Posted: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:44 PM - 10,075 Readers

By: Janet Kwak

 SPICEWOOD, TEXAS -- When retired commercial airline pilot Bruce Copp wanted to build a home overlooking Lake Travis a few years ago, he had some rules to go by.

"One of the rules is that it had to be 90% stone, brick, hard, something like that," explained Bruce.

Then, an idea hit him one day as he was strolling in front of his yard.

"Why not the Alamo?," Bruce chuckled. "The Alamo fits all of the requirements!"

"My husband doesn't surprise me too much anymore with some of his ideas," Tracy Copp said. "It probably involved a bottle of wine... and there were times when I questioned if this was the right thing to do. But we love it."

With the blessing of his wife, Bruce went to work. After two visits to San Antonio, Bruce 'channeled his Davy Crockett' and built an $800,000 home to match. He drew out a floor plan, took rough measurements by pacing in front of the real Alamo, and got to work.

"I think we are within a foot of the actual size of the Alamo," Bruce said. "The inside is our home, and it stops being the Alamo as soon as you step in the door."

The 4,800 square foot home comes with a two-story bunker, a movie theater, pavilion overlooking the lake, and even an elevator. The ideas didn't stop there. Bruce wanted life-size figurines wearing coonskin caps and carrying rifles, just like Davy Crockett, to look out the window on the second floor to "look for enemies."

Tracy wasn't sold.

"That was one ideas nixed by me," Tracy added. "That and he wanted to make the doorbell ring 'Remember the Alamo!'"

The Texas-sized home was set to be completed by March 6th, the 175th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. However, there have been some delays, and the move-in date has been pushed back a few months.

*  Story Contributed by: Janet Kwak