Austin's spirited real estate company celebrating Central Texas living through adventures of food, design, and landscape

6628 Greensboro Drive, Austin, TX 78723 OPEN HOUSE Saturday, 2/8, 12-3 PM Our home of the week takes us to East Austin’s University Hills neighborhood! Here are some of this home’s features: Single story renovated Austin home – 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage and 1,596 square feet Large, open living/kitchen/dining area, vaulted beam ceilings, wooden floors, wood burning fireplace, and beautiful sliding barn doors Study/game room with direct access to the back yard Locat

[ Sidenote from Joe: The fine folks at Trulia reached out to the Home Style Austin team to collaborate on a post that addressed the home buying climate in Austin. I provided them with three Austin neighborhoods most envied and sought-after by my clients. Enjoy the findings! ] Post by Jennifer Riner, Trulia After years of renting, you might be inclined to allocate your savings toward a home purchase. Current high rental prices across the U.S. combined with boosting homeownersh

You + Them = Best. Time. Ever! As an avid dog lover, I’m often searching for places where I can hangout with my four-legged friends. I decided to put together this list of homegrown places where we’ve had a tail-waggin’ good time. I’ll keep this list updated, so you might want to bookmark this page for future fun times! Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. (ABGB) – One of our most favorite beer gardens. A great place to chill, have some brew and listen to some tunes. Here’s my blo

When our friend Penny shared this recipe we knew we had to make this dish. Sour cream, avocado, chicken and cheese can only mean one thing – we’re having seconds! Foodie Tips: ❤  I like the tasty heat of jalapeño combined with the creamy sour cream sauce. If you’re a little heat-shy you can omit the jalapeño. ❤  We found our Mexican cheese mixture at our neighborhood HEB which was a blend of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Asadero and Quesadilla Cheeses. You can substitute your favor

Cornbread With A Kick This week with cold, icy weather blowing into Austin, there’s nothing I like better than cooking in a warm kitchen. This spicy stuffed cornbread recipe packs a flavorful kick and will transform mere yellow cornbread mix into a sensationally savory dish that you can eat solo or paired with your favorite main course, like my family’s recipe for homemade chili. You’ll never think of mere cornbread the same way again! And it surely warms-up the chilliest of

Join Us For An Open House! December 6, 2014     Saturday 1 PM – 4 PM 11113 Persimmon Gap Dr., Austin TX 78717     3 bedrooms     2.5 bathrooms     2,141 square feet A few of this home’s great features: This 2-story home was built in 2008 and is located in my very own neighborhood of Avery Ranch, so I know a lot about the area. Extras include: an upgraded kitchen backsplash and granite counters, new carpet and a beautiful front covered porch that will welcome your guests. Runn

If you love orzo short-cut pasta as much as I do, you’ll want to try this Home Style Austin house favorite – you might find it becoming a regular side or main dish at your dinner table. Foodie Tips: You can make this salad ahead of time and let it chill in the refrigerator – perfect to take on-the-go for a picnic or to the office for lunchtime. You can also serve it warm and introduce some protein to make it a main course meal; adding chicken or roasted rotisserie chicken mak

This time of year when the Hatch Chili Peppers make their bountiful cameo appearance, we get weak in the knees for all things hatch. Just perusing almost 100 recipes at Central Market’s website made us break an indoor sweat for this sensationally, seasonal pepper. With hatches in hand we decided to incorporate these delightfully, smokey-tasting peppers into our interpretation of gourmet Mac n’ Cheese. This dish will take more time than it does to whip-up Mac from a box, but w

When it’s hot outside this smoothie recipe will cool things down in a jiffy. This smoothie packs a berry delicious triple-play punch of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries making this smoothie perfect for breakfast, a lighter meal or dessert. Foodie Tips: The colder the ingredients, the more refreshing the smoothie. If you already have frozen, whole bananas in the freezer, this will work – you’ll just need to apply a little TLC removing the peel. Any frozen berries wil

We’re thrilled to welcome Austin’s second Trader Joe’s location at the Arboretum on June 20th, 2014. Thrilled is actually a bit of an understatement as we’ve already checked-in on Foursquare. The new location will open in the former Saks Fifth Avenue space. Trader Joe’s Austin Arboretum 9722 Great Hills Trail Austin, TX 78759 512-241-1248 Trading Hours: 8AM-9PM Daily The Grand Opening is at 8am so you’ll want to get their early if you like live music. We’ll be there in full f

As a native Texan who’s been lucky enough to live on an Italian vineyard for a few weeks, I thought I was pretty familiar with what to expect when in wine country. Turns out I had a lot more to experience and enjoy. At first blush, while Texas wine may not seem as impressive to some as Napa, Italian, Spanish or French wines, it wasn’t until this spring when Wine Enthusiast named our very own Texas Hill Country a 2014 Top 10 Wine Travel Destination in the world when I became p

Question 1: Joe, Do I file for my homestead exemption every year? My Answer: No, but you do need to file the exemption between January 1 and April 30th of the year after your home purchase (e.g. if you purchased your home in the summer of 2015 you would be filing your homestead in the spring of 2016). In addition, once you receive a homestead exemption you don’t have to apply again unless the chief appraiser asks you to apply again or unless your qualifications change. If yo

There’s no doubt that renovating a home can be a lucrative way to customize, restore and potentially profit. Encountering a “fixer-upper” sometimes happens naturally when living in the same house for many years … but often you may be considering buying a home in need of some improvements. How well do you really know your potential property? Answering a few of my own home-grown questions may help you with your decision to buy – or run – from your potential new home purchase! 1

It’s totally by sheer fortune that I scored this recipe for Trader Joe’s Bacon Cheese Bread. You too – this recipe isn’t even on their own website (I was given the recipe verbally from a Trader Joe’s Crew Member). During Trader Joe’s Grand Opening Day here in Austin (September 20, 2013), I tasted this bread and it was delicious! I was really impressed that Trader Joe’s cleverly had all the ingredients conveniently located in a small refrigerator next to the sampling kitchen.