Apple Head House

“A lot of the lake houses have a little complexity — people drive by the front, but they also drive by the back. So you design the rear to be just as nice as the front.“
— Mike Hollaway

Apple Head House was built as a spec investment property and entered in the Hill Country / Highland Lakes Parade of Homes. Like many of the team’s lake builds, it sits on a narrow but deep lot — and like the best of them, it answers a particular Lake LBJ design challenge: the rear of a lakefront home needs to be as compelling as the front, because guests don’t just arrive by car.

The exterior is a Hill Country blend — stone, stucco, and a series of unique masonry archways — that anchors the home into its setting without leaning hard modern. A small inlet on the lot was dredged out so the boat parks under the house, protecting it from wind and adding guest moorage. The plan is unusually flexible: a study and secondary bedroom sit on the first floor alongside the master, with additional guest rooms and a media room on the second level. It works for an empty-nester couple, a full family, or anything in between.

Inside the home, the spec build runs heavier on detail than most: theater room, game room, third-story balconies, pool, hot tub, generous ceiling treatments, and a significant volume of interior stonework and custom cabinetry.

The home was brought to Mike Hollaway Custom Homes by a developer-client who was building it as an investment for future sale. He had worked with the same architect — Fernando — that the Hollaway team has built with for many years, so the design language and detailing translated cleanly between the two offices. Selections were managed with the client’s family.

Even though the home was designed for a future buyer, the team made design changes during build to broaden the home’s appeal to a larger pool of likely buyers. The clearest of those is the flexible plan: a first-floor master alongside a study and a secondary bedroom means the home reads as comfortable for an aging couple, a couple with children, or a family with adult kids and grandkids visiting on weekends.

The home was completed in time for the Hill Country / Highland Lakes Parade of Homes, where it served as both spec product and a public showcase of the Hollaway team’s work in the Highland Lakes market.

Apple Head House was entered in the Hill Country / Highland Lakes Parade of Homes — a regional showcase where buyers, builders, and the public tour the area’s most notable new construction. It is one of more than two dozen Parade of Homes entries the Hollaway team has built across San Antonio and the Hill Country, more than any other builder in San Antonio.