Don't know that much about East Texas, as to climate and such, but these are things I wish I had done, living in the Pacific Northwest, and things I did that worked after twenty-years of occupancy.
Wish I had installed a metal roof.
Wish I had installed a sprinkler system for the gardens and fire control around the house.
Wish I had thought about the trees I didn't own, that grew up to block my view of the valley twenty years later.
I should have thought more about mud-rooms, and some place to store the out door furniture in the winter and more interior storage spaces.
I should not have depended on what neighbors said as to what their intentions were for their properties. People die, or pass on property, and those verbal understandings are out the window.
Address early, any thing that looks like adverse possession on the property.
Buy an, off the shelf, architecturally approved house design that fits what you want to do. Don't design your own house. Get all the designs down to two or three, and then imagine living in that house. As in, you are walking though it in 3D. I designed my own house, and it was a bit of a nightmare, with inspectors, even after the plans had been approved. Designing it myself, i had to justify everything to the inspectors, and sometimes had to quote the local building codes to them, that the structure was in compliance with code. This is not a problem if you buy a pre-designed plan that has a sign off from an architect.
Double up, stud/backing on anything you think you will need to hang stuff off of: Use screws and not nails.
Wired the whole house and garage with CAT 5 Ethernet wiring, which was entirely useless with newer wireless technology. The smart house now only needs one sender/responder.
Wish I had built the garage first.
Wish I had built the garage first.
Wish I had built the garage first.
What I did right:
I didn't buy into cable nets, like Com-cast, which would have costed a bit, cause I figured the phone lines would get better which they did, and gave me DSL. All the remote video stuff has worked out, even at rather slow speeds: This still worked well. Century Link, is though, getting expensive right now at 100$ a month: Though we use it 24/7.
All utilities are under ground.
The 1500 gallon cistern was a good idea, fed by the roof of the garage. Saves a bit on the ground well pump to water the garden, and helps fire fighters if they ever needed it. Should have put more water storage in place and made some of it above ground for gravity feed.
Built the 30 by 35 garage with very tall garage doors. Clearance is never a problem.
There is a golden-locks zone around any metro area. Its just outside the metro expansion zone, yet you can still drive 30 minutes to work. I got that sort of property, and these are the ones that appreciate in a rather exponential manner.
Think carefully of the "experts" that you hire. They may not be working for you. And talk you into all sorts of things you didn't need.