Bruce Copp is about finished building his 4,800-square-foot home out here in the Hill Country to look like the Alamo.

And everybody seems to like it.

"No complaints so far," said Bruce, 64, a retired pilot for Continental Airlines who naturally has a large map of the world in the Alamo's foyer. "I'd be lying if I said I'm not proud of this project, 'cause it's kinda cool."

Not that it's historically accurate. It has a spiral staircase inside, a porch on the back with a great view of Lake Travis and an outdoor bar where the neighbors gather.

Plus a wine room. Bowie had a knife, but as best we know, he didn't carry a corkscrew.

So far, Bruce has sunk $800,000 into the project, which includes a two-story "bunkhouse" next door to the Alamo.

"Another $50,000 will finish it off," said Bruce, who hopes to move into his Texas white limestone Alamo home in April. Currently, he and wife Tracy are living in the bunkhouse, which is really a penthouse. Bruce had hoped to move into the Alamo by March 6, so he could throw a big party to coincide with the 175th anniversary of the siege of the Alamo, but he says he can't meet that deadline.



So how's he affording this project?

"I'm very fortunate," said Bruce, an affable guy with a good sense of humor. "My wife is a doctor of psychology. I hate to say it, but she's going to support us for the next 10 years or so. And Marble Falls has a lot of crazy people. In fact, all of my neighbors are crazy."

So look who's talking. "Right over here is a landing," Bruce said, pointing out an area near a front window on the top floor of the Alamo look-alike. "And what I want to do is put life-size figures with coonskin caps and long rifles looking out the window. And my wife says, ‘Absolutely not.' "

So what gives a guy the idea to build his new house to look like the Alamo? Neighborhood association rules, naturally. Bruce lives in Pilot's Landing, a gated community with huge homes near the little Spicewood Airport. (Being a gated community Alamo, the Mexican army couldn't have gotten in without the pass code.)

"We had some kind of stringent building requirements in our little tiny subdivision," Bruce said, speaking of the rule that requires 90 percent of the outside of houses here to be made of brick or stone. "I was walking down the road here one day, and I thought, what kind of building meets those requirements? It just flashed into my mind: ‘Well, the Alamo meets all those requirements.' "

Is the neighborhood association upset about having an Alamo in its midst? Are they worried the Mexican army might attack the place?

Nope. "Oh, they love it," Bruce said. "Plus, when we built it, I was in charge of the architectural committee."

There are other homes in Texas that look like the Alamo, but this might be the most expensive. "There are several," Bruce said. "We heard of one as we were leaving Weatherford (west of Fort Worth)." So he went and checked it out. "The guy had basically just put up a fake front."

Bruce still has some trim work to finish up. But he's started decorating. He's hung a sombrero on the wall in the big room near the front door. "The sombrero actually belongs to one of my neighbors; now I have to find Pancho Villa's skull," Bruce quipped. "You see, a skull will fit very nicely right on the top of this surface." Wonder when he goes to the Mexican gift shop to look for the skull if he'll purchase the big Villa skull, or the smaller skull of Villa as a younger man.

It's been a long haul. The foundation was poured in November 2008, and Bruce has been working on the Alamo off and on ever since. He realizes the place isn't a replica. But that's not what he was shooting for anyway. He's not trying to compete with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who run the real Alamo. Although he is thinking bed and breakfast.

Still, "I love Texas history," Bruce said. "But I'll be honest. I'm a Yankee."