Our “Sunday House“ is taking shape rapidly at the Black Sheep Ranch just outside of Boerne, Texas. One of the fascinating parts of this project is the perspective it gives me. Over 20 years ago, Julie and I built our home in Carlsbad, California, so I’m pretty well-tuned into what permitting and construction costs look like out West. Comparing the two is a complete shock. It puts the reality of building in Carlsbad into sharp contrast with building a home here in Boerne. I co

Building in the Texas Hill Country Over the past few weeks this guest house has slowly gone from sketches, dirt, concrete, and lumber piles into something that’s finally starting to feel real. Walking through it now and seeing the vaulted ceilings, loft framing, and all the natural light coming through the Andersen windows has honestly been a pretty emotional feeling at times. There are still muddy boots, lumber stacks, and tools everywhere, but you can finally start to fe

If you’ve ever built anything from scratch, you know this feeling… You get your first quote back and immediately think,“Well… we’re already blowing the budget and we haven’t even started.” That was us with septic (& pretty much everything else) The first bid came in way higher than expected.Before a single shovel hit the ground, it felt like we were already behind. Then we found another guy — significantly more affordable. Huge win… or so we thought. What followed was about s

What a great day as we received all our permits required to build our house in Bergheim, Texas. The shocker for us was how inexpensive these permits were and how simple and quick they were to get. 20 years ago we built our house in Carlsbad, California and I recall the permits were about six months to receive and around $40,000 in total. In Bergheim, Texas, the total permit fee for all permits to build our house was $500. This included a development fee a septic system fee an

From the Texas State Historical Association: Sunday Houses. Sunday houses were small second dwellings maintained near a church as a weekend place of residence. They became popular in the late 1800s among farmers and ranchers who lived in areas too remote to permit commuting to services. The families owning such houses normally left their farms and ranches Saturday morning, journeyed to town, took care of shopping and business, attended an evening dance or party, and spent

We are so excited to begin the process of building our Texas home! Our home will be built on the Bergheim Texas Ranch, owned by our Son in Law and Daughter. The inspiration for the home is derived from the "Texas Sunday House" style of architecture whereby German farmers and ranchers and their families who lived remotely many miles from a town would build a small (under 1000 sq. ft.) Sunday House in town. This enabled them to travel to the town on Saturday, go to a beer