One Stop Shopping for Maggie's Ranch

When my family moved back to Texas after an absence of about 7 years, my husband was itching to buy some property.  
We had spent much of our stay in the DC/Virginia 
area visiting wineries and discovered that there are not too many things in life more pleasant then sitting on the patio of a vineyard tasting room soaking in nature. With that in mind, we started spending our weekends hunting for a little 
bit of land we could call our own.  After many a hours searching the web and more in the car searching the countryside, we finally found the perfect parcel in an area 

considered the top of Texas hill country.....

It has a gentle rise to what we call the 

"top of the property" providing us with views to 

the east, south and west.  We also have a creek ....

Of course, we were not going to build a structure

for many years, but once we had the land, the desire to have a place to stay became overwhelming and the hotel options in small town Texas (at least those that meet my standards!) 

are few and far between!  

So, we commenced building what has become know as the Tack Room.  Why Tack Room?  Because it is about the size of a small garage and by calling it a tack room, my husband is under no delusion that this is to be a permanent dwelling!

Anyway, here is our progress from the last few years.  

We have done everything from clearing trees...

to preparing for footings,

building pier and beam structure...

(me in bright orange trying not to to get shot as we work through deer season!)

framing,

building fire pits to keep warm,

celebrating holidays,

weather proofing,

interior work (at last!)

not the Ritz, but we do have generator powered 

air conditioning!

After numerous mouse sightings, we finally had to add a permanent roof and since this required contracted labor (our only so far) we decided to throw in a patio for wine tasting.

That brings us up to this weekend when we began 

tape and bedding the walls

and installed our Pergola for shade.

So, at last we are to the point where we are selecting cabinets for the kitchen, tile and fixtures for the bathroom (I all ready have lace in our windows!) and soon, my favorite part will be in begin...

accessorizing!  

Of course my first stop will be 

www.maggieandreese.com

 There I can pick up disposable linen napkins 

and Eco-friendly paper plates for mealtime, rustic yet 

elegant lighting options and serving pieces, 

baskets for toting everything from toiletries to the 

bath to silverware to the picnic table and 

shelving for storing supplies. 

Can't forget a door mat to minimize 

indoor dirt, hooks to hold jackets, bottle openers to 

open a cold one and a table to set it on 

then some happy art work to brighten our walls.  

All in all, one stop shopping!

So thanks for visiting us at the ranch and come back soon to see our progress.  And who knows, maybe next spring our grapevines will be underway!