not your trophy club tuscan

way they worked with the natural light, the way it catches the sunlight. It doesn’t look like a new home in an old neighborhood.”

Becky traveled to Italy and the Far East in her 30-plus years with her family’s fashion company, Harold’s Stores Inc. Much of the home’s décor is based on things she picked up on those trips. The Caseys sold some of their furniture from the Highland Park house in an estate sale. Some furniture went to their vacation home in East Texas.

“We really had to edit,” Mike says.

One piece of furniture they kept is the Harold’s boardroom table, which serves perfectly as their dining-room table. Becky had considered selling it before they found their East Kessler house. Now this relic of her family’s 50-year history in retail is a part of their everyday life.

The Caseys bought the previous owners’ custom headboard, which is upholstered in orangey red velvet.

“We never really thought of ourselves as red-velvet headboard kind of people,” Becky says. “But it works so well in this room.”

The home’s carved-wood doors and windows are “probably Mexican,” Becky says. “But everyone always says Moroccan.”

The best part about their home, as the Caseys and so many of us say, is the neighborhood. A few weeks after they moved in, the East Kessler Neighborhood Association had a party a few doors down. About 120 people came and went throughout the night old, young, singles, families, gay, straight. The diversity impressed them, and they had a great time getting to know their neighbors.

“We walked home that night and said, ‘We’re really in the right place,’ ” Mike recalls.

Mike is chairman of Grand Bank of Texas, which has a branch at Zang and Colorado, and he says living in the neighborhood allows him to support small businesses and develop personal relationships with customers. The Caseys had hung out in Bishop Arts plenty, as Parkies will, but they say that after moving here, the sense of community touched them.

“I never realized how much pride people have in their neighborhood here,” Mike says. “They have a real commitment to their community.”

And there’s always something fun to do. They say their Highland Park friends are always eager to visit.