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Bruns house a modern marvel
Published January 2, 2009
There is an impermeable layer of clay beneath the Blackland prairie that characterizes much of Seguin’s landscape.
Rainwater collects on top of that clay layer, and a good amount of it flows down to springs that empty into several creeks that feed into the Guadalupe River, across a property where Sudy and Joe Bruns built their house 28 years ago.
The Bruns home was built on the site of Dr. Hillary Hall’s historical Civil War era house, which burned down about 30 years ago and left an oak tree scarred from the flames.
The rock foundation for Hillary Hall, which was built by Seguin founder Andrew Neill, can still be seen along the base of the Bruns house.
“There were rumors that we burned it down, I know I didn’t burn it, but I couldn’t find Sudy that night,” Joe Bruns said, displaying a finely tuned sense of humor.
“There were no rumors,” Sudy answered.
Sudy and Joe Bruns’ home was designed by architect Richard MyCue, whose portfolio includes more than a dozen houses in Seguin.
“We wanted an underground house. But it was built with an earth berm along the west and north exposures, and on the south and east a greenhouse keeps the outer walls protected,” Joe explained.
The berms and the riverside greenhouse that spans the other walls serve to keep the house well insulated. But it also was built with 8-inch blocks that were filled in with cement.
The house appears to be built with two squares that were offset upon one another to provide angles. Twelve inches of insulation lie under a metal roof, air conditioning ducts built into the foundation, and a centrally located fireplace draws in cold outside air, heats it and distributes it throughout the house.
“The house stays remarkably warm,” Sudy said.
The house is 2,700 square feet, with three bedrooms, and it has almost no hallways. Coming through the front door, a slight right turn leads to the kitchen, and a sharper right turn goes past a bathroom to a master bedroom that overlooks the river.
A slight left turn leads to the living room, and a sharper turn leads to the Bruns sons’ rooms, one of which is converted to office space. Their son Winston keeps his bedroom in the house, and their son Morgan is attending college in Austin.
Gold lantana and Asiatic jasmine are planted in the earth beams on the house’s exterior, and Joe is proud of the work he has done to restore native Texas plants to the property.
“Our theme is native Texas plants, with persimmon and other native trees,” Joe said.
Seguin used to have a lot of bald cypress trees, but early settlers chopped most of them down to build either furniture or houses.
Joe Bruns has been planting redbud, American elm, Spanish oak, bald cypress and Montezuma cypress on the property’s multi-level grounds to restore what once grew there.
“They turn to a rust color in the fall,” Joe said as he pointed out a hawk that was gliding through the trees.
But there are also many blooming plant varieties that are not native to Texas.
The varieties include Pride of Barbados, salvia griegga, oxalis, rowelia, buckeye and Virginia creeper, among others.
“He has the green thumb, I just tell him when the grass needs to be mowed,” Sudy said regarding her husband’s meticulous handiwork in their yard.
There are pathways that Joe built that lead down to the confluence of the three spring-fed creeks, and pathways that lead down to a large expanse of lawn alongside the river.
Their Welsh Corgi, Teddy Roosevelt Jr., enjoys an occasional swim in the creeks’ confluence.
“We’re slowly filling the property with Montezuma and bald cypress, and a lot of well-manicured flora,” Joe said. “It is a lot of maintenance, these trails don’t just happen. It’s a lot of work but it is a lot of fun.”
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