We’re into hand-me-downs, one-of-a-kind thrift store finds, saving money, and participating in a force for good in our community. Which means we’ve found ourselves over at the Habitat for Humanity Store on STW on many occasions over our years in Tacoma. This month we share about some of the treasures we’ve found, dos and don’ts for donating, and 8 other local spots you should explore if you’re renovating, furnishing, or reimagining part of your Tacoma home.

Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you toward what we love about Tacoma. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites delight, encourages a spirit of exploration and some generosity as well. This month’s list includes Lunar New Year and monkeyshines, a delightfully pink dessert, a beloved shop in a new spot, ways to support immigrants and asylum seekers, and ideas for getting out to experience something new!

1. Community Event

2. Sweet Treat

3. Exploration & Adventure

4. Local Love

5. Volunteering & Sharing

As we take our first steps into the new year, we’re thinking again about home and how we make it. We’ve collected 8 ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Making friends with a place is kind of like making friends with a person—you listen, show up, help out, pay attention, participate, and receive. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. Go to a festival, become a regular, follow some local news, help out, be pals with the library, explore local history and art, do something new. These 8 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home.

This year we’re back with a list of 10 ways to give love in December. You’ll find our guide for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops included, and 5 suggestions for giving to unknown neighbors outside your circle of friends. All 10 ways of giving put love into the Tacoma community! Read on for the magic of a musical play given by kids, a list of local cafes for coffee lovers, a gift card drive to support clients at the YWCA, a nostalgic holiday movie marathon, a way to support health and care for folks who can’t afford insurance, a chance to transform $1 into 2 meals, and the best local spots to shop for little ones.

There’s change in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new places to gather, shop, eat, and drink. We’ve been experiencing this change across the city and wanted to pull some of it together in one place. What follows is a list of 17 new, renewed, and returned businesses along with 3 coming soon. See if you can enjoy and support something new this month; if you do, we’d love to hear about it!

We’ve rounded-up and narrowed-down 15 ways to get out into community this October. Don your most intellectual scarf and hat combination for a literary night, dance and eat with the Greeks, step into a candlelit tour our 1855, get psyched up about cycling (and bicycle fashion), try forest bathing, don your most eccentric scarf and hat combination for the film festival, write letters for fun, tour art studios, hear from Latinas who experience being The Firsts in so many ways, take a local art walk, and celebrate Día de los Muertos. We’ve got some ways to volunteer in here too—lend a hand with Habitat for Humanity, pick up litter, or pull weeds and plant seeds at a favorite park to keep Tacoma green.

Once in a while, we all need to get out of town. This month we’re sharing about Port Townsend and Vashon Island, two places we go again and again when a change of scene is calling. They’re places where the beach is always near, where parking is easy, where woods and trails beckon us away from the sidewalks. Places where small, local bakeries, coffee roasters, independent bookstores, and one of a kind shops outnumber chains by far. We’ll share some of the ways we pass the time and how we fill our stomachs (never a problem). Don’t worry too much about planning; these destinations are so close to Tacoma, you can show up again and try what you missed. Wake up one morning and just decide to go!

Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you (and us!) toward what we love about Tacoma. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites delight, encourages a spirit of exploration and some generosity as well. This month’s list includes Tacoma Pride, an all ages neighborhood music festival, a game that gets you supporting small businesses (and winning prizes), Swedish-style baked goods, and the chance to help out Habitat for Humanity or spend Friday afternoons watering trees to keep Tacoma (and its future) healthy and shaded.

1. Community Event

2. Sweet Treat

3. Exploration & Adventure

4. Local Love

5. Volunteering & Sharing

Want to go out and really be out—out in the open air, beneath a colorful umbrella, on a shaded patio, beside a bustling sidewalk, seated on a deck overlooking the water, pulled up to a bar counter by the street? We’ve gathered over 60 of Tacoma’s outdoor dining spots by neighborhood to get you started. Take a look at our list of restaurants, cafes, and bars with outdoor seating, then get yourself away from the screen, out the door, and into the life of Tacoma’s summer. See you out there!

