Tag Archives: Hill Country

Custom-Made Furniture for Your Custom Home

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If you’re going to spend the time and money to have a custom home built, why not fill that beloved home with some extraordinary custom furniture as well? If you plan ahead you can create a symbiotic environment and have furniture designed to fit the exact space it’s going to live in.

If this is something you’ve never considered, you may not know that San Antonio, and certainly Texas, is home to some brilliant and highly-skilled custom furniture designers, who can make furniture that’s either traditional or avant garde. Here are just a few local furniture designers/builders you might want to consider.

George Schroeder of Schroeder Design

George Schroeder has earned a reputation as one of the leading large scale metal artists in the United States, and we’re lucky that he’s located right here in San Antonio. Schroeder somehow manages to translate fluidity and energy into his pieces, so that they’re all incredibly creative and unique. Although the scope of his work really runs the gamut, from modern sculpture to paintings, his ability to construct magnificent custom furniture that are iconic pieces in any home is a rare gift.

Peter Zubiate of Zubiate Projects

Peter is known for his beautiful wood furniture and often works with local architects and builders to create specifically-designed furniture, including tables, chairs, beds, built-ins and unique pieces. Whatever you can think up, Zubiate can bring that vision to life.

WOOD by Alberto

Another talented, but perhaps lesser known woodworker in San Antonio is Alberto of WOOD by Alberto, who makes handmade, original Texas wood products, including furniture. He recently completed a commissioned project for a local home of stunning large custom barn doors that are connected via heavy duty metal wheels that allow the doors to slide open.

Cortese Brothers

Cortese Brothers is a family owned and operated furniture company in San Antonio. They work closely with customers to create furniture that’s beautiful yet affordable. They incorporate your initial design research into the finished piece.

Deep Fried Design

Although Andrew McGuire hails from Austin, we won’t hold it against him because his furniture is absolutely stunning. He makes stylish modern furniture like beds and tables using reclaimed wood. He has a photo on his website of a funky coffee table he made from a reclaimed gym floor. It’s clear this custom furniture maker not only thinks outside the box, but lives there.

If you already have the furniture and just need the perfect home to put it in, call us at 210-494-5400. To be added to our private email list to receive the Stone Creek Custom Homes newsletter, please sign up here.

 

Why Finding the Right Property for Your New Custom Home is Important

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One of the most valuable things that we at Stone Creek Custom Homes offer our clients is help with lot selection. This is a service that’s overlooked by many home builders, but if you’re investing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more into a new custom home project, don’t you think every aspect of that project should be carefully considered? We certainly do.

Perhaps you already own a piece of land. We find that about half of the clients that come to us already have a lot in mind, which is perfectly fine. We’re equipped to build on any kind of topography. Part of our job is to go in and dissect it to determine how best to utilize it.

However, if you don’t already have a lot picked out, it’s extremely beneficial for you to include us in the process. It’s one of the things that our Director of Sales, Brad Ynostrosa, really enjoys doing for our clients and is equally skilled at doing.

Why Lot Selection is Important

When most people think of a natural piece of land they don’t realize how varied each lot can really be. When you have a custom home built, it’s necessary to pick a lot that best suits your plan in order to minimize slab exposure as well as cost.

One of the first things Brad asks new clients is, “Do you know where you plan to build your house?” If the answer is no, he jumps into action. Many factors should be considered, such as your geographical preference, ideal school district and cost. It’s likely that anywhere you’ve considered living, we’ve built a house in that neighborhood.

Not only can we make recommendations, but we can put you in touch with land experts. We help our clients identify trouble areas or red flags such as trees and easements. Here are just a few things we look at when helping clients determine the best piece of land for their new home:

  • Will the topography greatly affect the cost of your foundation? If it’s going to cost an extra 40k, for example, it may be best to look elsewhere.
  • Is natural gas available on the lot? Is that important to you?
  • What other fees might impact you, such as a water meter tap?

Even if you’re only at the very beginning stages of perusing land options, please consider giving us a call at 210-494-5400. We’d love to help!  To be added to our private email list to receive the newsletter, please sign up here.

Xeriscaping: Beautiful and Sustainable Landscaping for Your Home

Living in Texas, especially South Texas, means water is almost as precious as gold. Water restrictions are just a part of daily life, and nothing suffers more for it than our lawns. If you’re looking to build a new house or are considering landscaping alternatives, consider xeriscaping.

If you’re not familiar with the term, xeriscaping is landscaping and gardening that minimizes the need for supplemental water from irrigation by using plants natural to the environment. In fact, a xeriscaped yard uses about half the water of a traditional yard.

Other Benefits of Xeriscaping:

-          No need for pesticides or fertilizers.

-          It’s pollution free.

-          It creates a natural habitat for your local wildlife.

-          It requires a lot less maintenance, so it’s perfect for families who are always on the go or travel a lot.

-          Drought-proofing with Xeriscaping is a great way to improve the value of your property.

