Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

Seven years ago, Oliver Friedheim was picking up a camper shell he had purchased on Facebook Marketplace when he drove past a piece of land in Thorndale, Texas, that caught his attention. It was mid-spring, the grass was an emerald green, and the sun was setting behind it. “It was this incredibly idyllic little gem that had a ‘for sale’ sign on the front of it,” he recalls. He texted his wife Jenna a photo with the message: “Imagine this.” She texted back: “Why not?”

After purchasing the land, the couple spent five years living in a 34-foot camper trailer, braving outdoor showers, icicles forming inside during Texas’s 2021 freeze, and a grasshopper invasion that demolished Jenna’s first flower crop. But that time getting to know the land proved essential.

“We used those years to figure out what was important to us,” explains Oliver. “We learned what we needed, what we wanted, and not to exceed that.” As they watched the sun move across the property through every season, they discovered their favorite views and how the palette of the landscape shifted from winter browns to what Oliver calls “an apocalypse of color” each spring.

When they were finally ready to build, Jenna approached Plural—an Austin-based architecture firm led by Josh Carel and Adelle York—after seeing their work on a rainwater-collection project at a local zoo. Oliver, who planned to self-build the home, had already drawn up plans for a simple, rectangular structure with a shed-roof. “I sent them our plans and they really embraced it,” says Jenna.

The resulting 1,700-square-foot home is modest in scale, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but architecturally ambitious—especially for a self-built home. The defining feature is a 10-foot cantilever on the south side, which was made possible through pre-manufactured trusses shipped to site for easy assembly by Oliver.

At the heart of the design was a desire to embrace the views. “We knew that we wanted to be able to sit in our living room and feel like we were outside,” says Oliver. “Because of the way the landscape is around here and the changing seasons, every window in this place is a picture frame.”

Still, it was essential that it didn’t just become a simple glass box. “We wanted moments of nuance,” says architect Josh Carel. The key to this approach was pulling all functional elements—including the kitchen islands, cabinetry, and mechanical systems—away from the exterior walls, which freed them up for thoughtful window compositions.

On the approach side of the site, the corrugated metal roof material wraps down the north facade, creating a flat, weather-resistant plane on which Carel composed an arrangement of Marvin Elevate windows that reads almost like an abstract painting against the tree line.

On the view side, large openings were assembled from standard Elevate windows using mull kits provided by Marvin—structural connectors that join units vertically and horizontally without framing between them. A Marvin Ultimate door opens onto the patio, mirroring the windows’ narrow profiles.

The material palette for the exterior is informed by the orientation. Corrugated metal—the same material as the roof—wraps the north facade to buffer the weather, while Atlantic white cedar clads the protected south side and transitions into the ceiling inside. Over time, the exposed cedar will gray to match the tree trunks in the surrounding forest, while sheltered sections will retain their warm tone.

The interior palette is warm and deliberate: unfinished pine on the window interiors, lime-washed walls that catch the shifting light, Atlantic white cedar on the ceiling transitioning from the exterior soffit, and Oliver’s book-matched, grain-matched oak millwork. Every window acts as what Oliver describes as a “picture frame.”

Carel describes the project as “truly a four-sided house”—every face responds to a specific condition, whether that’s weather from the north, sun from the southeast, the approach through the trees, or the meadow view to the southwest. “If you’re sitting on the couch or standing in the kitchen, you have five, six, or seven framed views of different parts of the property,” says Oliver. “And they’re all beautiful.”

How they pulled it off: A self-built home that embraces the views

Live on the land first: Oliver and Jenna spent five years on the property before breaking ground—first in a camper, then with a greenhouse and barn. That time gave them an intimate understanding of sun paths, seasonal views, wind direction, and flood-prone low points that directly informed the home’s siting and orientation.

Free up the external walls: The kitchen, cabinetry, and all functional elements are pulled away from the exterior walls in a move that separates this home from the typical open-plan layout. “There’s no element of the kitchen or otherwise touching the exterior wall,” says Carel. “So the windows were freer to do whatever they wanted.” On one side, that meant expansive glazing without interruption; on the other side, it meant creating a corrugated metal canvas for an abstract composition of windows.
Assemble big windows from standard sizes: Rather than specifying custom units, Plural used Marvin’s mull kits to connect standard Elevate windows into larger configurations, both vertically and horizontally, without studs or framing between them.

Use windows to define zones: Shoulder-height ribbon windows run the entire length of the hallway. At the end of the hall, custom trusses raise the ceiling to create a double-height space and a second window sits above an office and reading nook. “The window doesn’t reveal itself until you get almost to the end of the kitchen,” says Carel.

Think thermally: TimberHP wood-fiber insulation—one of the first residential installations of its kind in this part of the country—and continuous foam on the roof keep the rural home thermally efficient.
Design for the builder: Because Oliver was both client and contractor, Plural designed easy constructability into the home from the start, with details like pre-manufactured trusses and custom metal trim pieces for the window surrounds that were fabricated by the corrugated metal manufacturer, then shipped to site ready to install. “How do you create something really special but do that in a way where a homeowner can build it?” says Carel. “That’s a really important piece of this project.”

Project Credits:

Architect: Plural

Millwork: Two Tail Boards Custom Cabinetry

Structural Engineering: MLaw Engineers

Windows and Doors: Marvin

Photography: Yoni Goldberg for Dwell Creative Services

Video: 22 Waves for Dwell Creative Services

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