May is Bike Month. May is Historic Preservation Month. May holds Affordable Housing Week. May is the month for a lightsaber battle, for live music and crafts in Old Town Park, for night markets, plant sales at your local high school, hands-on printmaking and paper arts, and locally made short films. It’s the month to learn about the history of Tacoma, and even contribute your own story at events like the Eastside Story Fest. It’s the month to pick-up litter with a bunch of nice people, the month to set out nutritious foods for your mail carrier to share with the food bank, the month to take time to learn more about affordable housing. It’s the month to tune up your bike and join a group ride.

Tacoma, Tuesdays, Trivia, Tacos, Talent. It’s the truth, there’s stuff to do. We have 19 of those things listed right here (twenty would have sounded so good) and not all of them start with “t.” There’s ballet and book club, wine and film, story time and bingo. So dust off your dancing shoes, clean your spectacles, strap the baby in a stroller, study up on random facts, warm up your vocal chords, and work up an appetite; it’s Tuesday in Tacoma!

This is not an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list. No, we aren’t really bringing that kind of energy to life. This is the 4th edition of 5 things we like in Tacoma from a list of way more things we like in Tacoma. Sound good? An annual rogue art treasure hunt, a tiny slip of sandy beach, an old place to watch new and cult classic films, a weekly opportunity for repairing your stuff, and a spot where the noodles and broth fill you up in a good way. Some of it’s free. All of it’s good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).

As we take our first steps into 2024, we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about how we continue to seek, find, and create belonging. In this list we’ve collected 7 ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Go to a festival, become a regular, follow some local news, help out, be pals with the library, explore local history and art, do something new. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.

This month we’ve created a list focused on 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 sections of recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your circle of friends and family to community and unknown neighbors. All 10 ways of giving put love into the Tacoma community! Read on for a choir made of refugees and USA-born residents offering a concert to celebrate peace, a list of local cafes for coffee lovers, a gift card drive to support clients at the YWCA, a nostalgic holiday movie marathon, a diaper drive to comfort local families, a gift that cares for birds, and more.

We all get by with a little help from our friends. And really, we get by with a little help from strangers too. Be a friend or a friendly stranger by finding one way to support neighbors in the Tacoma community, in Pierce County, or across Washington by choosing from the 5 ways to give on our list. Support affordable housing and mental health, volunteer at a food bank, help prevent displacement due to gentrification, and serve or provide a community meal. Over time, we all have something to give and a real need to receive—most often it’s probably both at once.

It’s a Tacoma neighborhood tour and independent bookshop crawl all in one. Stopping for cups of coffee, a pint, a slice of cake, or even a feast on your browsing adventure is encouraged, and we’ll show you where! Get out the door on this bookstore tour from 6th Ave in the center to Proctor in the north to McKinley Ave up on the hill. Get lost in the aisles, among the shelves, in the pages, in an underground kingdom, in the worlds above the clouds. When you pull yourself back out, back up, back down, we’ll make sure you know where to find a spiced latte, black brew, or sparkling elixir to settle you back in the present and remind you of your own name. Support local shops, celebrate literature, and feed your need to read.

This month we're here to give a shout out to the other waterfront, the home of Titlow Beach, Seashore Drive, the iconic Narrows Bridges, and the Tacoma sunset. We’ll share where we eat and what we order, the trails we like to take, and what makes this side of the city feel like home. All you need is one evening for a waterfront getaway.

Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you toward what we love about Tacoma. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites a bit of variety into life, encourages a spirit of exploration and some generosity as well. This month’s list includes a benefit concert with karaoke, a music festival staged on porches across Central Tacoma, block parties and outdoor markets, free berries, a favorite local publication, a neighborhood clean-up, and the chance to support the YWCA while eating hot dogs and nacho cheese. Maybe we’ll see you out there!

1. Community Event

2. Sweet Treat

3. Exploration & Adventure

4. Local Love

5. Volunteering & Sharing

It’s finally here! The Tacoma Community House Little Free Library is up and open. Duggan, Brooks & Books are grateful to the Tacoma Community House and Craig (our designer and builder!) for all their help and support in getting this library to its home in the Hilltop Neighborhood of Tacoma. Read all about it!

Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you toward what we love about Tacoma. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites delight, encourages a spirit of exploration and some generosity as well. This month’s list includes a ballet about a local activist, a new coffee shop to visit, a new open mic, farmers market updates, a community scavenger hunt/race for affordable housing, bike month events, and a chance to lend your hand at cleaning up the city!

