Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

Over the past 17 months or so, my family and I have been involved in helping to start Christ Presbyterian Church in Georgetown, Texas.  We started with a small handful of families and individuals, and we have grown to about 75 people now (roughly 55-60 adults).  We are a PCA church.  If you aren't sure what that means, feel free to visit this page for more: http://www.cpcgeorgetown.org/what-do-we-believe

We meet every Sunday at 10am at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, which is at 100 Stadium Drive.  It's about a block north of the intersection of Austin Avenue and Williams Drive.  There are more detailed directions and a highly accurate map here: http://www.cpcgeorgetown.org/location-and-times

Our pastor, Whit Anderson, gives timely, relevant and biblical messages in a relatable, laidback style.  The music is a nice blend of traditional hymns and more modern worship songs.  We do take communion every week at the end of the service, and I have appreciated this, since it serves as a nice reminder of why we are there in the first place.  

Services last until around 11:15 or 11:20 most weeks, and the preschool and nursery age kids are taken care of until 11:35am during our refreshment time, if parents prefer to wait to get them for a few minutes while they hang out and talk.  

The kids' programs have expanded to include most elementary schoolers, and we're hoping to have the resources to grow this further relatively soon.

I'm in charge of our connection ministry, meaning that it's my job to help newbies feel welcome.  Most visitors that I have spoken with have noted how friendly and likeable our group is, and how much they enjoyed the time immediately following the service, too.  I have to admit that it's not necessarily conducive to dieting, though, since the snacks are often delicious and fattening.  :) 

If you like, you can visit our Facebook page and learn more about us at http://facebook.com/cpcgeorgetown 

Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, or you can call Whit at 512-784-5868 (cell).

I just listed a home in Georgetown yesterday that I hope to sell very quickly.  It's a quaint cottage located just 2-3 blocks from the town square.  It's walking distance to several restaurants, a coffee shop, the Palace Theater, banks, and several stores.  

The tax records indicate that it was built in 1890, although the owners think it was probably the 1930's.

Some of the key features:

• 2 Bedrooms, 2 Full Bathrooms
• 1379 square feet per WCAD
• Original long leaf pine flooring in some rooms
• Lots of built-ins
• Wall of bookshelves with rolling ladder, just like in the movies!
• Large formal dining room
• High ceilings
• Nice-sized kitchen with modern appliances
• Utility room
• Sun porch was enclosed to create more living space
• Shaded backyard
• Huge front porch perfect for relaxing or entertaining

If you are considering a move to the Austin/Georgetown area, you might be interested in reading my online relocation package here: Austin Texas Relocation Package

You can also visit my primary Austin Texas real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com.  Thanks!

Over the past 15 months or so, my family and I have been helping to start a new church in Georgetown, Texas.  I am happy to announce that we are having our "official" grand opening for Christ Presbyterian Church this Sunday, October 11th. 

We recently started meeting at the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce building, which is essentially brand-new.  It's located at 100 Stadium Drive, along Austin Avenue, just north of Williams Drive.  It's right across from the Georgetown Rec Center.

We would love to have you join us sometime - we are a very friendly bunch!  Currently, we have a regular attendance of just over 50 people (about 20 families). 

If you are curious about what we believe, or you want to learn a bit more about us, check out our website at http://cpcgeorgetown.org. 

Our Sunday morning services run from 10am until about 11:20 or so, and we have refreshments afterwards.  There is childcare provided through age five, and we are starting a "children's church" portion that will cover kids up through fourth or fifth grade in November.  The kids will leave the service during the sermon, then come back near the end.  We have communion every week at the very end of the service.

Pastor Whit Anderson brings challenging, timely and biblical messages each week.

If you live in Georgetown, north Austin, Round Rock, Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Liberty Hill, or Jarrell, it's pretty easy to find us.  I hope to meet you sometime soon!

You can also check out our Facebook page if you're interested.

Thanks for reading!

Over the past year or so, I have been helping to start a new church in Georgetown, Christ Presbyterian Church (PCA).  I am pleased to announce that we will be having our first Sunday morning service on September 6th (Labor Day weekend).  Our first "official" service will be held on October 11th, 2009, so that is our grand opening, as it were.

Our group continues to grow steadily - we are currently averaging 52 people attending our weekly services over the past 12 weeks.  This figure does include kids, so I think we might be closer to 35 adults (just guessing).  We are a laid-back and friendly crowd, and we would love to have you join us sometime.

Our pastor Whit Anderson recently signed an agreement with the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce to use their new building each Sunday morning.  So, our new meeting place will be at:

100 Stadium Dr
Georgetown, TX 78626

We will be meeting on Sunday mornings at 10am - child care will be provided up to age five for now.

This location is just north of the intersection of Williams Drive and Austin Avenue, at the corner of Stadium and Austin.  The building is pretty hard to miss, since it says "GEORGETOWN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE" in huge painted letters on the side. 

There should be ample parking for our needs, since the recreation center across the street is closed on Sundays.  Visitors are welcome to use that parking lot if needed.

