Building the Sauceda Cottage: Weather Delays, Snowstorms & Big Lessons in the Texas Hill Country

By Chad Watkins | Wrenwood Ranch | Johnson City, Texas | Cottages | DIY Build Series

We were still wrapping up the final touches on our very first cottage—waiting on furniture, final parts for the septic system, and all the little things that hold up progress—when we decided we couldn’t sit still. So while we waited, we got to work on the second cottage, The Suaceda.

We broke ground on the Sauceda Cottage in September of 2020. Even though we’d learned a few things from the first build, the Hill Country weather had some new lessons in store. The very first load of wood was dropped off, and I had already mapped out what I thought would be five separate runs to Lowe’s to keep the project rolling. We were sourcing roofing and materials that were more available this time, hoping to shave off delays. We acknoloedged several delays with the first cottage and ways we could speed up the process.

Keisha and I drilled the holes ourselves and started building the Sauceda Cottage—just the two of us… well, kind of. Keisha’s parents drove down to help us frame up the 2x6 walls. By early September, we were raising walls together, in what I’ll always remember as one of our most rewarding construction days.

We didn’t have guests on the property yet, which meant we could hammer, saw, and holler as loud as we needed. We had the walls framed that day and were already prepping to set the roof.

And then, the skies opened up.

Seven inches of rain in two days. The property turned into a mud pit. But we were thankful—grateful, really—for the new gravel driveway we had just put in.

That storm taught me something valuable: roofs need to go on by Day 4. From that point forward, I tried to set a strict goal for all future cottages:

• Day 1: Foundation

• Day 2: Frame walls + OSB

• Day 3: Frame roof

• Day 4: OSB the roof and install metal panels

Some builds would take a fifth day, but we aimed for four.

The Sauceda build went smoother than the first—mainly because we already had water, power, and septic in place. But it wasn’t without hiccups. Right around the drywall stage, the furniture for the McKamy Cottage finally arrived. So we shifted focus briefly to get McKamy staged, photographed, and listed. A good friend helped us go live on Airbnb—and to our surprise, bookings came rolling in almost instantly.

With McKamy live, we jumped back to finish Sauceda. Painting, trim, finish carpentry—those little details that bring a place to life. But with each cottage, I had to adjust my expectations. What I thought I could knock out in a few days always took longer. Furniture delays. Paint shortages. The learning curve of cleaning cottages ourselves. In the beginning, it took two of us over an hour to clean one cottage. Today, we can knock it out in 15 minutes.

And then came the snow.

The first snowstorm covered the entire ranch in a pristine white blanket—4 inches deep and picture-perfect. It slowed us down, but just barely. We kept pushing forward, braving the cold, trying to hit our goal of launching Sauceda by February.

Then came the second storm. You probably remember it. Snowmageddon.

That storm shut down half the state and froze everything solid—including our timeline. What we thought would be a 3-day pause turned into a 10-day deep freeze. Roads were impassable, temperatures stayed below freezing, and all we could do was wait it out.

Funny enough, one of the biggest challenges with this build had nothing to do with the weather. Unlike the McKamy Cottage, we weren’t delayed on furniture. We had ordered early, expecting another 14-week delay… and it showed up the following week. A pleasant surprise.

In late February of 2021, just as the ice thawed and Texas began to wake up again, the Sauceda Cottage went live on Airbnb.

That moment was huge for us.

Two cottages down. The beginning of something much bigger.We were finally starting to see the ranch come to life.