Illinois couple, Greg and Carole Tempel, along with their son, Sam, and brown Lab named Sugar, enjoy the wooded lot their Cheyenne sits on. The oak and hickory trees surrounding their property are a valued haven to them and the wildlife that frequents the area.

The Tempel Living Room

Carole states that since Greg is so meticulous that any other builder doing the job would not  have given them the sense of  accomplishment they received from doing the work themselves. They did have three other folks give them a hand in the building process, but left the concrete, heating and air conditioning to the professionals.

The Tempel home had a bit of a setback early on in the building process when Greg seriously injured himself by falling in the basement on the job site. The time spent convalescing was put to good use planning building strategies. Carole claims he returned to the practical building aspect sooner than he should have considering his injuries, but we know how difficult it is to put off the dream becoming a reality when it is so close. “I’ll just do this one little thing, it will be no big deal, you’ll see.” Yep, we’ve seen this scenario before.

Greg built a bookcase into the stairwell to showcase their collection of Zane Grey novels