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Amazing Greenbuilt Home - 132 Jordy Road, Huntsville, TX 77320 - 23 Acres
https://huntsvillehome.net/
See if this is your new home! Phone and text contact is (936)939-6295
Offered at $1,120,000
See if this is your new home! Phone and text contact is (936)939-6295
Offered at $1,120,000
ABOUT
Are you looking for luxurious country living in a modern, energy efficient home? You will enjoy living in this stunning 4320 square foot, 4-bedroom 3.5 bathroom home on 23 acres with a pond in the beautiful East Texas Piney Woods in Huntsville, Texas, Walker County. Home to Sam Houston State University.
Energy Saving Features
The house was designed from the ground up to be energy efficient. It was also designed to be a beautiful space in which to live. The energy saving SIPS envelope, OSB sandwiching 6 inch or 8 inch (roof) Styrofoam is also stronger than conventional construction. The two attics are within conditioned space. On the hottest summer day they may be one or two degrees warmer than the rooms below. The house is so efficient that the 3 stage heat pump of 5 tons capacity keeps it cool in summer and warm in winter. There are no annoying outside AC units; the silent heat exchange is with five 300 foot geothermal heat sink wells that were made by Looptech. For safety, there is no natural gas or propane. The house is all electric. The outdoor kitchen in back has a 36 inch propane grill with two additional burners, a sink and a Primo fire / charcoal ceramic grill. In the kitchens, the cooktops are magnetic induction, a technology that provides faster cooking than gas with better control. Magnetic induction heats only the steel or iron pot or pan. It does not waste heat into the air. Nor does the cooktop heat other than by contact to a hot pot.
About the Home.
This is a truly unique house, both inside and out. This 4320 square foot home in the East Texas Piney Woods was built in 2012. It is a 4 bedroom/3.5 bathroom home with two studio/offices. The house follows ADA guidelines with 4 foot hallways and 3 foot doors.
The house is separated into two wings and upon entering, you will experience 20ft high great room with overlooking loft, where the space opens up into the kitchen, with large walk-in pantry and is lit by 2 sets of 12 recessed can lights. The central or main part of the home has a half bath adjacent to one office, an ADA accessible guest bath opposite the guest bedroom and another office. The two offices could be used as an artist studio or craft room. The recreational loft upstairs leads to 2 floored attics with 698 square feet of conditioned storage space.
The kitchen itself is amazing with beautiful granite and X wood glassed in cabinets that that reach to the10-foot ceilings with pull drawers for storage; the island has a double sink and Thermidor quiet dishwasher. Appliances include an Electrolux Icon 17 cf upright freezer/17 cf upright refrigerator, Electrolux Icon double oven, Panasonic adjustable power microwave oven and an Electrolux Icon Induction cooktop with 5 burners.
One wing, which is a third of the house is laid out to be a mother-in-law apartment with its own kitchen, living room, bedroom with bath and guest room. The bathroom is ADA accessible and sized to admit a wheelchair.
The other wing includes a stunning master bedroom with his and her closets, one is set up as a tornado room closet. The spa like master bathroom has a walk in dual head shower, toilet room with bidet and an amazing 6-foot 95 gallon bathtub.
On the north and west ends there are porches, then 4 car carports. What was originally a utility house with a Generac whole house backup generator was converted into a small workshop. Water is provided by a 120 foot well with 8000 gallons a day artesian overflow that keeps the pond at a constant level. Heating and cooling is done with a 3 stage heat pump using 5 geothermal wells for heat and cold storage. In the summer, the house heat is moved to the ground while in the winter, heat is moved from the ground to the house. The walls and roof are of structural insulated panels (SIPS) which provides not only a thermal barrier, but also very strong construction. The outside is white Austin limestone with a steel metalroof by Mueller.
About the land.
There are 23 acres with Little Sulfur Creek running to the west of the house from the northwest to the south. The creek bottoms are heavily wooded with loblolly pine, oak, elm, black gum, and sassafras. The north and east are secluded by a 15,000 acre tree farm, far away from any major highways. The water well provides plenty of clean spring water with an artesian overflow of 8000 gallons a day which is directed into the pond. Three easements are on the property. A water easement for a 36 inch water pipeline goes from east to west just north of the house. The City of Huntsville sells water to a power plant near College Station with this pipeline. A power line and gas pipeline go diagonally northeast to southwest across the northwest corner of the property.
