Budget Breakdown: In Rural Texas, a Couple Build an Off-Grid Forever Home for $1.68M

Designed by Murray Legge Architecture, the courtyard house is topped with a jagged roof that harvests solar energy and directs rain to a giant cistern, where it’s filtered to become potable.

Jonah Sutherlun and his wife, Lydia, are a testament to trusting the process. After moving to Temple, Texas, in 2010 for Lydia’s physician residency training, the couple lived in a historic home downtown for several years but agreed that they wanted more space once they started having kids. Jonah dreamed of an area with woods, or at least a patch of trees—a tall order in much of central Texas. 

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Rachel Gallaher
Rachel Gallaher is one of the design industry’s most prolific writers, contributing regularly to dozens of titles, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Robb Report, Dwell, Architectural Digest, Azure, Luxe, and...

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