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We wanted the following: a) 1 or 2 acres max, b) a lake and golf course were preferred, c) didn't necessarily want waterfront property, d) and a POA might help keep our house safe if we didn't live there full-time. After searching for about 18 months, we settled on the Possum Kingdom area right between Graford and Graham.

We wanted an open living area and massive kitchen that allowed for lots of big windows and great views of the valley towards the back of the house. We also wanted flexibility when choosing home customizations without breaking the bank. And lastly, we wanted a home that was big enough for weekend getaways but also one small enough that it wouldn't wear us out if we decided to retire there.

Picking a color scheme wasn't difficult for us: we re-modeled the inside of our current home a few years ago and we knew that for the interior we wanted light-colored floors, gray walls, white cabinets, black and brass accent metals, and some other areas with color pop like a navy-colored kitchen island. For the exterior, we wanted as close to a farmhouse look as possible and went with white brick, white mortar, gray paint, black accent colors, and natural-colored wood beams.

It was a bit of an eye-opener to see what you're responsible for and what it costs to clear land, install a construction drive and culvert, and coordinate and pay for all the other necessary items such as septic, electric, water, etc. In addition, the landowner is responsible for the constant brush clearing that's needed once the stakeout is done. Around the PK Lake area, there's lots of limestone and rattlesnakes so having a rugged brush cutter, lots of power, and snake boots is a must.

I'm a mechanical and software engineer by degree (currently with Splunk for the last 7 years) so I actually get excited about handling pre and post-build planning especially when it involves technology. I definitely wanted to have a constant eye on the build process so installing a Spypoint game camera was a must early on in the build process. In addition, I knew my drone would be a big help getting large overhead views of the build process when I made brush-cutting trips to the lot.

We added smart components to our current home over the last few years, including routers, cameras, locks, sensors, thermostats, sprinkler controls, etc. Since we wouldn't always be at the lake home once it was completed, we knew that we wanted to have a similar smart-home setup ready to go once it was time. We have decided to use some of our current smart technology for the new build and to 'Splunk' all activity in the house that comes from the smart devices in the house.