You can check out our brand-new Facebook page here: http://budurl.com/hwjj - why not become a "fan", too?

Our primary church website is http://cpcgeorgetown.org. 

If you are interested in visiting, come on in!  We would love to meet you!  If you have any questions at all, feel free to call me anytime at 512-796-7653 or contact Pastor Whit Anderson at 512-784-5868. 

Early last year, I worked with some clients who needed to sell their home and purchase a new one closer to their business.  I am thankful that I met them, since they are the owners of Laurie's Too Tearoom, which is arguably the best dessert destination in the county.

Laurie was apparently the previous owner, and when the current owners, Rodger and Cherry, bought the restaurant, they decided to leave the name alone.  Why mess with a good thing, right?  They closed the original Laurie's, and focused on this location, which is about 1/2 a block north of the town square in Georgetown, on Main Street.  The physical address is 612 Main Street.

Whenever I eat at Laurie's, it reminds me of my grandfather's cooking.  I'm sure that you have heard this before in other restaurant reviews.  In this case, it is the TRUTH.  Please note that I said "grandfather", not "grandmother".  My grandpa did the majority of the cooking in his house.  The burgers at Laurie's are very similar to the ones he used to make.

Along with the awesome burgers, they offer an assortment of sandwiches, salads, and quiches.  One stroke of genius is the fact that they also offer affordable "casseroles to go", including a delicious chicken spaghetti, lasagna, and even beef enchiladas.  This would be perfect for a family meal, or for a church gathering. 

You can access their entire menu at their website:

http://www.lauriescafe.com/

I rarely have dessert with lunch, but the "sweets" at Laurie's are hard to pass up.  The 1886 Cake (pictured at left) is ridiculously decadent, with chocolately chocolate with chocolate sauce, as my wife might say.  :)  Bottom line: it's good and a little bit habit-forming.  One of my friends liked the dessert so much at Laurie's that he plans to drive from his home (an hour each way) to try their buttermilk pie sometime soon.  As Dave Barry says, I am NOT making this up.

The service at Laurie's is spectacular.  They never seem to be understaffed, which is quite a feat.  I used to be in the restaurant business many years ago, and I know how hard it is to stay on top of things like refills.  I don't think I have ever been left "dry" at this establishment. 

The ambience is casual and friendly, and they seem to have a lot of regulars, which is certainly a good sign.  Cherry makes everyone feel welcome, and her quick wit makes the experience a lot of fun.

Give Laurie's a try if you have a chance.  If you happen to meet Cherry while you're there, tell her Jason Crouch sent you!

Today, I met my good friend and fellow agent Alan Kirkpatrick for lunch.  It wasn't hard for me to decide where to get together.  My first choice was Down the Alley Bistro on the square in Georgetown.

Located at the corner of 8th Street and Austin Avenue (on the SE corner - facing the courthouse), the Bistro has become one of my new favorite places for a casual lunch in that area. The physical address is 118 W. 8th Street, #101.

Alan had the tomato bisque soup, which he described as "terrific", and I had the Tuscan turkey panini, which has provolone cheese, fresh spinach, and a pesto which is delicious.  Let me preface my next statement by explaining that I have never considered myself to be a "foodie", nor do I usually rave about good meals.  Today's sandwich was likely the best one I have had this year! 

They have a nice variety on the lunch menu, including a few other paninis (Italian grinder, pepperoni, etc.), soups, salads, and some light desserts. The primary drinks are various teas and water, and you serve yourself with an ice scoop in the large wooden-covered cooler.

There is seating both downstairs and up in the loft area overlooking the main part of the restaurant.  The building is very old, and the layout is somewhat reminiscent of a saloon.  There is a quirky gift shop located in the front half of the space if you enter from 8th Street.

Perhaps most importantly, the owner, Ralph, always seems to have a smile on his face and a ready handshake.  He is truly friendly.

I have been to the Bistro four times, and I have never had any food that was less than superb.  One thing I really like is the fact that I get enough food, but I don't feel sluggish or overstuffed. 

The bottom line is that I highly recommend Down the Alley Bistro.  I have had some meetings with clients there to review paperwork, and I have met our pastor a couple of times.  I have never felt rushed by the staff, which is refreshing.

This great place is also open at breakfast time, so I would imagine that it's a relaxing place to enjoy a cup of coffee and a pastry.

Give it a shot sometime - you will NOT be disappointed.  Great place!

I decided that it would be a good time to provide another update on the progress of our new church in Georgetown, Texas.  Since my last update, we have switched venues in order to have more space to grow.  Also, our previous location was probably going to become unavailable in short order.

We continue to work on the small logistical details of church planting, including setup, marketing, printing, preparing for visitors, signage, setting up the accounting system, etc.  One of the more exciting developments has been the addition of music to our worship time (instead of just singing).  We have three great and talented musicians now, with guitar, bass, and drums.

Currently, we have about 15 families committed to the church, and we are praying for about 25 families (10 additional) by the time we begin Sunday morning services in September.  At that point, we will begin meeting at Tippett Middle School, which is located just west of I-35 on Leander Road (aka 2243). 