Wildlife
Wild visitors have been deer, wild hogs, coyote, racoon, bobcat, opossum, armadillo, fox squirrel, gray squirrel, cottontail rabbit and swamp rabbit. Birds include tyrant flycatcher, indigo bunting, painted bunting, meadowlark, mourning dove, roadrunner, yellow billed cuckoo, mockingbird, cardinal, black vulture, great white egret, great blue heron, sharp shinned hawk, red shouldered hawk, American kestrel, Merlin and bald eagle.
The Gardens
Flowerbeds are in front of the house, with a butterfly garden to the east. The fruit trees include apple, pear, peach, plum, paw paw, and persimmon. Nut trees include pecan and hickory in the north woods. An asparagus bed provides a month of asparagus in the spring, shortly followed by Brazos blackberries.
Facts at a Glance
Acres: 23
House square footage: 4320
- Ground floor: 3688
- Loft: 632
- Walk in Attics : two with 698 Sq ft each
- Porches: 1223
- Carports: 1440
- Outdoor kitchen: 486
- North wing apartment: 986
- West bedroom wing: 994
- Main: 1752
-----West Office (part of main): 230
-----North office (part of main): 164
-----Pantry (part of main, off kitchen): 129
-----Storm room (closet in west wing): 86
-----Main part and west wing floors are ceramic tile.
North wing floor is sheet vinyl.
The loft floor is vinyl snap in tile.
The attics are unfinished, with plywood or OSB on the walls and floor.
Total covered: 6837
- Heating and cooling is by 3 stage heat pump with geothermal heat sink with five 300 foot geothermal wells.
- Emergency back up electric power is provided by a Generac 20KW propane generator with automatic switching.
- Hot water is provided by a 40 gallon electric water heater for the kitchen and north wing. The west wing is served by an 80 gallon hot water heater for the two bathrooms.
- Internet is point-to-point wireless with Razer Wireless
Mid-South Electric plans to bring in fiber optic internet in 2021
Location
132 Jordy Road is north of Huntsville via Farm Road 247, then almost a mile on a one lane all weather gravel road. The Jordy Road community is about 10 miles north of Huntsville, a town of about 40,000 people, and home to Sam Houston State University. Walker county has about 70,000 people. To the northwest 20 miles is Madisonville, which is mainly a farming community. Just south of Madisonville is the Monterey mushroom farm, one of the larger producers of mushrooms. It is a source for mushroom compost that works so well in the gardens. The public schools are in Huntsville, with school bus service to Jordy Road. Nelson Creek, a year round clear water spring fed creek, runs about 300 yards to the south and east. Driving time to Huntsville is 15 minutes; to Conroe is 45 minutes; to Woodlands is 55 minutes; to Houston is 1 hour 30 minutes, and to Dallas is 2 1/2 hours.
Photos are by Fossum Studios, New Braunfels, Texas fossumstudios.zenfolio.com
Offered at $1, 120,000
Request a Private Tour (936) 939-6295
If you have questions or would like to set up a private tour, please call or text (936) 939-6295 or email [email protected] .
Georgeous Headshots - Lisa Westerbeck, Realtor
A few days ago I wrote about how composition is everything in a good photo, subject matter can also make it an easy A. From the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park or the Yosemite Valley, there's not a bad angle and that about sums up the good fortune I had of photographing this lady yesterday. XOX~! Follow her to see her final selection at #LisaWesterbeck or https://lisawesterbeck.kw.com/ (512) 210-3780 Yep, she's also a Realtor in New Braunfels, TX.
These were shot with two 500W octobox and umbrella modified strobes in the shade on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Some shots were with with a 150mm zoom and some just where the compositin was right with an 24-105 zoom.
Photographing Audi, Dominion Cavender Dealership - San Antonio, Texas
Fossum Studios had the honor of photographing a brand new Cavender Audi Dealership over the course of three sessions. I received some apprapos direction from Rick Cavender and saw some amazing artistry by Malitz Construction — The cone in the corner is a sheetrocking wonder of the world and the concavity of the black 2nd floor balcony is also quite a feat.
