We had such an amazing time at Andy's place. We found this place when we were kayaking down the river and saw a sign that said "you could be staying here!". It turned out that this is the sister property, but we couldn't be more pleased. We were able to rent both the big house and garage apartment for the weekend and slept 12 (ages 4 to 68) comfortably. We hosted a birthday party for a small additional fee, and Andy was very accommodating, plus we had plenty of room for guests to visit. The grounds were stunning - the dome greenhouse, the terraces, the lawn. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful spot. Every person who visited said they'd love to stay again every year.
Here are a couple of things to note - both the front and back entrances to the house have a few stairs, the back ones were more manageable for our elderly visitors since they had a hand rail. The primary suite in the main house is on the first floor, and has a walk in shower and a tub for those with littles who need baths or people who wouldn't do great with a lot of stairs. Both bathrooms are spectacular. I loved the wet room downstairs with the giant tub and dual shower heads, but the upstairs bathroom had a fabulous view (it was cool to shower in the moonlight!) The stairs in the big house are steep! We kept a close eye on our kiddos (4 and 6) and they did just fine. There are a few rocking horses and a jenga set the kids loved playing with, but the real gem was the outdoors space. The kids loved seeing the fish in the dome, and playing on the hammock. I loved that there were multiple terraces with viewpoints so we could watch them play, and set clear boundaries (aka don't go past the last white fence by the river). For the river loving folks out there, this is on the El Camino Real Paddle Trip. It starts at Fishermans Park in downtown Bastrop (where you can rent kayaks and canoes), and takes out at the Colorado River Refuge. The house is about 3/4 of the way through the trip on the left hand side. We were able to kayak from the Park to the house in 4 hours and stop there, pull the kayaks up the bank, and grab the kids for the last of the trip. The river here is fast! It's very shallow (knee deep or so) but at a tiny island so the water is moving fast on both sides.
Well.. this concludes the longest review I've every written! Take the plunge and rent this place, it's 100% worth it.