VIDALIA — One Vidalia couple is planning to cross the river soon to reach a dream 24 years in the making.

Pam and Gary White have lived in their Stampley Street house for 14 years, but they are now ready to make the move to Adams County and build their dream log-cabin-style house.

When The Dart landed on Stampley Street Thursday evening, the Whites were lulling in their rocking chairs on the front porch. Gary pulled out a spiral notebook and flipped through the pages to show pencil drawings of floor plans for the new house.

Gary said he is no architect, but the couple’s new house will not be the first he has built. Gary also added on and renovated parts of the couple’s current house.

Gary works on an offshore drilling rig, but has experience building houses and does carpentry, plumbing and electrical work.

The couple had been looking for several years for the perfect piece of land on which to build their house.

“It’s our dream,” Pam said.

The couple signed the papers for a piece of land on Tarver Road last week, and the land is officially theirs today.

“It’s all falling into place and finally happening,” Pam said.

Pam has been keeping magazines for interior design ideas and said the house will have a rustic feel to it with lots of wood and a stone fireplace.

The new house will also have an upstairs guest bedroom for the couple’s children, Alicia, 22, and Cody, 18, when they visit.

Gary said he will be putting Cody to work helping to build the house. In fact, the house will be a team effort by the couple’s friends and family.

Living in a house he designed and built from the ground up is Gary’s goal, he said.

“It will be a pleasant feeling of ‘finally,’” Gary said about how he would feel when the house is completed.