In more recent years, a barn, wine building and guest house were added, as the family's interests and needs changed. When the hurricane caused Mound Creek to overflow, the Tuckers felt lucky that the flooring in their great room was their only real damage. The wine building came first, to accommodate Brad's wine collection, providing climate-controlled storage for some 4, bottles purchased on his own or with the help of a consultant who catalogs and curates the collection. One of Brad's Mustang Cat clients makes prefabricated concrete boxes - the kind you see at the base of cell phone towers - so he traded a machine for one of those boxes.
Architect Kurt Aichler was tasked with turning it into a beautiful wine building with a guest suite on top. We'd take six to eight kids and throw them in a room and they'd all find a place to sleep," Brad said. Between the main house, guest suites and a bunk room atop their reconstructed barn, there are now 11 bedrooms, and they're often filled. Lucas, Stephanie's friend since junior high school, has done other design work for the Tuckers, so she understood their style and already knew what they had at their Waller farm and in their Pine Shadows home in Houston.
As everyone's life changes, their needs change," Lucas said. The newest installation filled the great room and the new guest house that were designed by Dillon Kyle Architects. Inspiration in nearly every room comes from Brad's wine-collecting hobby, which has made California wine country a frequent travel destination.
In the great room, they wanted special ironwork built into the big fireplace, so an ornate screen was custom made by James Dawson Design from a photo of one they loved on a trip to a Napa winery. Above it, a pair of iron doors that slide into the limestone facade hide a big screen TV. Filling the great room is indoor-outdoor furniture, Janus et Cie chairs that surround custom-made tables that can lock together in different combinations.
In one long stretch, the table can seat 28 people. Architecturally, the room takes its cues from the rest of the complex, especially a year-old Amish hay barn from the Midwest that was taken down and reconstructed outside the farmhouse. In the great room, a towering vaulted, V-groove ceiling with wood trusses is covered in a barn-red semitransparent stain. So as you look out at the real barn, you get to feel just a bit like you're already in one. To fill the three guest suites, Lucas wanted simple decor that played off of wine country.
First, she did an edit of their Houston home and the farm house, picking things that needed a new home. A folk-art armoire purchased early in their marriage became the focal point of one suite. Wine barrels that had been used as nightstands and a pair of celadon green lamps were shifted out, too. Another wine barrel was given a round zinc top to create a distinctive corner table in another suite. The suite above the wine room got additional windows - Kyle pointed out that it had a great view that no one could see - and a wall was lined with wine crate panels from their favorite California cabernet sauvignons: Colgin, Pride Mountain, Far Niente, Viader, Quintessa, Groth, Freemark Abbey, Bond, Plumpjack and others.
When the Tuckers first approached Kyle about their newest buildings - the great room and guest house - they also asked him for a master plan that would pull everything together. He walked the property, evaluating the scenery and how the view looks from various points.
The Tuckers' boys had a basketball court at the back of the house, but Kyle knew it was the perfect place for the great room. Stephanie said that she and her husband had simply put buildings where they thought they should go, but they knew it all needed a new professional touch. Kyle placed the two new buildings but also suggested curved walkways from building to building and a central fire pit that can be viewed from every spot. The idea of coming onto the property and seing the barn in the distance was a nice idea.
Kyle had them remove part of a fence that separates the golf course from the home's backyard opting for lush landscaping for a prettier visual separation. Over the years, Brad has come to appreciate the value of the Katy prairie in its simplest form, and he's dedicated 1, of his 5, acres to conservation. It still looks exactly as it has for years, but Brad jokes that he'll have to live to to get through the list of things he wants to do, including reintroducing native prairie grasses and maintaining untouched spaces for animals and birds.
Others find them hosting friends and family in groups large and small. For Thanksgiving, they'll host 35 at a dinner that also serves as an 85th birthday party for Stephanie's father, Bob Fletcher. Created for large group entertaining, this room offers a broad view to what the Tuckers have created over time - a series of resortlike buildings that create memories for everyone who visits. Lakes and fields dominate the 50 acres the home sits on, but there also are special places where this active family likes to play - a nine-hole golf course, skeet-shooting range, bocce court, billiards room, lakes for wakeboarding and a huge game room with badminton and shuffleboard.
Thank God I had a father with the vision to buy that place and the incredible vision to build a golf course. Back in the s, Brad's father, Frank Tucker, bought acres of unremarkable Waller County prairie so that he and his wife, Dorothy, could take their three kids there to hunt, fish and get away from city life.
An avid golfer, Frank - who founded Mustang Cat, the Southeast Texas Caterpillar dealer, with his father - one day decided it was the perfect place to build a golf course. It had no trees at all, and he planted every tree that is out there himself. Waller County has always been rural, but in recent years its population has grown to more than 43, Years later, Brad and his brother hired Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design to update it as a more professional course with better landscaping, water features, greens and tees.
He learned the game of golf out there. To the extent that any of them learned how to hunt, they did it out there. And the first time they used a fishing rod, it was out there, too," Brad said of his sons, Sam, Frank and Ben.
He won't live the life his brothers will. In town he can't drive, but out there he has his own golf cart so he has mobility like anyone else. That's his empire," he said. Frank lives with his parents, works at Brookwood, which provides jobs for adults with special needs, and plays golf when he can, including in Special Olympics.
The course is the crown jewel of the Tuckers' spread, but it's technically owned by their company, Mustang Cat, and used a lot by Brad's employees, who can play there six days a week, and clients of the four-generation company, who host golf outings there.
Charities benefit, too, as the couple often donates time on the course or catered dinners for auction items at fundraisers. Brookwood, Texas Children's Hospital and their church, St. Luke's United Methodist are their favorite charities. Porches are filled with rocking chairs, a covered patio holds tables and chairs, and the pool is lined with chaise longues.
There may be plenty to do out there, but there also are plenty of places to relax. In more recent years, a barn, wine building and guest house were added, as the family's interests and needs changed.
When the hurricane caused Mound Creek to overflow, the Tuckers felt lucky that the flooring in their great room was their only real damage. The wine building came first, to accommodate Brad's wine collection, providing climate-controlled storage for some 4, bottles purchased on his own or with the help of a consultant who catalogs and curates the collection.
One of Brad's Mustang Cat clients makes prefabricated concrete boxes - the kind you see at the base of cell phone towers - so he traded a machine for one of those boxes.
Architect Kurt Aichler was tasked with turning it into a beautiful wine building with a guest suite on top. We'd take six to eight kids and throw them in a room and they'd all find a place to sleep," Brad said. Between the main house, guest suites and a bunk room atop their reconstructed barn, there are now 11 bedrooms, and they're often filled. Lucas, Stephanie's friend since junior high school, has done other design work for the Tuckers, so she understood their style and already knew what they had at their Waller farm and in their Pine Shadows home in Houston.
As everyone's life changes, their needs change," Lucas said. The newest installation filled the great room and the new guest house that were designed by Dillon Kyle Architects.
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