Jan Evans and her husband Rick are retired and living in their dream home on Table Rock Lake in Missouri. They have 6 children, 4 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren. Therefore, they needed a larger home than most retirees so they would have room for the kids to visit often and enjoy the lake.

The Evanses bought their lake lot in 1986, and Mrs. Evans really did spend nearly 25 years designing theirdream home. She is the daughter of a Realtor/builder/developer, and has been drawing floor plans just for fun since she was in junior high school. She started out in Interior Design and drafting in college, but later found her true “calling” in special education.

Mrs. Evans is now a retired speech pathologist and special education teacher who volunteers at her local school as a mentor. Therefore, she is obviously not an architect nor an engineer. However, she has upgraded or remodeled all the homes she has ever owned prior to designing their current home at the lake. Her father also remodeled all three of their family homes that she lived in as a child. One of the Jones family’s favorite “Sunday drives” was to go see her dad’s latest building, remodeling or development projects in Bartlesville, Okla.

Mrs. Evans has always been a prolific writer, but has never attempted to publish any of her writings until now. Some of her writings have been fictional, some educational, and some technical, all mostly for her children or her school. She has also written numerous successful grants for her school, both local and state, during the course of her 30 years in education.

After realizing her life-long dream of designing and building her “dream home”, Evans’ brother encouraged her to write a book about her experiences. The idea was well received, even if it was just for fun and family. Evans has known many people over the years who shared her interest in designing their own “dream home”. Therefore, she also thought this book might be helpful for others to learn from her mistakes as well as her successes in accomplishing her dream.