Our plans to stay in a big tent while we plan and build our “dream home” were blown down by the mid summer winds. We knew we needed to build a small building to sleep in and get out of the weather.
I thought I was a genius when I set our tent up on the mesa looking down over the bentonite valley towards the mountains. Once the afternoon summer winds hit it crushed all of the tent poles and we slept in the truck the rest of the trip.
In July of 2021, I staged the walls and deck of the initial 10×10 building in Austin before trailering it down to the property.
I thought I would have everything up the first week but high temperatures limited the work day. Around noon we would all goto the Terlingua Ranch Lodge pool for a swim to cool off.
July 18, 2021
By the third build trip in mid August 2021, I had walls closed in but was still working on the roof joists.
Finally a roof and all sealed in! August 28, 2021.
Before the solar was installed, our closest neighbor John Wells, called us the “Square House” people.
November 2021 and our solar mounts were installed.
And by December 2021 we were fully solar powered. It really was a game changer in terms of comfort. We always brought our generator but mostly used it to make coffee in the morning.
April 2022 and we have a full sized bed with understorage, Air conditioning, and starlink internet. The working desk situation was at it’s worst here.
The walls and ceiling are covered in 1/2 thick engineered wood flooring that I reclaimed from my Austin home after a bathroom flooding incident. The flooring in the building is also reclaimed but is 3/4 thick maple from a high school basketball court in San Antonio.
Current state 8/5/2024. Solar is still meeting all of our needs with plenty to spare.
Picture with my barn door shutters closed. It’s so nice to shut them at times when the sun is directly shining in. The strange paint job is what happens when you paint in full summer sun and your torched rods and cones can’t process the difference between the main color and the trim color.