The first session was to scope it out, the second for the actual photos and the third to capture the exteriors that were scoped on the first day — redundancy and photographer's instinct were the keystones here. The first session, yielded some great sunrise shots, as the angle of the building required sunrise, so the third session was planned. The second session was to capture interiors once the Audi's were delivered to the showroom floor. However, with weather rolling in that evening and the timing just perfect for a round of twilight exteriors, I rearranged my schedule and shot that evening successfully with the help of some post-production Photoshop work. The third session, as planned I showed up at sunrise, it was drizzling, overcast and the humidity had fogged up the showroom windows...as well as my lenses. (10 minutes in the car with the heater on equalized the temperatures so I could use the Canon lenses). The shots from the 3rd morning session were virtually useless due to the weather, as I had thought they would be.
Gear used here was:
Canon 5D Mark IV camera body
Canon EF17mm and 24mm TSE lenses
DJI Phantom 4 drone
Camera on a elevated platform operated via WiFi.
"There's PROS and there's (ni)KONS" #yaycanon
Digital editing, how much is too much?
A local photographer friend of mine, pointed out how some photographers in the Real Estate industry have photoshop images to be misleading (Real Estate Photography Article). It really just depends on what the client wants and of course, what's legal in advertising. I put together a few examples of recent work I have done for Chevy, Brohn and The Jarrett Group to show a bit of my process and when I think retouching is appropriate.
Ribbon Cutting - Now open full-time!
Fossum Studios has opened full-time with a ribbon cutting at the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, January 31st, 2018. We offering stunning architectural photography, video (including drones), and 3D virtual tours with the Matterport system. Wether you sell real estate or build it, we will make your imagery stand out from the rest. Check out the video at https://youtu.be/PSabfiylzN4
Real Estate Photography featured in Luxury Home Magazine - Chad Taylor
Fossum Studios’ photography featuring Chad Taylor’s
“The Summit” (plus video by Fossum Studios) atop Jenkin’s Hill and El Rey in the Helotes Hill Country are inside this month’s edition of Luxury Home Magazine, San Antonio.
(pg. 66)
More Information contact Chad Taylor at http://taylorluxurylifestyle.com or call (210) 875-8747
The Summit Video: https://youtu.be/WiG63gbEuu4
El Rey: http://chadtaylorluxury.com/property/chinquapin/
First client of 2018: Amazing Realty real estate photography
First client of 2018: Jennifer Welch of Amazing Realty, a realtor who really cares about her clients. I know because I’m not just her photographer, I’m also a client.
http://www.amazingrealty.com/about/
Purpose, passion and pride - Full-time employee to full-time business owner
Several months ago I gave notice of my intentions to resign my day job of 4 years as a Graphic Designer at Rush Enterprises in order to pursue photography. Basically the reasons behind it were three things....purpose, passion and pride, a concept Steve Gilliland educated me on when i saw him speak. I found that at my day job, my only purpose was to do a good job so my colleagues could depend on me. There was no more passion in the job and thus not much pride except for the fact that it's a well respected company. Rush is a wonderful company with great people and I'll never forget that. They gave me a great send off with an autographed Die-Cast model of Tony Stewart's #14 NASCAR car as that was a campaign I worked on through the years.
In contrast with my photography, my purpose was making a difference in the people I served. Helping them sell a house, capture that moment with their newborn and family, or having something to be proud to show their friends and family before their wedding. My purpose is making people happy, doing what I'm good at making beautiful images and paying the bills along the way. This drives my passion as well as an overall thrill to reach success and thus pride. Like climbing a mountain top or scaling up a cliff. I'm finding new challenges and learning about how to be a better businessman, from sales to number crunching and I'm thrilled with the prospect of having my future in my own hands. The world is what you make of it. Never say never.
So today, almost two weeks after my last day on the job, my previous employer has contracted me to photograph their Technician Skills Rodeo event and hopefully this will be a long lasting relationship. I can't imagine a better transition and I hope to give them some great images. As of now, we have done 215 headshots, one group shot, several large meetings a pool party at The Menger hotel, a quick hello to The Alamo (Amen) and two more days left to go.
Looking forward to the course ahead!
Interior Bounce Lighting
Help me out, which do you like better? It's 2 different lighting techniques. While I like the definition on the left couch, giant ottoman and the cleaner windows, the overall lightness and color of the first photo seems to be my favorite. What do you think?
