The roof line on this Camden County alehouse is patterned in a deliberate series of ups and downs.

"That's their rhythm"

A rhythm of work and play that's kept Kel and Anne Bayless working weekends on their dream home for nearly 20 years, a length of time that's left guessing boaters in their wake.

"We get a lot of people coming up in a boat and want to see what this crazy thing is on the side of the hill," Kel said.

"They just kind of go, 'Wow!' and take a step back," said Nate Bayless, their son. "And then you can kind of see the gears start to spin."

"You can see it in their eyes, they're like, 'Boy, this is great to come visit, but boy, you guys are nuts!'" Anne said laughing.

After nearly two decades of building one home, you might imagine there were a lot of ups and downs in the building process. But you also might imagine this is no ordinary house. This is a castle. It is a 5,000 square foot fortress that features a moat and even a draw bridge. While the dragon may be make believe, the fish in the moat are real.

In 1990, Kel was a Kansas City area tower crane company owner who gave height to the likes of the Bellagio in Vegas. He took on a gamble of his own to build a castle.

"There are no drawings," Kel said.

"It's all in his head," Anne said. "When anyone says, "Are there blueprints for this?' No, no, there are no blueprints."

"How to plumb, how to do electrical or something, I didn't know how to do any of those things," Kel said. "I kind of feel a little bit like Noah because I feel as though I should build it, but I really can't tell you why."

"Most people say, 'Oh well, you look good, you look like you're doing fine,'" Kel said.

You don't need blueprints to know life's architecture isn't always linear. Sometimes, you come upon a ripple. For Kel, his was prostate cancer.

"It came as a real shock," Anne said.

"Many people have asked me then, 'Okay, what happens?'" Kel said. "Are you scared? Do you just quit?"

The day after his radiation treatment, we found Kel building a waterfall.

"I had a radiation treatment yesterday so I'm a little tired," Kel said.

So family and friends are pitching in to help the Bayless' finish the old cross castle, as there are some things even the best tools can't fix.

"We've been building this for 17 years and I've never noticed this before," Anne said. "But Nate, our son, was up on one of the roofs, a higher up one, and he looked down, and he came down to his dad. He said, do you realize the shape of the courtyard, the inner shape of it is in the shape of a cross."

"So if you look at the castle, from the air looking straight down, you'll see the footprint of it is also the cross."

Perhaps Kel had a blueprint after all.

About six months after we first brought you this story, Kel said goodbye to his wife for the last time. Before he passed away, the two perched atop the uneven castle wall. With her looking up and him looking down, their lives are now on different levels. But according to Kel's blueprints for the Old Cross Castle, their gaze will one day meet again in the same place.

If you'd like more information about the Old Cross Castle, you can click on the link to the left of this article.