About Us and Our Home Building Story

My wife and I have been blessed with family, health, and happiness during our 30+ years together.  One of those blessings was the purchase of a 1-acre lot in the Hills of Possum Kingdom (PK) subdivision in October 2012.  

OUR PROPERTY SEARCH

For a few years before 2012, we had been casually searching for property where could possibly build a retirement home in the future.  We had been looking north and west of the Denton, TX area and the further west we went the more it reminded us or our West Texas upbringings.  I think our only hard requirements were a lake, a golf course, and some space to breathe.  

The Lake Ray Roberts area was very appealing to us since we already spent a lot of time out there fishing and tubing, but the Army Corps of Engineers has tight restrictions on land in that area and it just didn't feel right for us.  We also looked in the Lake Bridgeport area - just west of Denton - but that didn't feel right either.  In the middle of our search, we began receiving flyers in the mail advertising acreage for sale in the Graford, TX area - on the northeast end of Possum Kingdom Lake.  

HOW WE FOUND OUR PK LOT

On a very cool and crisp day in October, we made plans to meet with a salesperson, Vince Cutuia, at the main clubhouse of the Hills of PK subdivision.  Vince was a pretty straight shooter and was eager to hear our needs and see if something in their inventory would fit our eye.  He drove us thru a few sections of the subdivision and then we decided on Section 5 since we didn't want a big retirement house and we were good with the 1400 sq ft minimum house requirements of that section.  

Section 5 is probably the smallest of the Hills of PK subdivisions.  One half of the section sits on an area just above a creek while the other half sits on the top of a hill that appealed to us at the time due to recent wildfires that had gone thru the area.  Vince took us to the top area of Section 5 and as we drove around a cul-de-sac area it was easy to see that we might have found what we were looking for.  

Lot 787 was a one-acre tract that was relatively flat in the front of the lot and then gradually sloped towards the back of the lot as you approach the dropoff to the bottom half of Section 5.  There wasn't much brush on the lot due to the recent fires and I remember a few oak tress on the back of the lot still had some char on them.  When we saw the view from the back of the lot, we knew we had found what we wanted.  It wasn't too big a lot for us to handle during retirement and it sat high on the hill for great views and hopefully had fewer critters than might be down by the creek or the lake a quarter-mile away to the west.  Another big plus was that it appeared that sunrises would surface at the back of the lot and sunsets would end on the front of the lot.  

We thanked Vince for helping us find our dream lot and we went back to the Clubhouse to lock in the purchase.  A month later we closed on the title in Weatherford, TX and then we sat on the lot for several years while making payments and dreaming of the future.  We would make trips out to the lot every 1 or 2 years just to see how things were progressing in the area but for the most part we didn't do anyting with the lot for about 6 years.  We did occassionally look online for home builders but it wasn't anything serious since we couldn't afford 2 mortgages at that time.  

POSSIBLE BUILDERS

Back in 2016, I had been searching for the right builder for our PK home.  I had found two builders that specialized in building on your land almost anywhere in Texas.  Those two builders were UBH Homes and Tilson Homes.  Both builders offered many choices and ideas on their respective websites.  We actually drove out to the McKinney area in 2017 to look at a UBH home that was almost completed.  The owner let us walk the home and while it was nice, the floorplan seemed a bit awkward so we kept looking.

I exchanged emails with Ross @ Tilson Homes in 2017 and he was happy to help us with our needs.  Since Ross was based in their Weatherford office he had some idea about the PK area which is about 45 miles away.  He helped us with some great floorplan ideas and estimated costs but we really weren't ready to do anything yet due to finances.  

FAST FORWARD TO 2019 AND BEYOND

In 2019, I told my wife that we now had the financial means to begin seriously considering a house build on our PK lot.  She told me that we were so busy with our local hobbies like golf and paddleboarding that it probably wouldn't make sense to build yet so we didn't do anything at the time.  Of course, when Covid-19 hit the world we quickly realized that since we couldn't take our normal twice-yearly vacations to far away places it would have been awesome to have our 'lake' house already built.  

