a living can do it easier and better. I have always just thought that I could learn what they have and if given enough time, can do it good enough to suit me.

I also want to acknowledge www.countryplans.com as a great sourse of information. John Rhabe has plans for small owner build homes and a forum where the nicest people on the web sit and wait to answer your questions about any building issue/problem you come up with Give it a try, Glenn, John, Peg, Amanda, et all, are the salt of the earth. You can do it, they will help!

Our owner builder experience!

Almost four years ago, we decided we wanted to retire to our little lake house on Cedar Creek Lake, 90 miles southeast of our home in Bedford, TX. Little did we know it would take us as much as 5 years to complete the process and have the place we wanted.

(Please disregard the picture at left. I'm new to this and can't figure out how to remove pics)

Back in late 1998, I began searching for a lake front property that would allow privately owned boathouses. At the time, I had no knowledge of what that meant, I only knew that was what I wanted. I learned that I needed to look at lakes that were not controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers. That limits the search and prevented me from buying on the lakes I was most familiar with and had hoped to buy on.

After finding Cedar Creek Lake, I spent every weekend for the next three months or so with a realtor, looking at various properties for sale. Finally, I closed on the property on Feburary 15, 1999. It is a small waterfront lot in the '3-way View addition' close to the old Marimac Marina.

The lot is 60' wide but, about 350' long. As purchased, there was an old cedar sided cabin built when the lake was first impounded back in the mid '60's. It was in pretty awful shape but, it was 'lakey' and could be cooled in the summer and warmed up in the winter. It was maybe 700 square feet with a deck across the lake side about 6' above grade at that point. The end of the deck (lakeside) was at the 325' elevation, which for CCL is as close as you are allowed to build.

There was a one slip boathouse with an old wooden retaining wall at waters edge. The boat house was and still is about 75' from waters edge.

Initally, the idea was to not do anything to the place for at least two years. I wanted to make sure this was really where I wanted to retire. In July of 2001, Dana and I were married and thankfully, she loves the lake nearly as much as I do! So, by July 4th week in 2003 we knew this was our little piece of heaven and broke ground on our new future home.