Building the Nation way

From his time as a musician in his younger days, working on his art, being a massage therapist, designing graphics for the Wimberley View newspaper, to even building furniture and houses, Rick Nation is a person of many talents.

In fact, one of his pieces is well known across Wimberley as many residents and visitors drive past it everyday.

Known as the Handmade House, the structure was built in 1977 on the corner of the intersection of Ranch Road 12 and FM 3237 where it currently stands today.

“When I moved here there was a man named Brute Merdith,” Nation said. “He had a portable saw mill, and I met him somewhere on the road cutting wood. He invited me down to work and I started coming down here to saw wood. Then he invited me down here to come live down here. He had a little house on Flite Acres, so I rented that and started a mill there. That’s when we started building this little cabin.”

It was also here Nation fell in love with the Wimberley Valley and where he wanted to raise his family.

“When I first crossed the bridge over Cypress Creek in town, it just said, ‘This was home,’” Nation said. “It felt like the roots went out immediately, and I was here. I’ve raised three kids here, and a couple of wives raised me here.”

Nation’s first saw mill he used was actually set up where King Feed is currently located after buying the place from Sam Cutts and eventually starting work on the Handmade House.

“I had a saw mill that used to be set up in the 40s where the King Feed is now where Mr. Cowan had the saw mill set up.” Nation said. “Cowan, with Sam Cutts who built the Epsiopcal Church out on Kyle Road, had set up the mill back a little bit… I bought it from Sam Cutts and rebuilt it and put it in my little mill. Then we also used an Alaskan Mill, which is a six foot chainsaw with a mill on it where you could cut big white slabs to make desktops and tables. So I built furniture and when this corner (at RR12 and FM3237) was available to sell, Brute bought it and I designed this little house while he paid for it to be built. I was going to rent it from him to sell all the stuff that I made, like tables, art stuff, wood stuff, anything else. I sold out really quick and decided to just rent it (the Handmade House) out. There was a sandwich shop there for a while, then a lot of different things made that place home.”

The house is made from unused logs that were no longer in use from residential fence post cutters while also using a technique that was used by pioneers in the 1800s.

“We had gone out and found the bigger logs that fence post cutters didn’t want,” Nation said. “They’ve been laying there for God knows how long with some being axed cut. We haul them out of the creek bottoms and bring them home… One side is a traditional log cabin and the other side is cordwood masonry which is firewood stacked in mortar…which is one of the first ways pioneers built houses when they came to the country. You had to cut the logs for the cabin and let them dry for a year at least. So they build these structures to live and survive in, then turned them into spring houses, places to put food in, or make it into a barn. It is really efficient heat and cool wise, and it’s real labor intensive so to speak. I had a crew of about five people who worked on it. It took a third of the time to gather the materials, a third to get them all ready and a third to build it.”

Because of the style of the house, it can be easily mistaken by visitors and even some residents as historic; however, the house was not built in the 1800s but instead 1977. It is a misconception that Nation takes as a great compliment.

In fact, because of the style of the Handmade House, the building was almost turned into a museum.

“That’s the greatest compliment anyone can make on the house is that they thought it was 100 years old,” Nation said. “Sonny Gold, who was the Justice of the Peace here before we (Wimberley) incorporated, tried to buy it and turn it into a Wimberley Museum. He had all these photographs and everything that we see around here but it was so expensive he didn’t want to do it.”

For Nation, just building in creative ways was something he had always wanted to do since he was a little kid.

“I was just trained to be an architect since I was a kid.” Nation said. “I built a little cabin in a lake near Fort Worth that my parents owned. It was just something I like to do, and I like doing different kinds of construction like non-traditional, stone wood, rubble building, things you have on hand instead of traditional conventions… I do furniture, cabinets and kitchens more than anything around here.”

While the house certainly can catch the attention of residents and visitors alike, it also caught the attention of Willie Nelson who then turned to Nation to not only build a house for him in Luck, Texas but other personal projects as well from a movie set in Luck, Texas, and a restaurant.

“His sister saw this one (the Handmade House) in Wimberley,” Nation said. “He called people in Canada, and all other places trying to build houses just like that but nobody wanted to do it. He called me and hired me with a telephone call. I started the next day… I was pretty much over there all the time. Sometimes maintenance on the condos where the band and the crew lived, and just whatever he needed he’d send someone to go get me and I’ll do it.”

Nelson also wanted Nation to build an ambiguous project for him in order to combat the small problem Nelson was facing.

“Towards the end it was funny,” Nation said. “He (Nelson) came to me and said ‘Rick can you build me a boat dock?’ There was a little place called Mona’s which was a hamburger place on the Pedernales. He said ‘Can you build me a boat dock because I bought this boat and I can’t get it in the marina in Lakeway.’ He bought a 70 foot houseboat, three stories, and couldn’t get in the marina. I didn’t end up doing it and another musician ended up doing it, because I was swamped with stuff. I couldn’t do it all. But he is great, and an A-plus guy.”

However, Nation’s days as a builder soon came to a tragic end forcing him to choose another occupation.

“Long story short, pentachlorophenol,” Nation said. “They dipped a lot of lumber in that to preserve it, and it built up in my system which caused my immune system to break down. I got allergic to everything in the world, and it took me seven to eight years to get over it. I started learning what to do to make a living that didn’t involve chemicals so I took up massage therapy, which I’ve been doing for 30 years since 1989… I’ve studied health stuff before, and I’ve done massages for a long time and different kinds of healing work. I had some kids by myself and I needed to do something to make some money. It helped because you could do two-three hours of work then pick up the kids and still had enough to get by on.”

Despite closing down his place of work during the pandemic, Nation still provides massage therapy treatments from his home or traveling out to his customers home and provides tips on staying healthy.

“As health goes, try to eat clean food. Eat healthy food, though not a lot of it. Stay away from chemicals, and you have to work on yourself.” Nation said. “I do something for my health everyday and every night.”

Nation is doing his best to get back into working on his art. He is also getting back into music, which he did when he was younger, even going out to Los Angeles to sign a potential record label before becoming a builder.

However, that will not stop Nation from doing what he does best, which is creating.

“My life is all about artwork,” Nation said. “It’s all about creating, and there are so many rules and laws and of course you like praising accolades but it’s just creating. I’ll be making something till my last breath.”