Budget Breakdown: In Rural Texas, a Couple Build an Off-Grid Forever Home for $1.68M

Rachel Gallaher
·2 min read

Designed by Murray Legge Architecture, the courtyard house is topped with a jagged roof that harvests solar energy and directs rain to a giant cistern, where it’s filtered to become potable.

"The forest outside our windows brings us joy from the moment we wake up in the morning," says Jonah, "while we watch the hawks and birds and drink our coffee to the period of dusk when the deer pass through on their evening foraging and the fox come out of hiding."
"The forest outside our windows brings us joy from the moment we wake up in the morning," says Jonah, "while we watch the hawks and birds and drink our coffee to the period of dusk when the deer pass through on their evening foraging and the fox come out of hiding."

Jonah Sutherlun and his wife, Lydia, are a testament to trusting the process. After moving to Temple, Texas, in 2010 for Lydia’s physician residency training, the couple lived in a historic home downtown for several years but agreed that they wanted more space once they started having kids. Jonah dreamed of an area with woods, or at least a patch of trees—a tall order in much of central Texas. 

According to the homeowners, one concession they made to save money was downgrading the exterior retaining wall from a gabion retaining wall to native limestone blocks.
According to the homeowners, one concession they made to save money was downgrading the exterior retaining wall from a gabion retaining wall to native limestone blocks.

"We started looking for land pretty much everywhere," Jonah says, "but a forested one-to-three-acre plot is pretty hard to find in that area." As they expanded their search, the couple landed on Belton, a small town about 10 miles west of Temple and an hour away from Austin. "One night, we said, ‘Let’s just look one more time,’ so we went online and saw a listing posted 30 minutes prior. Someone had taken an old farm and divided it into lots, and one of them was very densely forested. We went and saw it the next morning and purchased it the same day." 

The roof is bonderized steel, which gives it a matte gray color, and the siding is Kebony—a thermally modified wood.
The roof is bonderized steel, which gives it a matte gray color, and the siding is Kebony—a thermally modified wood.
Another money-saving choice was changing the driveway from a stone paver driveway to poured concrete. The roof is designed to collect rainwater, which travels through a set of pipes for storage in a 39,000-gallon cistern behind the house.
Another money-saving choice was changing the driveway from a stone paver driveway to poured concrete. The roof is designed to collect rainwater, which travels through a set of pipes for storage in a 39,000-gallon cistern behind the house.

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: In Rural Texas, a Couple Build an Off-Grid Forever Home for $1.68M
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