Design-build · Mustang Island, Texas

Design-build services in Port Aransas.

Custom homes, historic restoration, remodels and storm repair in Port Aransas, Rockport and across the island. Every job is contracted the same way: open-book, with every invoice in front of you.

Start a Project How we contract every job
In business since
2016
Building on the island
2021
Builds within two miles
13
Drone view of a new Paradise Pointe home on pilings, with a white metal roof and cedar deck rails
01

Custom Homes

New houses on pilings, built for the weather rather than the brochure.

From an empty lot to the keys. Feasibility comes first: flood zone, base flood elevation, wind exposure, setbacks and what the city will permit, all on paper before a design is drawn. Then drawings with every part named and priced, and a build you can follow from Austin as easily as from across the street.

  • Lot feasibility before you commit
  • Pile foundation above base flood, plus freeboard
  • WPI-8 windstorm certificate and FEMA elevation certificate

Custom homes on Mustang Island

A restored Gibbs cottage behind its horizontal cedar deck screen, a young palm in front
02

Historic Restoration

What is worth keeping gets kept. What failed is replaced with something that will not fail the same way.

Old island buildings brought back with the materials and proportions they were born with. The Gibbs Cottages, fishing cottages built between 1937 and 1954, are our own example: raised, restored, and finished inside in their own reclaimed wood.

  • A survey of what is behind the walls, before a price
  • Reclaimed timber, and original fabric kept where it is sound
  • Raised and tied down to today’s flood and wind rules

Historic restoration in Old Town Port Aransas

A cottage kitchen with a cast-iron drainboard sink, hex-tile floor and reclaimed pine ceiling
03

Remodels & Renovations

We open it up and tell you what we found before we tell you what it costs.

Reworking a house you already own: a kitchen, a floor, a whole interior, or the character kept while the windows and roof are brought up to windstorm code. Salt, damp and wind do most of the damage here, so most remodels start by finding it.

  • What we found, shown to you before the number
  • Windstorm inspection where the work triggers one
  • The 50% rule checked before the scope is set

Remodels and renovations

Drone view along the rear of three Nautilus Street houses with shingle hip roofs and cedar balcony rails
04

Storm Repair & Resilience

Getting a place standing again, and making it harder to damage next time.

Repairs after a named storm and the insurance claim that comes with it, plus the everyday damage this coast does without one: rot, failed finishes, broken windows, water where it should not be. The repair is the moment to fix the connection that let go.

  • Documentation for your TWIA or private claim
  • Temporary weatherproofing, then the permanent repair
  • The load path strengthened, not just patched

Storm repair and resilience

Four services, one contract

The same open book, whatever the job.

A new house and a storm repair look nothing alike on site. On paper they are contracted the same way: the cost of the work, plus a fee you can see, with every invoice in front of you as it lands. Open the example to see what that looks like during a build.

How the open book works

Example build Any of the four Example view

Cost to date

$412,880

Contract total

$486,000

85% drawn to date

85%

DateVendorCategoryAmount
12 Aug Coastal Lumber Co. Framing package $18,420
09 Aug Gulf Coast Concrete Pilings and caps $24,150
02 Aug Island Glazing Impact-rated windows $31,700
28 Jul Marine Electric Rough-in $9,860
21 Jul Structural Hardware Tie-downs and straps $4,215

Every invoice lands here the week it is raised.

Questions

Which one do I need?

The short answers. Each service page has the long ones.

Four kinds: new custom homes from the lot up, historic restoration of the island’s older buildings, remodels and renovations of houses people already own, and storm repair with resilience upgrades. All of it in Port Aransas, on Mustang Island and in Rockport, and all of it contracted the same way, open-book cost-plus.

Mostly not. Our thirteen builds so far are all within two miles of our office at 629 W Avenue C, and we also take work in Rockport, across the bay. Further than that and we would rather say no: a builder who has to drive an hour to the site is not on the site.

Design-build. One firm carries the project from the first conversation through feasibility, drawings, construction and handover, and you deal with Carl from start to finish. The drawings are part of the job, with every product named and priced, so the number can be checked before anything is ordered.

You pay the actual cost of materials, labor and subcontractors, plus a stated fee for running the job. Every invoice appears in front of you the week it lands, so there is no marked-up number to take on trust. It is how every Hearth & Haus job is contracted, whether it is a new house or a storm repair.

Remodels & Renovations if the damage is age and weather; Storm Repair & Resilience if it follows a named storm and an insurance claim. The line is not always clean, so start with a conversation and some photographs. We open it up and tell you what we found before we tell you what it costs.

Call (361) 210-8601 or use Start a Project. Tell us the address or the lot, what you are hoping to do, and roughly when. The first conversation is free, most of it is us asking questions, and if the brief and the budget do not meet you will hear it then rather than three months in.

The Port Aransas beach and fishing pier from the air

Tell us about the place.

A lot, a house that needs work, or a roof that came off. Start with a conversation and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right firm for it.

Start a Project Call (361) 210-8601

How the open book works

Example build Custom home · Mustang Island Example View
Contract total
$486,000
Cost to date
$412,880

85% drawn to date

Remaining
$73,120
Open change orders
3

85% drawn to date

$412,880 of $486,000

Where the money has gone

  • Sitework and piles 15.0% $61,930
  • Framing and structure 23.8% $98,450
  • Envelope and roofing 18.0% $74,205
  • Windows and doors 12.8% $52,760
  • Mechanical, electrical, plumbing 14.1% $58,340
  • Interior finishes 10.9% $44,890
  • Permits and engineering 5.4% $22,305

Seven categories, $412,880. Adds up to the cost to date above.

Stage

  1. Conversation
  2. Feasibility
  3. Design
  4. Build
  5. Handover

Next up

Dry-in inspection, then interior finishes. The schedule and every photograph land in the same place as the invoices.

Recent invoices View all

DateVendorCategoryAmount
15 Aug Bayfront Roofing Standing seam roof $27,480
12 Aug Coastal Lumber Co. Framing package $18,420
09 Aug Gulf Coast Concrete Pilings and caps $24,150
06 Aug Mustang Millwork Interior doors and trim $12,640
02 Aug Island Glazing Impact-rated windows $31,700
30 Jul Coastal Plumbing Rough-in and fixtures $15,905
28 Jul Marine Electric Rough-in $9,860
24 Jul Island Insulation Closed-cell foam $8,720
21 Jul Structural Hardware Tie-downs and straps $4,215

Every invoice lands here the week it is raised. The figures on this screen are an illustration, not a real project.