If spring and early summer are wedding season, it seems the fall is anniversary season. At least it is around Lakeway.

The Lakeway Municipal Utility District (you know the MUD, with the big golf ball water tower) is celebrating 30 years of serving this community. The Village of the Hills also is marking a big one – 20 years since the Hills became an officially incorporated village. Even the Hill Country Galleria is getting in the anniversary action; it’s been 10 years since the Galleria’s grand opening.

We, too, are celebrating.  It was 16 years ago this fall that we began building homes under the JKD Builder brand. It was 2001, just after 9/11 and admittedly not the best time to be opening a business, as we were cautioned. But we had cemented our love of this community long before and knew this is where we wanted to live, raise our family and grow a business.

In reality, though, our roots in the Lake Travis community go back a lot further than that – all the way back to 1983, when as a young couple, we built our first home off Clara Van Drive. We had fallen in love with Lake Travis during college weekends camping and boating with family. Our first “big” purchase after graduating, in fact, was a brand-spanking new 15-ft. ski boat for what were a few thousand precious dollars to two young newlyweds. Weekends on the lake, we’d dream about someday living here and, with hard work and luck and more hard work, we made that dream come true within a few years.

Back then, there was one elementary school, no local hospitals or […]