AlamoLiving...

Soil conditions, in a nut shell. Many areas of south-central Texas have very expansive soil that is a form of clay. When this clay absorbs moisture it expands with a great deal of pressure. I once heard an engineer quip that if we built traditional basements here, the walls would have to be 10 feet thick to withstand the pressure. I don't know if that was an engineering fact or he was just providing an illustration. In other places we have bedrock just a few inches below the surface that would require blasting to dig a basement. A hundred years or so ago, settlers sometimes dug "root" cellars, but the walls were bare rock or soil.

2. It seems like some of your lots are small compared compared to where we came from. Why?

The Alamo city is steeped in culture and tradition. That's one of the fun things about living here. A lot of our early architecture and building practices were derived from the Spanish and German influence. The early settlers lived close together (in town) for safety while their ranch land was "out"- often a hour or more horseback ride away.

If you look at many of the plat maps from the last century you would find that most city lots were only 25 feet wide. Sometimes people would buy 2 lots on which to build their homes. Around the turn of the century you begin to see 50 foot wide lots platted. Today, there is no "standard" lot size. You can see new "garden" homes on lots as small as 35 feet in width to "estate" lots that are a half acre or more. However, many of the older subdivisions have lots in the 50 to 65 foot range.

Brick in not an indigenous building material here. Historically, masonry buildings were built out of limestone rocks which were lying around and generally in the way of anything else you wanted to do with the ground. The Germans tended to like wooden houses. During this century many homes have been built with brick (or even stone) veneer for appearance sake and because you don't have to paint it. On most brick houses you see here, the brick is not a structural component serving to protect the walls rather than hold them up. After all, we don't get a lot of snow weighing down on our roofs.

Great! Our water is considered "hard" because of the minerals it contains (mostly lime). It comes from a huge underground river or lake called the Edwards Underground Aquifer. It is recharged by rainwater filtering down through 400 feet or so of limestone filter. The San Antonio Water System (SAWS) pumps it up, kicks in a small dose of chlorine (no fluoride) and pipes it directly to our homes. Our aquifer water is also bottled by a major company and shipped all over the world.

The bad side of our water is the minerals. Like any hard water, our water makes sink and tub cleaning a little more difficult. Because of this some people prefer to have a water softener.

5. Why are 2 story homes frequently less expensive than 1 story homes of the same size?

Because of our soil conditions (see #1, above), the home's foundation (slab) is commonly a more expensive part of the construction. Two story homes have smaller foundations. Also, in areas where there is slope to the land the slab's expense is compounded by the amount of drop that must be leveled with the slab. This can add up to lots of concrete and steel reinforcement.

If you have a question you'd like answered or have other home buying concerns, please e-mail Randy@alamoliving.com. Thanks.

©2003, Randy Young, all rights reserved. Randy is a broker associate of Noble & Hicks Properties (210) 279-6300.