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How many times has the thought passed through your mind? "Some day, when I finally get out from under all this, I'm going to build that house I've always dreamed about." Modern or antique, palatial or cozy, set proudly on a main street or tucked demurely away off a country lane -- whatever the variation, it is one of those nearly universal fantasies. With this issue, INC. begins a regular look at dream houses built by those who have built businesses. And as you'll see, the businesses and the houses often turn out to have a lot in common -- namely, the personality and values of their owners.

BIBLICAL CONTEMPO

OWNER: Philip Romano, founder and former chief executive officer of Fuddrucker's Inc., a national chain of hamburger restaurants

SITE: Two and a half acres in a development located in the hill country outside of San Antonio

UNUSUAL FEATURES: Art studio; interior lighting professionally designed to display works by Calder, Lichtenstein, and Romano

ARCHITECT: William Hablinski, Hablinski & Associates

COST: $2.3 million -- "a million more than we thought we'd spend"

Phil Romano thinks of his new house as another, larger work of art in his already impressive collection. "Contemporary," he calls it, "but biblical."

Indeed, from afar, the serpentine wall and whitewashed stucco give Romano's complex a monastic look. Three times longer than King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem, the house reaches four stories into the heavens. The pool seems the size of the Galilean sea. A gazebo offers sanctuary from the hot Texas sun.

"My motivation in life is to impress people," Romano explains. In his restaurant business, he aims to impress customers with Fuddrucker's distinctive food and decor. In his house, he aims to impress friends and visitors with an inviting and spacious hospitality, best symbolized by the dining room, which comfortably seats 15. "I want a house I could get lost in" is how he put it to architect Hablinski.

Although Romano had overseen the construction of 75 restaurants during a three-year period, it took 18 months to design and another 20 months to build his dream house. Now, on most evenings, he and his wife, Libby, find themselves gazing out at the 180-degree view of the Texas hills, asking themselves a most Job-like question: "What did we do to deserve this?"