Austin Weird Homes Tour: What’s behind the door this year?

The bold and exuberant creativity of Austinites is always on display during the Austin Weird Homes Tour, and the 2019 event, which takes place on the highly appropriate date of April 20, should meet or exceed the high bar it has set in the past six years.

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 via a self-guided driving tour.

The tour shines a light some of the people and places that make our city irreverent, sometimes strange, and fun, but it also brings attention to affordability issues that might be driving some of them out and donates a portion of its proceeds accordingly. This year’s donation will be to LifeWorks, which advocates for and provides housing, counseling, and workforce/education opportunities to 4,000 young people and families in Austin every year.

The Weird empire—which originated in Austin, where the Neffs live—has expanded impressively since that first tour. The entrepreneurial couple now has tours in Los Angeles, Portland, Detroit, Houston, and New Orleans. There’s also a Weird Homes Tour book and a podcast.

This year’s Austin tour sees a return of such favorites as Under the Sea, Earthbag House, and the OMG house.

New homes on the tour take a supernatural turn, with Home of the Mysterious Planchette, a historian’s home filled with an expansive collection of occult devices antiquities, and House of Wonder, where one a magician and mind reader lives with a number of whimsical oddities and mysterious mementos.

Thanin Viriyaki courtesy of Austin Weird Homes Tour

Thanin Viriyaki courtesy of Austin Weird Homes Tour

Thanin Viriyaki courtesy of Austin Weird Homes Tour

New this year:

Kevin Shaw courtesy of Austin Weird Homes Tour

Kevin Shaw courtesy of Austin Weird Homes Tour