Get a glimpse of what life is like at Sandbrock Ranch through the eyes of Sandbrock Ranch’s very own resident, Karen H. From the first days of discovering our one-of-a-kind community to building her family’s very own dream home, read up on Karen’s experience straight from the horse’s mouth.
It’s All in the Details
November 2018
I woke up this morning thinking about grout. I mean, who does that? If you can relate, you are my kind of people and we could one day be besties, seriously. The prior day, we had gone to our homebuilder’s design center to choose finishes. And one of my long-time wishes was FINALLY going to come true — a white subway tile backsplash with gray grout. Woo! But I get ahead of myself. Let me tell you first about the lot we selected, and then I’ll talk more about fun design stuff.
I’m not going to lie, I thought my dream home would sit on about 5 acres and I would be on the front porch waving at you as you drove past my little farmhouse. Over the past several years, I’ve come to realize that it’s a wonderful notion but not truly suited to who I am. I want the best of both worlds — to feel like I’m living on a ranch, but still have the conveniences of living in the city. I want a peaceful patch of green space and a back porch to relax on, but I honestly don’t want to spend hours every week mowing the back 40 while the hot Texas sun beats down on me. If that’s your thing, then you do you, and I’m truly happy for you.
After that first visit when we toured the model homes and looked at floor plans, we were certain we wanted to come back for a second look. We loved the homes and now we needed to see if we could find a lot just as wonderful. What’s nice about a master-planned community is that there is a PLAN. Want to live near the future on-site elementary school, making it super easy for the kiddos to walk there and back? There’s a lot just for you! Want to live near one of the hiking trails so that you have no more excuses to take those daily walks? Yep, there’s a homesite just for you, too. And us? We’re empty-nesters. We still enjoy being part of a community, but we also enjoy a bit of serenity, too. And that’s when we spied it on the master plan — a property perfect for us. It backs up to a greenbelt of trees and natural growth, so we’ll be able to sit on our rear patio in the mornings with a cup of coffee and enjoy a view of nature.
Once we chose our lot and signed a few papers, our next step was to choose upgrades and then make an appointment to visit the design center. If you haven’t gone through this process before, it really helps to know what your own design tastes are. Pinterest people, yes you can actually pull up your boards and use that as a starting point! But, even if you don’t know what you like, the staff will help you choose options that you will love.
One selection that was important to us was flooring. If you have kids or dogs, a durable choice is plank tile. It looks like wood but has the durability and ease of tile. Another feature we decided was a must-have was an extended rear patio. The entire visit to the design center was lots of fun, and I walked away feeling really excited about our new home. Insider tip — take a pic of your selections before you leave. It’s good to have that photo as a reference if you want to start planning for other purchases, like rugs or furniture.
A couple of weeks later, we attended our first official meeting with the builder to go over blueprints and construction details. A pre-construction meeting is very important and it’s the perfect time to ask those questions you may still be pondering. It was exciting to see the plans of OUR house and to envision what it would look like when finished. We walked away feeling confident that we had chosen an experienced homebuilder and that we had made some good design choices. And yes, we were ready to explore another yummy place to eat!
This time, we ventured to MOD Pizza, just a short drive from Sandbrock Ranch. It’s an artisan-style pizza place where you go through an assembly line and choose from more than 30 ingredients for one price. At the end of that process, they have an open pizza oven where they cook it for you while you watch. It’s ahhhh-mazing!! Oh, and you can get those same ingredients in a salad, too. But I’m all about that hand-pressed dough — crispy on the outside with a bit of chew to it. YUM.
Coming up next month — we get to see our lot spring to life! Plumbing gets laid, the slab gets poured and I have lots more to share. Oh, and if you’re a fan of Elvis or fresh-caught fried catfish, just wait until you hear about the quirky place we found to eat. ‘Til next time!
–Karen[vc_single_image image=”18792″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][lab_hs_forms hs_title=”Let us help you find your new home.” portal_id=”4151365″ form_id=”7acb97f5-8df7-4e38-92d0-91d0b42011b8″]
