Apache Virtual Host

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok all you Apache Guru's. I was setting up an Apache Web Server at home on RH9. Had no problems building and installing as I have done this numerous times. The problems I had were when it came to Virtual Hosts.
I had setup a Virtual Host for the directory /home/gdboling/www/html. This is not a Userdir mind you, but a <VirtualHost>. So I kept getting the 403 Forbidden message.
So, as root, I made a new path called /www/domain.com and pointed my Virtual Host at that path, and it worked just fine.
I had tried changing the folder permissions to 755 and 777 in /home/gdboling/.... but that did not seem to change anything.
So my question is, why would I have access via the web to a folder I created as ROOT but not to another folder that is for a general user?
Thanks.