In mid 2020, we got serious about building our PK home and got in contact with Tilson Homes again.  Ross had moved back home to their Bryan, TX office but he arranged to have us meet with Darla Skillman in the Weatherford office.  We exchanged emails with Darla and eventually didn't meet in person with her until January 2021.  

We sat down with Darla - wearing masks of course - and she listened to our needs and since we had already singled out a few of their standard floorplans, we were able to quickly agree on a modified Magnolia C floorplan that checked all the boxes for my wife and I.  Darla's extensive knowledge of all things Tilson as well as the PK area from her childhood was a huge reason why we locked in with Tilson a few days later.  

We locked in our price in January 2020 because of rising prices and inventory shortages due to Covid-19, but little did we know that it was a blessing to have done that since Snowmageddon was about to hit Texas in early February 2020.  That storm had an even bigger impact on prices and inventory and I'm so glad we locked in when we had the chance. 

After we locked in our prices and build general details, we had the pleasure of working with Clarissa Taylor from the Tilson Weatherford office in early to late 2021.  Clarissa was awesome in handling our selection and design needs which resulted in an extremely detailed 10-page set of building plans that we refer to all the time when trying to remember what we chose, the details of our elevation, etc.  

NOW ITS 2022!

Lots of things happened between the time we signed a contract with Tilson Homes and now.  Land had to be cleared, a driveway and culvert had to be installed, some extra foundation money had to be paid before starting the actual build, etc.  Fast forward to January 2022 and we are making great progress.  The one thing that I mention to friends that ask about the build process is that there's so much to do it can definitely be intimidating - especially for folks like ourselves that have 'built' homes before but for the most part everything was turnkey including septic, water, electric, etc.  

A 'COUNTRY' BUILD CHECKLIST

We have built two 'custom' homes in the city before, and we assumed the process for building a home in the country would be similar.  Some things like elevation and color selections are indeed the same, but we quickly realized there's so much more that the land owner is responsible when building in the country.  

The list of what we've had to handle on our own - as of February 2022 - is as follows:

1. Get official survey done for our lot - our survey was handled by Price Surveying out of Mineral Wells - also be prepared to get another survey if your first survey is over a year old when its time to close on your home
2. Get land cleared of stumps, rocks, etc. to prep for stakeout - our lot was cleared by Jimmy Fox from Fox Services
3. Stakeout was handled by our builder to determine where house would sit on our lot within guidelines of our official survey - our stakeout was handled by Nufy from Tilson Homes
4. File application to Hills of PK for permission to install construction driveway and culvert - we handled the driveway application process ourselves and then got a variance approval later on for no culvert needed for final concrete driveway install
5. Construction driveway and culvert had to be installed - ours was handled by Jimmy Fox from Fox Services
6. Apply for 911 address - we handled that ourselves thru Palo Pinto County
7. Get electric service connected which included proper transformer for our needs - we handled that ourselves thru United Cooperative Services
8. Get water service connected since we didn't pay up front for water connection when we bought the lot - we handled that ourselves thru PK Water Supply and it was not cheap
9. Get septic service planning started - we handled that thru a local, licensed septic planner (Victor Fox) and then realized later on by our septic installer that the design would not work and had to be modified per Brazos River Authority (BRA)
10. Call septic company in preparation for system purchase and install at a later date - at the recommendation of our build foreman, we went with Curtis Gann and he did a great job
11. Call LP gas company in preparation for system sizing, purchase and install at a later date - we handled that thru Pankey Propane and ended up having our septic guy (Curtis) use the same rock hammer subcontractor to dig the propane hole
12. Call house generator company in preparation for possibly adding a generator at a later date - we handled that thru a friend that works for Generac and are waiting after we move in to buy the generator but Pankey Propane setup a t-valve for later on when doing the propane tank and line install 
13. Keep lot clear of grass, brush, overgrowth between time of stakeout and start of foundation pour - we handled that ourselves on a monthly basis using a Tazz brush trimmer and Ryobi tools while wearing Lacrosse snake boots
14. Prepare for the final grading of the lot, possible landscaping and also the final driveway pour - we worked with Ty Robinson from Robco Strategies on a concrete driveway and walkway pour as well as possibly removing all the limestone piled up in the backyard from the foundation, septic, and propane excavation.