Beautiful and Green (sustainable)

Unfortunately, xeriscaping has earned a bad reputation as being unattractive. Sure, this type of landscaping means that you may not have an endless carpet of feather-soft grass in your front yard, but let’s face it, even with unlimited watering, that’s just not realistic. Still, this doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice beauty for practicality.

At Stone Creek Custom Homes, we work with some of the best landscape designers who seamlessly combine their knowledge with your own personal aesthetics to create a stunning outdoor environment for our client’s new homes.

Here are some things to keep in mind for your own Xeriscaped yard:

-          If you like to have a colorful yard, you can plant native wildflowers that are as hardy as they are gorgeous.

-          Use structures like walkways, pavers, stairs, a small bridge or other aesthetic elements, such as fountains, to minimize the need for plant life.

-          Make sure to consider the overall style of your home to help inspire the outdoor environment.

-          If you want to do some pre-planning and designing on your own, make a sun chart that delineates how much sun and where your property gets throughout the day. This will help you properly match the right plants with your home’s sunlight exposure.

-          Get your soil analyzed. You can send in samples to your local agricultural government office. This will help you determine what plants are realistically sustainable on your land and where your soil might need to be augmented.

Feel free to call us at your convenience at 210-494-5400 to discuss your own home and xeriscaping needs! Also, if you’d like to be added to our private email list to receive the newsletter, please sign up here.

Meet Stone Creek Custom Homes’ Darla Strawther

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You may have spoken with her on the phone or even seen her in person, but oftentimes Darla Strawther, the Office Manager for Stone Creek Custom Homes, is working behind the scenes making sure everything stays on track. Among a million other things, Darla is responsible for the accounting, ordering and coordinating with clients.

Darla:  I’m pretty much a jack of all trades. I do a little bit of everything except go to the house and physically build it.

Darla jokes that the biggest challenge of her job is keeping up with six men, i.e. Jason, Jesse, Brad, Blake, Jimmy and Bill, but regardless of any challenges, she finds her job extremely rewarding.

Darla:  I work with wonderful people – our customers and the people here, our own staff – it’s a good group.

Those who have worked with Stone Creek before know that the relationships we build are of the utmost importance. In fact, our relationship with Darla started back in 2008 when we built her new home at Waggener Ranch. She began working for us part-time in 2009, and then full-time in 2010.

Darla:  It’s all about the relationships here – it truly is! The majority of the time we have had wonderful relationships with our customers. All of us go to the same eye doctor [for example] because we built their home. We keep in contact with several of our customers.

When it comes to her own family, Darla has been married to her husband, Tim, for over 28 years, and they now have two grown children, Jonathan and Natalie.

Darla:  We all do CrossFit together, and we like to travel. Tim was in the U.S. Air Force for 26 years, and we lived in Germany for six, so we have traveled a lot. Last year we went to Rome, and our next trip is to Ann Arbor for Labor Day, where Tim is from.

When asked if she goes on any of the hunting and fishing trips that the guys like to go on, Darla explained that although they’d certainly welcome her, it’s not exactly her cup of tea.

Darla:  I’m not going six miles into the ocean – no way could you get me to do that! They always bring me back some fish or deer meat. It’s really nice that they do that. I don’t always know where they are or what they’re doing, but they’re always there for you, and that’s what’s great about it.

To speak with Darla, give us a call at 210-494-5400. She’ll make sure your next custom home project runs smoothly!

 

 

 

 

Back to School in San Antonio

Although the summer sun shows no signs of waning, it’s that time of year again for kids and parents to shop for new school clothes, books, backpacks and more. Whether they’re ready or not, for most kids, the fall 2015 semester has already begun.

With a population of almost 1.5 million people, the city of San Antonio has multiple school districts and private schools to choose from. Additionally, there are also a variety of schools on the outskirts of town, in the Hill Country and hamlets around the metropolitan area.

If you have young children, now is the time to start planning their future, and a big part of that is determined by where you live and what district or private schools are available to them. Here are some facts that may help you decide the best place for your family to live:

For the best of the best:  Keystone School, the International School of the Americas and Young Women’s Leadership Academy were included in the top 50 most challenging schools in the country, based on a Washington Post analysis.

NESA (North East School of the Arts) at Lee High School is ranked one of the 10 best arts high schools in the U.S. Their film students, for example, go on to be successful, award-winning filmmakers.

Here is a great website that ranks thousands of school districts based on numerous key statistics and opinions of both students and parents. Check out the highest-ranking in San Antonio to find the best schools, teachers and environment for your kids.

Curing Elementary School, located in the Boerne Independent School District, was ranked Number 1 out of 100 San Antonio elementary schools.

Because we live in Texas, we know that High School sports are highly valued and often a great way for students to receive college scholarships. In San Antonio, Alamo Heights, Johnson, Reagan, Churchill and Madison High Schools are a few of the highest-ranked when it comes to athletic statistics.

If you’re considering building a new home close to the ideal school for your family, Stone Creek Custom Homes is ready to make that happen! Please call us at 210-494-5400 to get started.