Regional Focus

The HandyHomeowner blog has a regional emphasis on Central Texas single-family homes.

A typical home in this area has the following features:

•Less than 30 years old on a suburban lot
•Built on a concrete slab
•Single or two-story wood frame construction
•Three sides brick or stone facade with wood or cement fiber siding on rear
•Two- or three-car attached garage with metal rollup doors and opener
•Shallow, all-underground city or MUD utilities
•Modern electrical system
•Natural gas heating, water heater, cooking and clothes dryer
•Central air conditioning
•Ceiling fans in a bedrooms and living areas
•Pre-wired for security system (sensors and controls)
•Copper water tubing, black iron gas pipe and PVC drain pipe
•Concrete driveway and walkways
•Cedar plank fenced back yard
•Automatic sprinkler system for lawn and landscape irrigation

Not all Central Texas homes are like this, but houses in the area and other parts of the country have many applicable features in the maintenance and repair topics.

Topics generally exclude features not common to suburban Central Texas such as:

•Basements
•Electric water heaters and furnaces
•Cold climate utility shutoffs
•Well water
•Septic systems
•Fuse boxes
•Aluminum wiring
•Radon abatement

These topics are covered extensively in other homeowner repair and maintenance websites.