We are now meeting at the Georgetown Public Library on the second floor.  The physical address is 402 W. 8th Street, but the primary entrance faces 9th Street at the corner of Forest Street.  Our meeting time is from 5-6:15pm (could finish a bit earlier). 

We are not meeting on Easter Sunday, so our first "official" service will be April 19th. 

We would love to have you join us if you are interested!

Here's a little bit about our denomination if you are curious: Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) beliefs

Another exciting development is that our brand-new church website is complete!  Visit www.cpcgeorgetown.org to check it out!  The picture above is a screen shot of the homepage..

If you have ANY questions, please feel free to ask me or you can contact Pastor Whit Anderson at 512-784-5868.  Thanks!

I have been posting about our church plant for several months now, and we continue to grow and move forward with our plans of launching our "official" Sunday morning services in September. 

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce that we will be beginning our first public services on Sunday, April 19th.  This simple evening service will begin at 5pm, and it will be held at the Georgetown Public Library, at 402 W 8th St, Georgetown, TX 78626.  This is just one block west of the square!

After searching extensively for the right larger venue to accommodate us until September, we settled on the library for a number of reasons - cleanliness, size of rooms, cost, etc.  There were some small hurdles to overcome, but we are really looki forward to getting started there.

We have also assembled some terrific musicians for our worship team, and I am excited to see how they will sound!  I say "we" as if I were somehow involved in the process, but I am nonetheless thrilled that we have some talent available.

Our services should last about an hour (perhaps 75 minutes), and child care will be provided for kids up to age 5.  When we start our Sunday morning services in the fall, we are hoping to integrate a "kids' church" program for older kids during the sermon time. 

Come join us anytime if you are interested! 

For March 29th and April 5th, we will still be meeting at the RunTex location just south of the town square on Main Street, from 5-7pm.  From April 19th until September, it will be from 5-6ish at the library.  If you have any questions at all, feel free to let me know, or you can contact:

Whit Anderson, Pastor
whit@cpcgeorgetown.com
(512) 784-5868

Apparently, the name change for our fledgling church is already working!  Actually, I am joking, but it was a pleasant surprise to have two new families show up last week.  As it turns out, BOTH of them had found the church from my blog!  This was a terrific feeling.

One lady mentioned that she had been looking for "PCA church Georgetown" on Google, and one of my previous posts was at #1 that day.  Later, I did some research, and it turns out that my posts were on SIX of the top ten results for that term.  But how?

Apparently, the tags I had assigned to my posts were picked up via various Yahoo pages and MyBlogCatalog, along with the normal AR indexed pages and Localism.  Cool!

Our website is currently undergoing a re-design, and it should be finalized soon.  Feel free to check it out:

http://www.cpcgeorgetown.com/

We have decided to wait until September to start our regular Sunday morning services, but we will likely begin a modified and simple service Sunday evenings starting the week after Easter.  We will probably have to find a new venue sometime soon, and we will remain there until September, when we move to mornings.  At that point, we'll be meeting at Tippett Middle School (off Leander Road just west of I-35).

For now, if you would like to visit, we are meeting Sunday evenings from 6-8pm next to the RunTex store at 809 South Main Street just south of the town square.

Thanks to those of you who continue to pray for the success of our church!  We are excited about the upcoming months of work and progress ahead.

I have written a few posts about the church that we are helping to plant in Georgetown, Texas (20-30 minutes north of Austin).  A couple of weeks ago, the pastor (Whit Anderson) decided to change the name of the church from ChristChurch PCA to Christ Presbyterian Church.  This came as the result of a couple of factors:

• I had discussed the idea with a couple of friends of mine, one of whom approached Whit with this.
• Whit was accidentally introduced as the pastor of the "Church of Christ" in Georgetown at an official function

Frankly, the second bullet point above was exactly why we were a little concerned about the original name.  A new church has enough challenges without being mistaken for another denomination. 

We are moving forward with our plans to begin Sunday morning services on April 12th (Easter Sunday).  I hope that I'm able to make it to that initial service, since our baby is due to arrive the same week.  Once the baby does come, I will probably be attending with my two older kids for several weeks.

As I had indicated before, I was put in charge of the Connection Ministry, which basically helps visitors to get plugged in at the church as quickly as possible.  We purchased a turnkey piece of software that will enable us to track our efforts with visitors easily, including visits to their home, phone calls, letters, etc.

We are waiting on the new logo to be designed for Christ Presbyterian Church, and I think this will be completed soon.  The other ministries which have launched already are Hospitality and Outreach, both of which are vital as well.

If you are interested in visiting sometime, let me know! 

Currently, we are meeting next to the RunTex store just south of the town square in Georgetown at 809 S. Main Street, Sunday evenings from 6-8pm.  Child care is provided.  On Easter Sunday, we will begin meeting in the cafetorium at Tippett Middle School, which is located on Leander Road about a half mile west of I-35 in south Georgetown.