How They Pulled It Off: A Self-Built Texas Farmhouse Designed Around the Views

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.