Texas HomePro

Mid-July in Central Texas. The radar has been quiet for a week. History says it won't stay that way.

A fifteen-minute homeowner walkaround that has saved our customers real money:

1. Stand on the ground on all four sides of the house. Look up at the gutter line. Any sag, any dark stain running down the fascia, any missing paint, note the spot.
2. Walk under every downspout. Where does the water actually go? If it dumps within three feet of the foundation, you have your afternoon project.
3. Check the AC condensate drain. Cap on the vertical PVC pipe outside your unit. Pour a cup of water in. If it doesn't run out the primary line, your float switch is your only backup and it will trip on the next humid day.
4. Look at every window well and the base of every exterior door. Any dirt or grass jammed against the weep holes gets pulled out today.
5. Ceiling stains, even faint ones, get photographed with today's date. That's your baseline if a storm hits.

Fifteen minutes. Zero dollars. Skips one bad Monday later this summer.

Complimentary virtual inspections if any of those five turned up something ugly. (512) 540-4050.

A close look at why we still hand-pick the slab.

Every natural stone is a one-time geologic event — the veining in this Calacatta started forming under pressure 100 million years ago. We send our project leads to the slab yard with the client because a photo can't tell you which piece will read like a thunderstorm and which will read like a calm sea.

The wall behind the range was bookmatched on site. The cut tells you which one this is.

We got a text at 9:14 p.m. last Tuesday from a first-time mom in Harker Heights.

Her baby is due in three weeks. The nursery sits over the garage, the hottest room in any Texas house, and they had just realized there was no ceiling fan.

Our electrician was at her door at 7:30 the next morning with a quiet-rated 52-inch fan, a remote, and the right fan-rated box for the existing junction.

Forty minutes later the room moved air for the first time. She sent us a photo of the crib, just made up, the fan on low above it. We are putting that one on the office wall.

If your house has a room that is always four degrees warmer, that is fixable. Not next month. This week. (512) 540-4050.