"My wife didn't want that big old building in our yard."

Where can you safely house a 40-foot motor home - short of having one of the world's largest garages?

That was the dilemma facing Doug Whitfield. He needed to find a permanent home for the motor home he loves to take out on road trips across the country.

In 2002, the operator of the North 40 Truck Stop in Holladay , Tennessee began to search for a building that would serve this purpose.

His search led him to Allied Steel.

"They had contacted me about a building that they said had come available that might meet my needs," Whitfield says. "I followed up on it."

After a few false starts regarding the building, Whitfield ordered his Allied Steel building in 2003. Part of the problem was that Whitfield and his wife had different ideas about where the building would be constructed.

"My wife told she 'didn't want that big old building in my yard'," he says with a laugh. "So we went ahead and put it up on the truck stop property."

Whitfield says he had a great crew to work on the structure: His son-in-law Junior Byler and Junior's 13-year-old son, Paden. Junior Byler is a local contractor with experience putting up buildings. But Whitfield didn't discount the contributions of Paden, his grandson.

"I was really proud of all the help Paden gave us in getting the building up," Whitfield says. "He did a nice job."

The crew erected the building over two weeks in late May of 2004. The 30- by 50-foot building is 16 feet high.

"It was absolutely a great experience - a good price and the building I needed," he says. "There were no zoning issues to worry about. Allied provided the plans for me, and it worked out great."

Well, there is one minor problem: Whitfield ended up not using the building for his motor home, as planned. Instead, the structure now houses an assortment of equipment and vehicles used by the truck stop.

"That's just the way it worked out," he says. "But either way, I'd highly recommend Allied for anyone looking for a building."

He knows what he's talking about - based on a painful personal experience.

His original North 40 building burned to the ground in 1998. The building, which had served as the truck stop since it opened in 1982, was in ruins. But Whitfield was able to get the building re-designed and rebuilt from scratch in just 11 months.

"We were pretty proud of ourselves, if I do say," he says.

However, Whitfield says he wishes he had used Allied Steel back then.

"It was not nearly as good an experience as this Allied Building," he says. "There were all sorts of headaches that that building caused that we didn't have this time."

But either way, he's glad he doesn't have to worry about it.

"I don't want to build ANY more buildings for awhile," Whitfield laughs.