We found Kurt's Tuscan Estate to be an amazing place for our family Christmas Reunion gathering. (Ten actually stayed there and another ten family members living in Austin joined us at various times.) There were only two things that kept us from giving this house 5 stars and those reasons (described at the end of this review) may not be issues for others and therefore would elevate this to a 5 star review.
First, this home is spectacular-better than pictured. The kitchen is amazing- a wine cooler, and separate beer and soda storage. There is a warming pan, great stove, 2 dishwashers... I could go on and on. It is also completely stocked with every cooking utensil and pan you would ever need. Sometimes there were five people in the kitchen doing separate food preparation and there was still room for more!
When I visited last spring, I asked Kurt if he would have the house decorated for Christmas and he said he had never done that before... yet lo and behold when we arrived there was a fully decorated tree and other decorations in the great room, making it look and feel festive, in deed. (This is just one example of Kurt's gracious hospitality.)
We originally chose this location for among other things, its accessibility. One of our party uses a wheel chair. Kurt made sure that a ramp to help him navigate the entry was in place and that the accessible bedroom and bath were all set up for him. An elevator allowed him to participate in all festivities, regardless of the floor level.
I mentioned 2 things that were problematic for our group. The first is that the patio TV and main level sound system are extremely complicated to operate. (The written instructions for these systems were not adequate for successful usage.) Two of our party are professional IT people and even they had difficulties navigating the ELAN 8 system Kurt has in place... and without them present we were lost. Remotes would have been so much more user friendly.
The second issue was the cat. Kurt is clear that the house comes with a cat, but we were under the impression that he was mainly an outdoor cat. As it turned out 'Jaspers' was inside most of the time. (It was December.) This turned out to be an issue for 3 members of our party that ended up using a lot of allergy medicine just to maintain their ability to stay there. I was stopped up the whole time... just a word to the wise.
Overall, we would highly recommend this beautiful, serene, scenic estate nestled in the Austin foothills. And even more, we would recommend renting from Kurt, who is a spectacular host.