Finished August 30, 2011  

We've been wanting a place to escape from hurricanes for years.  Plus, as some of you know, giant windmills have come to South Texas and are now surrounding our farm and home.   What happens to these things in a tropical storm?  They can shatter... take a look at this video  WINDMILL DISASTER     Our next hurricane problem is our two big Akitas - no hotel allows 120# dogs to stay.  Our son Jeff has two dogs and a cat.  So what to do with two families and a bunch of pets when a storm comes?    We build a second home!  It also gives Kenny and I somewhere to get away (in hopes he will semi-retire someday), and a place for our two daughter's families to vacation, tube the rivers, roam the underground caverns, go to Sea World, Fiesta Texas, and the famous Schlitterbahn Waterpark.    We wanted a place with "hill country" views and designed the house to have those from every room.  The house has 32 windows for this reason and lots of light coming from every direction.  I'll add more pictures of our views as I snap them.

  View from driveway and Mystic Parkway   View of front   View of back porches   View of back - big window is in master sitting room     Download floorplan or click and print   Front Door   Den with Barn Doors to Study   Den - Kitchen - Dining Door to Grandkids Room   Kitchen   Dining area next to Kitchen and Den   Parents (and Guest) bedroom 14'-3" x 13'-3" nice view through window (when the shades aren't down!)   View of parents bathroom - shower on one end, tub on the other.  8' countertop Half our kids and spouses wanted a shower; the other half wanted a tub, so we did both :-)   5 1/2' contoured tub... very comfortable. Tankless water heaters provide endless hot water (good thing with the size of the tubs!)   Living room fireplace wall.  Fireplace is gas.  Door to master section. Big Ass Fan is 8' in diameter and moves a LOT of air on slow speed.   This is a close up of the stone wall - each piece was hand "hammer" cut from big slabs of flagstone.  It took four men four days to do the wall.  Our house designer Jon Carey came up with the idea - he's a dream designer and much fun to work with.   Master Sitting room view... we call it daddy's observation room.   Master Sitting room - windows to right; door to living room.   Walking into master bath section - facing my left half of it   Kenny's side - lav, 4' x 4' shower, with commode behind shower   Design is copper quartzite - a type of slate   View of Living Room View of Big Ass Fan.  That's the real name... Click here  www.bigassfan.com This is their smallest.... most are much bigger and used in commercial buildings airport hangers, etc.   Side Entry (back door so to speak)  Door opening goes to utility room.   Left shows doorway to Grandkids bathroom <><> Right shows door to side entry and living room     Everyone loves our turquoise utility sink!  It coordinates with the grandkids aqua sink. Hard to get photo of grandkids bathroom.  Commode is behind door to left next to shower. The door from bathroom goes into a hall - you are seeing into the closet; bedroom is to the right.   This shows the little hallway... closet to right; bathroom on left side.   Grandkids bedroom - door goes into den.       View from Den   View from Dining and Kitchen   Sunset through the backyard tree   Sunset from the back porch.