Future Lake Home, Perhaps?

As a child, I grew up on the lake. My family didn't take big vacations. I didn't see the beach until I was nearly a teenager, but I was very familiar with water. I had the luxury of growing up in the Ozarks, which meant I was only miles from Table Rock Lake (aka my summer home). My step-dad loved the outdoors, so we would spend two weekends a month at the lake during the summer.

Most of our time at the lake involved camping in tents, but as I got a little older, we upgraded to renting an adorable A-Frame cabin. We would load up all our gear in my step-dad's jeep (doors off and top down of course) and drive the windy road to our campground. My sisters and I were in our bathing suits before the car was in park. We were as comfortable at the lake as we were in our own home.

By high school our camping trips were few and far between.  Once I turned sixteen I didn't find going to the lake to be very cool. You were more likely to find me at a friend's house or with Todd. Sadly, by college I could barely tell you how to find our old campground.

A couple of years ago, good friends of ours inherited the coziest lake cabin just outside of Memphis. Todd and I visited for the first time in 2009 and the moment we pulled into the driveway a thousand memories filled my mind. I had forgotten just how much I missed being on the water. We visited again this past summer and when Todd and I got home we talked about how we would love to have a place like that to take our family one day.

Since owning a lake home is a bit out of the question right now, I did the next best thing and brought a little of the lake into our current home.

However, a recent trip to Home Depot made us realize our dreams of owning a lake home may not have to be as far away as we think! I had seen an online article about a professor who built a 450 square foot home and e-mailed it to Todd. I asked him if he thought we could build something similar. Afterall, you don't need a lot of space when you spend the entire time outdoors.

 

So when we were walking around Home Depot and saw this little beauty, the wheels started turning...

All we need is a small piece of land on the water, some insulation and electricity, right?

It's good to have dreams!