For years, Dad and I talked every Saturday and Sunday morning. Now Mom and I talk every Saturday. This week she asked a simple question: “What would your dad think about this project?”
We know exactly what he’d think. He’d think it was fantastic. And he wouldn’t just think it, he’d be out here. He’d have coffee in hand at sunrise, tinker with something that didn’t need fixing, and talk with whoever pulled in. Before long there’d be a few trucks parked next to his.
01 · A field and a little faith
It started in the corner of a cornfield.
If you know the movie, you know the story. A farmer hears a voice in his cornfield say, “If you build it, he will come.” Everybody thinks he’s lost it. He builds it anyway.
DGC started much the same way, in the corner of a cornfield in Cass County, with a plan most people had to squint to see.
02 · He will come
The line everyone remembers a little differently.
Most people remember the line as “they will come,” but the movie says “he.” By the end you find out who “he” is. It’s the farmer’s father, young again, walking out of the corn to play catch.
The same tree, before and after. Survey flags and a cornfield, and now a finished road frontage and fence.
We think about that out here. Every piece we finish is something Pop would have walked, inspected, and had an opinion on. In a way he’s part of it anyway, in how we build and in the people this project keeps bringing through the gate.
So we’ll keep building, and they’ll come: boat owners, car guys, and weekend tinkerers, the kind of people Roger would have handed a cup of coffee.
If you build it, they will come.
In memory of Roger Stephenson
To everyone who helped
Thank you for building it with us.
To the contractors, the crews, and everyone who has helped and supported us along the way: thank you. We still have a road ahead, but we feel great about where we’re heading, and we aim to build something this community will be proud of. Pop would have loved every minute of it, and he would have offered the kind of insight we’re having to learn on our own.
Tim
Diamond Garage Condos · Kamp Kozy · Cassopolis, Michigan
03 · The fence
Half done, and it already changes the place.
New black fence along Kamp Kozy, with the old tree standing guard at the corner.
The fence isn’t finished yet, but it already frames the property, marks the entrance, and makes DGC look like what it was built to be: a secure, professional home for boats, classics, and the projects that outgrew the garage at home.
The entrance today. The drive runs straight back to the corn.