by Gary Maclean

Created on: January 29, 2009   Last Updated: April 22, 2010

We met and married midway through our lives. We had both experienced life with another person and that didn't work. Now, finally, we felt we had met our true "pull-apart." We still had our young twenties dreams and aspirations. We still wanted what every American wants. We still intended to make the best of our situation and to establish a happy, productive relationship. We were excited, happy and full of energy and anticipation.

We married in 1994, rented a big farm house and immediately acquired a family dog. Children from both sides eagerly came to live with us. We were forming a family that was already in existence but now we were forging it together. It was working, we were becoming one very happy unit and we loved it. Our young twenties dreams were taking shape as we entered our young forties.

I was working full time at a strong company in a very lucrative position. At one point the owner approached me and gave me an even more interesting offer; leave his company, go into business for myself and secure Quality certification for his four divisions. I presented this opportunity to my wife and though it sounded very risky to leave the comfort of working for another company, we agreed and took the offer. With that, our own, home based business was born.

We were very successful. For eight years I was able to secure a six figure income. I knew my subject, I had very good connections and I was eager to work hard to get where we wanted to be. My wife worked equally as hard keeping the books, maintaining the mailing list, editing and publishing our monthly newsletter, advertising, communicating, doing everything related to making a home business work. We felt we had made it.

It came time to strike out and build our own dream home. We found a perfect ten acre plot, bought it on land contract and started improving it right away. We did only what our income would allow us to do. The first year we brought in utilities and cleaned the entire ten acres. It had been used as a junk yard for many years. We spent hours mapping out where our home would go and what it would look like. Yet, we restrained ourselves and depended on our income to do what we could with cash, without having to go into debt.

It worked. Over a period of five years we first cleaned the property and got it ready with utilities. Next, we put in the basement. The third year we built the first floor. The fourth year we built the second floor. The fifth year we had the structure sided, windows and doors

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