Field Notes
Plain-English Reading For Texas Homeowners.
How wildfire moves through a neighborhood. What defensible space looks like in the Hill Country. How old a roof gets before it stops doing its job. Written by us, for people who own a home in Texas.
Colorado
Aug 23, 2026
Scrub Oak Near the House: What Colorado Gets Right and Wrong About Gambel Oak
Gambel oak has a reputation as the thing that burns on the Front Range. Colorado's own extension research tells a more careful story: oak brush does not burn readily except under favorable conditions, a late spring frost is one of those conditions, and cutting it down starts a maintenance cycle rather than ending one.
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Wildfire
Aug 23, 2026
The Openings: Where Embers Actually Get Into a Texas House
Clearing brush is the visible half of wildfire work. The other half is a short list of openings in the building itself, starting with the fact that the screen your code required is sized to stop rodents, not embers.
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Maintenance
Aug 23, 2026
The Maintenance Calendar Central Texas Actually Runs On
The national homeowner checklist says clean the gutters in fall and prune the trees in spring. In Central Texas the live oaks drop their leaves in spring, and February through June is the one window Texas forestry asks you not to cut an oak at all.
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Storm
Aug 16, 2026
Wind, Not Just Hail: How a Texas House Actually Comes Apart
Hail gets the attention in Texas, but wind does its damage by a different mechanism and starts in different places. The roof edge, the deck attachment, and the garage door are where it begins, and IBHS field studies show what happens when each one holds.
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Documentation
Aug 16, 2026
How to Photograph Your House So the Record Is Worth Something Later
Most homeowners have hundreds of photos of their house and no usable record of its condition. The difference is method: what a photo carries, what strips it, what a set needs to be complete, and how often to redo it.
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Water
Aug 16, 2026
What Actually Bursts in a Texas Freeze, and What to Check in August
February 2021 produced about 510,000 insurance claims in Texas and roughly $11.2 billion in insured losses, most of it residential. Here is the physics of why a pipe bursts, why Texas houses are unusually exposed, and the freeze-readiness list worth doing in warm weather.
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Water
Aug 16, 2026
Flash Flood Alley: What the Flood Map Says, and the Water It Does Not Describe
The Lower Colorado River Authority calls the Hill Country Flash Flood Alley, and FEMA reports that 29 percent of flood insurance claims over the past decade came from outside high-risk zones. Here is how to read your flood zone, and how to read the water on your own lot.
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Colorado
Aug 16, 2026
Colorado's Wildfire Resiliency Code: What It Asks of an Existing Home, and When
Colorado now has a statewide model wildfire code, and local adoption was due April 1, 2026. Most existing homes are not required to change anything today, but a short list of common projects pulls a house into it. Here are the trigger thresholds, the fire intensity classes, the three ignition zones, and the hardening requirements in plain language.
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Steiner Ranch
Aug 12, 2026
Steiner Ranch and Four Points: What the 2026 County Wildfire Plan Says About Your Area
Travis County's 2026 wildfire plan scores Steiner Ranch and its neighbors as Moderate hazard, and the field assessments found defensible space gaps almost everywhere. Here is what those numbers mean, how the 2011 fire still shapes them, and what the plan admits it cannot yet track.
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Roof Age
Aug 12, 2026
How Old Is Your Roof, Really? Five Ways to Find the Date
Most Texas homeowners guess their roof's age and guess wrong, usually by years. Here are five reliable ways to establish the actual installation date, why the number matters earlier than people expect, and the mistake nearly everyone makes after buying a house.
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Austin
Aug 12, 2026
Two Ways Out: What Austin's Fire Officials Actually Told Homeowners
Notes from Austin's August 2026 wildfire town hall: why there is no neighborhood evacuation map, how to find your second way out, what STEAR is, and what to do when the instruction is shelter in place instead of evacuate.
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Wildfire
Aug 12, 2026
Cedar Near the House: What Central Texas Gets Right and Wrong About Ashe Juniper
Ashe juniper has a reputation as the most flammable thing in the Hill Country. The county's own wildfire plan tells a more careful story: mature juniper is relatively fire resistant, young dense juniper is not, and cutting a tree down is not automatically the right answer.
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Wildfire
Aug 12, 2026
Is My House in a Wildfire Zone? What the Travis County Maps Can and Cannot Tell You
Forty-five percent of Travis County residents live inside the wildland-urban interface. Here is how to look up your own address, what the county's 2026 wildfire risk model actually measures, and the specific thing it says about itself that most homeowners never read.
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Roof Age
Jul 2, 2026
Roof Age and Your Texas Home: ACV vs. Replacement Cost, Explained Simply
Your Texas roof may be older than you think, and its age is what drives the depreciation math behind two terms that confuse almost everyone. Actual cash value vs. replacement cost, explained in plain language for longtime homeowners.
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Hail
Jun 25, 2026
After the Hail: How Texas Homeowners Should Document Roof and Exterior Damage in 2026
After a Texas hailstorm, the most useful thing a homeowner can do is document the condition of the roof and exterior carefully and early. Here is what good hail documentation looks like, what people commonly get wrong, and how a clear before-and-after record fits into a broader multi-peril picture of the home.
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Hurricane
Jun 19, 2026
Hurricane Season 2026: What Inland Texas Homeowners Underestimate
Tropical systems do their worst damage to the Texas coast, but the wind, flooding, hail, and days-long power loss reach far inland. Here is what homeowners well away from the water tend to underestimate, and how to assess a home for the whole storm rather than just the coastline.
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Westlake
May 12, 2026
The Westlake Hills Homeowner's Wildfire Checklist
A hyperlocal checklist for Westlake, Lakeway, and Bee Cave homeowners: Travis County WUI, ESD 9 coverage, Firewise USA chapters, and the ten property-condition items that carry the most weight on a Hill Country lot.
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Insurance
May 12, 2026
What a Non-Renewal Letter Actually Means in Texas, and What Chapter 551 Requires
A plain-English read on what a non-renewal letter is, how Texas Insurance Code Chapter 551 differs from cancellation, what the law requires the letter to contain, and what a homeowner can go document about their own property.
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Wildfire
May 12, 2026
Defensible Space, Zone by Zone: A Plain-English Guide for Texas Homeowners
What defensible space actually looks like in Central Texas, broken down by zone, with a weekend checklist anyone with a rake and a pair of gloves can work through.
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