The Pretty Lady, says Gary Dawes, is not your ordinary boat. Whoever made it knew what they were doing. They knew boats.

"It's 100 percent designed and built by a man who really had a love of his work," said Dawes, owner of Expert Marine Technology. "There's almost nothing on this that was store bought."

"It's just unbelievable," he added as he looked over the 47-foot boat that stood in the yard at Expert Marine Technology on Old Atlas Road.

Nancy Owens Barnes beams with pride at those comments.

This boat is special. Her father, Melvin Owens, built it in the 1980s when he lived in Ketchikan, Alaska. He captained the Pretty Lady around the local waters, guiding her deftly through the waves and wind. Melvin Owens loved Alaska. He loved boats.

Ketchikan was his home for 25 years before he passed away in 2006. The Pretty Lady remained, waiting, sitting, for someone else to claim her and make her seaworthy again.

Melvin's daughter, Nancy Owens Barnes, decided it was up to her.

In 2008, it was taken by barge from Alaska to Seattle, and from there, by truck to Coeur d'Alene, where Dawes and crew began repairs and renovations to breathe new life into her.

Three years later, their task is finished.

It was an exhausting, expensive project.

"They've done it as they can afford it and we've done it as we can fit it in," Dawes said.

Worth the effort, he added, as he poked about in the cabin with Nancy's husband Tom and son Nick.

"She's a little bit torn apart here, we wanted to show Tom and Nancy what we've done," Dawes said.

Their efforts included a new shaft, new steering to replace the old chain and cable system, cleaning out the old diesel tank, new electrical system, rudder changes and the addition of bilge pumps, holding tank, motor work and even a toilet system.

"It had a toilet in it. At sea, you could just flush right over board," he said, chuckling. "You can't do that in the inland lakes. It's not nice."

With the upgrades, the Pretty Lady meets codes, Dawes said, and is mechanically sound.

"She's actually seaworthy right now," he said.

Their goal, he explained, was to do their best to return the Pretty Lady to her former glory.

"We tried to make everything as original as possible," he said. "It's looking good," he said.

Mission accomplished.

"Everything on this boat was homemade," Dawes added. "You could see the hinges, the latches, everything was made by a fellow who took a lot of pride in his work."

Nancy Owens Barnes nods in agreement.

Her father, she says, was an amazing man and his story should be told. That's why Owens Barnes wrote a book, "South to Alaska: From the Heartland of America to the Heart of Dream," in 2007.

It tells the tale of an Oklahoma boy with a clear vision at a young age of what he wanted in life.

"He started his dream of doing this when he was 10 years old. He saw a photo in his geography book in the fourth grade of a place in Alaska. He started dreaming about Alaska," she said. "He just kind of aimed his life that way."

It would take years.

Melvin Owens later worked for shipyards in Seattle during World War II, where he learned to build boats.

"My dad spent his whole life with his goal to build boats and get to Alaska," his daughter said.

Nearly 50 years later, Melvin Owens built a boat of steel, "Red Dog," in Hartford, Ark., and cruised it to Alaska - a mere 10,000 miles.

"He has never been south of the United States border and has never been on a boat in the open ocean," Owens Barnes wrote. "A true story of courage and endurance, South to Alaska chronicles one man's dangerous journey through a water world he knows little about to a world he cannot forget."

He later sold the Red Dog, and then built the Pretty Lady, his lasting legacy.

Friday, Owens Barnes and husband Tom and son Nick took the Pretty Lady back to Priest River, where, in the coming years, they'll restore her. Once they have her in the yard of their Priest River home, they finish the painting, the wood work, replace the stove, the details inside and out to make her shine.

"It's great. This is all phase one," he said. "It's finally about done. We're kind of getting ready to go into phase two."

As Owens Barnes looked it over, she spoke excitedly about the chance to put her back in the water. She hopes they have it in Lake Pend Oreille within two years.

It can easily fit six, has sleeping and sitting accommodations and will be a wonderful pleasure boat.

Son Nick, who hopes to enter the Coast Guard soon, may be her captain.

"It's a real comfortable boat to just kind of cruise around on," she said.

Owens Barnes, who lived in Alaska two years, treasures memories of her father.

She has no doubts that the effort to save The Pretty Lady, is worth it.

"It means a lot," she said. "I think dad would be really pleased that his work is going to be enjoyed by the children, the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren."