Once Upon A Cedar House

Years ago, we decided we wanted to buy a house on a lake. My daughter still lived at home and we owned a house in Garland, TX. We knew after she graduated, we would sell our house and begin the hunt for the perfect lakehouse. For those of you that personally know me and my husband (aka, Every Girl's Dream)...our ideas of the "perfect" lakehouse are on different ends of the spectrum (to say the least). My visions are of beautifully decorated, updated, and modern spaces. Every Girl's Dream loves a "fixer-upper." Due to budgetary contraints, I don't have to tell you who's vision won out!

We began to look at several area lakes. We wanted to be within close proximity (within an hour's drive) to the Dallas area. We knew we would not commit to the drive if it was a hassle to travel there. After many weekend trips, we finally decided on Cedar Creek Lake. I began to watch real estate listing and received daily/weekly updates through e-mails. Sometimes, properties looked amazing online. So...I would get all excited and we would jump in the car and head out to take a look. At times, we would drive through an area to get to the property and would drive through some really "run down" areas. I would tell Rick, "Scratch this one off the list. There is NO way I can stand driving through this every day to get to my home." He would roll his eyes and begin his lecture that we were never going to find a place with my attitude like that. ;)

The location was the most important aspect to our hunt. We wanted to be right on the water (we were buying a lakehouse after all!). I was perfectly content with a "channel" or cove location. Rick wanted open water. But he wanted it cheap. With that said, you can imagine how narrow our search became. After countless hours (and a whole year) of me searching through listings, I began to think we were never going to find the perfect place.

My cousin and my uncle have property at Cedar Creek Lake. I had been to my cousin's lakehouse before. They have a house in Dallas and they go to the lake almost every weekend. My uncle had retired and bought a beautiful house on open water. With a gorgeous wrap-around porch. Then, my uncle decided to purchase a "fixer-upper" for my aunt. He found an old (cedar) house, submitted a very low offer on the property, and sat back and waited for the response. The owner accepted his offer. He began the renovations. Rick and I went out and looked at the property. We told each other we could do that. So we told my uncle to keep an eye out for a good piece of property for us!

Literally the next day, I get a call from my uncle and he said "Paulette, I found a great place. But you have to come today because this property will not last!"

So after work, we headed out once again to view the perfect property. When we first headed out there, we knew it was in a location we did not think we would be able to afford. That was the first good sign. It was by a very popular marina called Don's Port. At the time, the lake level was down and there wasn't much water. This cove had about 3 foot of water! When we first drove up, we could tell that it needed a lot of work. It had a main house and a guest house. Perfect! We could have a place to have all of our friends and relatives stay. Just what we were looking for! After looking at the large deck that overlooked the channel, we were sold and we were upon a cedar house!

I will continue the story in another post, but for now, here is the view of the house as you first pull up. This picture was actually taken by our inspector. I will post my pictures that I took the first time we saw the property in another post.

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