Wanna buy a lighthouse? Two families said yes and saved it.

Two Chesapeake Bay couples paid $31,000 in 2005 to buy Middle Ground Lighthouse, a caisson beacon built in 1891 about two miles off Newport News, Virginia. The U.S. Coast Guard had put it up for auction, seagulls had claimed the top, and it needed everything. Bob Gonsoulin made the pitch. "Hey, wanna buy a lighthouse?" he asked his sister and brother-in-law, Jackie and Dan Billingsley. They said yes. Over the next few years the families and a rotating cast of friends poured more than 7,000 hours and $300,000 into repairs, paid mostly in pizza and beer. Steve's mother and grandfather built a dining table from the lighthouse's own wood. The beacon, 51 feet above the water, still flashes for passing ships. Passing sailboat crews rounding it in races are usually surprised to hear someone saying hello. The families listed it this year for $995,000, hoping a new keeper takes it on.