Baby Steps: ...the culmination of a decade of...

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, August 24, 2011, by Philip Ferrato

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House of the Day: Venetian Palazzo Steps Out of a Saddlery With Capone Connection

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, May 25, 2011, by Rob Bear

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Austin, Texas
Price: $4,400,000
The Skinny: Since the 1930s, Capitol Saddlery had been operating out of a converted fire station in downtown Austin, Tex. The shop supplied boots to some famous and infamous people—Al Capone sourced a pair of manheels from Capitol back in the '40s. (The gangster connection shouldn't come as a shock, considering the owner started the shop using seed money from his rum-running activities.) Today, things are a little more legal at 1614 Lavaca Street, but no more sedate. In 2007, "professional muse" Giselle Koy transformed the old shop into a decadent palace reminiscent of a threadbare Venetian palazzo. But Koy apparently tired of Austin before completion, as she now spends more time in California, and listed the downtown pad for $4.4M. So far, it's been on the market for more than a year without finding a buyer or taking a price chop.
· 1614 Lavaca [Realtor.com]
· Capitol Saddlery, first firehouse turns Venetian palace in downtown Austin [Statesman]

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How-Tos: Want to Make it in Portland? Here are 10 Easy Steps to Indie Bliss:

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, February 4, 2011, by Sarah

Today's Journal feature on the home of Stumptown Coffee founder Duane Sorenson offers some invaluable advice for folks looking to head west (or north, for our California pals) in pursuit of the riches and glory associated with creating a successful indie company in Portland, Ore. Time to put down the Starbucks to-go cup, abandon any dreams of owning multimillion-dollar properties, and heed the following advice:

10: Grow a beard and a mustache. Then, get some tattoos.
9: Don thick black glasses, flannel shirts, and Chuck Taylors.

8: Live in a neighborhood that used to feel authentic—with "leftist cafes and food coops" but has since become gentrified. Outwardly complain yet inwardly appreciate said gentrification.
7: Live in a modernist building, but only if it's above an artisanal bakery that sells Stumptown Coffee, "a yoga studio for everyone," and places to park bikes.
6: Eat local, of course, and pair all local foods with locally sourced Pinot Noir.
5: Don't ever pay more than $500K for an apartment, but buy two and plan to converge the two spaces at some point—you know, whenever you get around to it.
4: Have a non-nuclear family comprised of kids from an ex-wife and kids you share with your current fiance.
3: Own pieces by Eames, Saarinen, and Ligne Roset, but soften the mass-production blow by incorporating furniture from a firm just around the corner.
2: Have a studio hangout space filled with "records and his eBay-purchased collection of Olympia beer memorabilia and Zig Zag rolling-paper tins." Don't forget the "microbrews like Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA and La Roja Artisan Amber Ale."
1: Have a childhood that revolved around a father who made sausage by hand and a grandmother who canned beans and fruit.

Photo: Chris Mueller/WSJ
· Portland's Not All Portlandia, But Keep it Hush-Hush [Curbed National]
· Heavy Metal Meets Toy Bunnies [WSJ]

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