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. 

Join Dwell+ to Continue

Subscribe to Dwell+ to get everything you already love about Dwell, plus exclusive home tours, video features, how-to guides, access to the Dwell archive, and more. You can cancel at any time.

Try Dwell+ for FREE

Already a Dwell+ subscriber? Sign In

Published

Last Updated