‘On The Edge’ moniker fits house perfectly
By Steve Nussbaum

Every issue of PK Magazine features an iconic Possum Kingdom home. To make the cut, these iconic structures are the ones surrounding the lake that people talk about and show their friends during a boat tour.

This issue’s featured home sports the name “On the Edge.†It’s located on the side of a cliff back in Neeley’s Slough, in a dramatic section of homes nestled in The Cliffs. These homes appear to be hanging off the side of the steep cliff, and their distinct designs make them among the most eye-catching on the lake.

Mark and Jennifer Sanders are the proud owners of “On the Edge,†and they love coming to their lake home in Possum Kingdom that resembles a resort.

The Sanders, who have a married daughter and a teenage son, live full time in Colleyville but spend as much time as they can at the lake. They first started coming to Possum Kingdom in 2010 with some friends who owned a home in Gaines Bend. Every year their friends would have a “couple’s weekend,†which allowed the Sanders to enjoy the lake, too.

Three years later, the Sanders started looking for a lot for themselves, eventually finding a unique location to build their lake retreat with both a professional-grade sand volleyball court and a firepit that hung out over the edge of the cliff.

The initial home was finished in 2014, but the Sanders soon realized they needed more space, so they added two bedrooms and a garage, as well as a guest retreat above the garage. The size of the new main house was more than 3,700 square feet, with another 500 square feet above the garage.

The Sanders had just moved into their expanded space when they started noticing some significant cracks in the retaining walls and supporting structures of the home. Within a week after this and a heavy rain event, the back retaining wall of the home, volleyball court as well as the fire-pit had a complete catastrophic failure. With the entire retaining wall and rear deck of house falling towards the lake and leaving the house teetering at the edge of the cliff, engineers deemed the house unsafe to enter, so the couple removed everything from the house and ended up renting a condo at The Harbor.

The Sanders spent the next several months working with engineers to see if it could be rebuilt. At first, none of them would take on the project, but a commercial engineering firm Mark Sanders had worked with in his business eventually agreed to do the work.

The Sanders began the work on saving the house by having new concrete piers built to support the structure, which led to a rebuilding of the entire downstairs area. They eventually moved back into the house in 2017 while the contractors rebuilt the retaining walls.

This cascading, tiered oasis is now held in place by bridge-type piers that measure 36†in diameter and go as deep as 40†into the earth. There are over 100 piers on the property supporting the massive 22’ retaining walls that are 11’ thick at the base. The Sanders also added drains for collection of water behind the wall and terraced the yard for a complete redesign, and the rebuilt wall was completed in late 2019.

The present-day structure is a sports family’s paradise. The top deck features beautiful southwestern views of the lake off the kitchen and main living space, while the next level down leads to a huge outdoor patio and resort-style pool.

Jennifer Sanders said she wanted a pool in the redesigned house, and the tiered yard made this possible. The pool contains more than 33,000 gallons of water and is one of the most impressive pools on the lake, with a cascading infinity edge providing the ultimate location to relax. On the same level of the pool is an outdoor kitchen featuring a smoker, gas grill and pizza oven. This huge kitchen space is the perfect spot to watch a game.

The next level down features a professional-grade sand volleyball court, like something found on the pro beach volleyball tour, with top-of-the-line equipment and beautiful sand brought in from Texas Sport Sand. There also is a putting green off this level.

Below all of this is a custom boat dock, but the Sanders hated all the stairs needed to get to it, so they added a driveway to the new design that lets them ride their Can-Am up and down the steep grade of the property.

After all the construction, disaster and engineering worries, one could be forgiven for thinking the Sanders were ready to say it just wasn’t meant to be, but that isn’t what happened. In fact, they shared several great stories about their time together while the house was being rebuilt.

For the couple, PK will always hold a special place for them because their daughter, Bailey, got engaged while they were living at The Harbor. Their son-in-law went to their daughter’s boss and asked if she could get off an hour early one evening so they could make it out to the lake for the surprise engagement party. The boss let her off work five hours early instead, which almost spoiled the surprise because the Sanders’ family and friends were at Possum Kingdom getting everything set up.

To avoid ruining the surprise plans, Jennifer Sanders gave her daughter a bunch of chores to complete before coming to the lake, and a friend of the daughter insisted they get dressed back in Colleyville because they were planning on going to a party at friends that night.

The Sanders and their future son-in-law managed to pull off the engagement surprise without a hitch, and nowadays the young couple and their 10-month-old son spend time on the lake as well.

The Sanders had always called the home On the Edge, even before the wall catastrophe, so much so that their son-in-law designed the huge metal sign on the rock wall below the volleyball court. In a bit of irony, a good friend bought Mark Sanders an insulated mug with the house’s logo, but instead it said “Over the Edge,†with a volleyball player hitting the ball. The friend also designed the cup right before the wall collapsed, but he still gave the ominous mug as a gift, and the two men still laugh about it to this day.

The entire family loves holding family events at the house with late-night volleyball tournaments. Mark Sanders and his son, Jayden, are avid wake-surfers and enjoy perfecting their skills along the cliffs. The Sanders are also one of the first to have the super-cool e-foil surfboards on PK. These boards look like something out of a science-fiction movie and glide along the water with a handheld control. To say the Sanders are an active family would be putting it mildly, but luckily their PK home is the ultimate active entertainment space.

When the Sanders started building their home in 2013 and named their lake home “On the Edge,†they never thought it would be dangling on the edge of the cliff one day, but that’s what happened – so they rebuilt and made the space better. Nowadays, On the Edge rises from the lake, up the incredibly steep cliff, with one of the most unique outdoor spaces to be seen on the lake. It truly is one of the iconic homes of PK.

Falling Hillside