Proof that Texas has hills

My parents recently bought a 2-acre plot near Medina Lake, 20 minutes west of San Antonio. This is where they hope to build a home for their retirement years. Not all of the land is usable, unfortunately, because it descends the side of a steep hill. The region to the west of San Antonio and Austin is known as the Texas Hill Country. As you can see from the pictures the area lives up to its name.






Starting from the road, there may be about 25 feet before the hill descends. The plan is to build the house along the slope of the hill so that a walk-out basement/lower level is possible. For those that don't know, basements in Texas are rare because underneath the thin layer of topsoil is an unyielding mass of limestone. Making a basement-sized hole in the limestone is cost-prohibitive. As such I've never seen a basement in any Texas home, unless the house is built on the slope of a hill.