Of the many home tours Austin offers throughout the spring, the Austin Weird Homes Tour might be our favorite. Founded in 2014 by Chelle and David J. Neff, the tour offers a peek inside some of the city's most unique, artful homes and to meet the residents who created them.
The tour has a dual purpose: to focus on some of the people and places that make our city irreverent, sometimes strange, and damn fun and to bring attention to affordability issues that might be driving some of them out. Part of its proceeds are donated to affordable housing programs.
The tour has doubled in size in its two years, and this year's self-paced driving tour features 11 homes. Those include Kasita, the exciting new housing project from "Professor Dumpster," and a home that was a Friday Night Lights set and now houses Riggins’ Cabinet of Curiosities.
Here's a peek at four of the tour's fun and fascinating places; you can learn much more about the tour on its website.
First up is Bouldin Creek's aptly named Casa Neverlandia, built and updated James Talbot and friends and family since 1979.
The Freeman House in Crestview is an artist's retreat inspired by Mexican haciendas, lovingly inhabited and created by, of course, the namesake couple.
Back in South Austin, we find Under the Sea, where Lois (one of those first-name-only people, we guess) has lived and created art for more than 20 years.
The Montopolis neighborhood where Florence's Comfort House is located has historically been an area lived in by low-income residents and is now facing challenges of gentrification. Florence has lived and created art in the home for 25 years, and it's operated as a nonprofit providing essential needs—including food, clothing, school supplies, and a safe place to study and play—for neighborhood kids.