1. Community Event

2. Treat Yourself

3. Exploration & Adventure

4. Local Love

5. Volunteering & Sharing

You may have read about the Sam Smith Fund in our original blog post introducing it back in February 2022. If so, read on for some updates, including a major increase to the down payment assistance amount! This African American homeownership fund gives us as Realtors an opportunity to do more than just educate ourselves about racial disparities in homeownership. And anyone can contribute! We're eager to grow as an industry into greater ways to support and advocate for truly equal access to housing and homeownership.

Things are happening. Happening in Tacoma, happening nearby in Puyallup and Gig Harbor. Things like live music, like night markets, Black & BIPOC markets, community late nights for teens, a queer storytelling event, a Daffodil Festival as old as your grandma (if you’re lucky), film screenings, poetry readings, a 5k from a brewery and back, printmaking and paper arts, a chance to shred paper (not the arts kind), a chance to pick-up litter with a bunch of nice people. You can even celebrate the birthday of a certain old building if you want. 15 things to get you started, and we know there’s so much more.

Is this an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list? No. Are these our 5 absolute favorite things in Tacoma? That’s not really the point. This is the 3rd group of 5 things we think are good in Tacoma. A place to go for a hometown tropical getaway, gloriously fresh bread, a loop trail around a 15,000 year old lake, a treasure hunt, and a drink we think you should try. Some of it’s free. All of it is good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).

If you're thinking of selling your home this year, it's time to begin the 5 steps in our listing guide. We imagine you value your home as a practical asset and as a companion to years of your life; take the time to follow through and treat it well when it’s time to sell. We’ve listed and sold over 80 homes with our clients in and around Tacoma. Although we prepare a personal plan to guide each of our clients, these 5 steps come up every time. Dig into our listing guide full of tips, before and after photos, and advice we hope will help you wrap your head (and heart) around preparing to sell your home.

As we hang our 2023 calendars on the wall and consider a new year we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about what makes us feel like we belong, how we experience belonging in our lives, and how we can create it. In this list we’ve collected 7 of the ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Making friends with a place is kind of like making friends with a person—you listen, show up, help out, pay attention, participate, and receive. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.

This month we’ve created a special list of 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 sections of recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small businesses included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your friends and family, ways of giving to community and unknown neighbors, ways of giving your time, and even a gift that supports wildlife conservation and education. All 10 ways of giving put LOVE into the Tacoma community!

We all get by with a little help from our friends. And really, we get by with a little help from strangers too. Be a friend or a friendly stranger by finding one way to support neighbors in the Tacoma community, in Pierce County, or across Washington by choosing from the 5 ways to give on our list. Turn $1 into 5 meals for a food insecure household, lend a hand with affordable homeownership and aging-in-place, send funds to a weekly meal program, stand behind affordable rents and senior housing, or get involved with a Thanksgiving fundraiser. Over time, we all have something to give and a deep need to receive—most often it’s probably both at once.

October is a big month in Tacoma. It’s Tacoma Arts Month, Hispanic Heritage Month continues, and it’s time for the Tacoma Film Festival. That’s just the beginning. Find ways to support a healthy environment through volunteering, eat bratwurst and sing to the Beatles, write in the company of others, head to the museum for a trip through Mexico, and celebrate Halloween by (or on!) the water.

Is this a top 5 list? No. Are these our 5 absolute favorite things in Tacoma? Nope. This is just the second edition of a group of 5 things at a time from a list of way more things we think are good in Tacoma. The list is long: a corner we like to stand on, a window it feels good to sit by, a sandwich we like to eat, a place to search for treasure, a garden to visit at a particular time of year. Some of it costs no money at all. It’s a living, growing list of good things—not necessarily best (who needs all that over-the-top comparison and perfection?). Good is good.

If you’re looking for ways to get outside in and around Tacoma this summer, take a look at our list of local beaches (plus some favorites a bit farther afield), our Tacoma neighborhood guide to patio dining, and a few opportunities for volunteering in the great outdoors. Even if you don’t get away for a vacation, you can find some ease and fun nearby in these treasured weeks of summer near the Salish Sea.