Well it's officially autumn and things are finally starting to cool down here in Texas. When I was a kid my family lived in upstate New York and every year at this time we'd go picking apples. Mom and Dad would drive the five of us out to an orchard and we would easily bring 2-3 laundry baskets full of apples home with us. When we were really small Dad would walk around with my brothers and I taking turns sitting on his shoulders so we could reach up into the branches and pick as many as we wanted. It's one of those memories from childhood that's always stuck with me. Ironically, at the time I was too much of a dope to like apple pie, but my opinion on that has long since changed.

Janet has started working with another realtor photographing her houses. She's also been helping me the past few weeks trekking around the metroplex taking pictures of several of my projects that have recently been completed. If you look on my website you can tell the difference between the projects that I've shot and the ones that Janet has. Her's are much better and she knows a lot more about photo composition than I do. Janet - you're hired!

Ian is really enjoying his third season of football (his first as a high school freshman) as both an offensive and a defensive lineman. It's amazing how big some of the kids are today; and even though he's not breaking 200 like some of the boys are he's able to block them really well. Hannah is halfway through her fall soccer season and her team is getting better and better each week. I'm pretty sure, however, that some of the girls on the teams that they play against have either gone berserk with growth hormones or they're in their 20's. I guess Hannah's group of 11-year-olds hasn't quite started getting taller yet.

This month I've spent a lot of time developing my own McReynolds Designs YouTube Channel. Right now I have nine projects uploaded and am working on several more. Please take a look at it when you get a chance and let me know what you think. As always be sure and visit my website to see some of the new projects that I'm working on.

This house was designed for a family who owns some acreage out in Rockwall County. A one-and-a-half story house with a little over 3,300 square feet, it is a split bedroom plan where the master and guest bedrooms are on one side of the house and the two secondary bedrooms are on the other. The family room, kitchen, and casual dining room are practically in one space and there's a formal dining room off the foyer.

There were a lot of decorative features in this home that stood out to me but first and foremost was the master bathtub. I've never seen one like it before and probably never will again. The owners told us that everybody who visits the home comments on it, and they felt it really fit with the rest of the decor of the house. Stained concrete is everywhere throughout the house, with the exception of the bedrooms and the upstairs game room which are all carpeted. The couple also chose some very interesting light fixtures for some of the rooms.

This home was built by Kirk Eppler of Eppler Construction.

Gary Larson's "The Far Side"