I live midway down the East coast of Florida and I've heard about Coral Castle for ages. It's a fascinating place. Especially the massive slab of stone he used as a door, weighing in at tons, which is so precisely balanced (no hinges) that you can easily move it.

As a courier, I covered a large area around Pt. St. Lucie, Florida and stumbled across an unfinished cement castle tucked away in an older residential community along the shores of the Indian River Lagoon. Someone had actually started to build a place out of cement that resembled an old style castle, but never finished. The place was full of weeds and none of the neighbors I talked to knew anything about it. Years later (like, last year) I tried to find it with Google Earth but this was after the housing boom.

The area had expanded with new houses and I think the castle was torn down.

I often wonder how these folks managed to build these things years ago, especially since they couldn't do it today thanks to the host of permits and regulations needed. (A woman I know tried to turn her garage into a room by way of her husband and his friends putting up plywood walls and got stopped cold by the local code department for about 20 violations, including not having a building permit.)

Given today's restrictions, I don't think even the Winchester House could be built.

I read and heard stories as a kid about folks who just took a cement mixer, a bunch of rocks, bought a chunk of land and then spent a few years building their own homes, many of which are around today, without having to spend half of their ready cash on Union electricians, building inspectors, building permits and so on.

A friend of mine decided to put one of those little aluminum storage buildings in his back yard. It comes with a treated wood base and he would use long, metal spiral anchors to secure it down. The building codes stepped in and informed him he needed a cement footing, imbedded with securing bolts, reinforced and to be in place before the shack even arrived.

He did the work mainly himself and it still cost him almost as much as the shed.

I suspect the age of eclectic builders making homes out of pebbles and beer bottles around here is over.