- How Far $1,000-Per-Month Rent Goes in Houston [HBJ ($)]
- The Current Status of Galveston’s Vacation Home Market [HBJ ($)]
- Webber To Break Ground on Renovation, Expansion of Stephen Austin HS [HBJ ($)]
- Economist Ted Jones on the ‘Best Little Downturn Houston’s Ever Had’ [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Tin Metal Homes Still Popular with Homebuyers in Houston [abc13]
- Sports Bar Owned in Part by New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees, Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar, Eyeing Houston [HBJ]
- San Francisco Giants Outfielder Hunter Pence Involved in Coffee Shop Coral Sword in the East End [Culturemap]
- Grafitti’s Closes on Union Street, Plans To Reopen in Bigger Location with Better Parking Later This Summer [Eater Houston]
- A Review of the New Levy Park [OffCite Blog; previously on Swamplot]
- Uber Back in Galveston, Lyft Set To Return to Houston Wednesday [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Jerry’s Artarama: Ruben S. via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Tin metal homes article:
“brick heats up” uhmmm as opposed to sheet metal? You can’t even touch sheet metal when it’s been exposed to direct singlight for several minutes. Also heat usually does not pass to the interior side of a brick facade.
Have any of you been in a Tin house during rain? It sounds like Rambo is doing a drive-by.
is the new Grafittis going to have table service? What kind of bar/restaurant doesnt have table service? Also, i hope the food gets better.
@I love Heights Walmart: Economically viable restaurants don’t have table service. The industry is moving away from underpaid waitstaff working for tips to counter service.
Houston? Allure? You HAVE got to be kidding.
I would be out of here yesterday if my grand kids weren’t here. Texas is a political and cultural cesspool where people come to be used and abused. Unfortunately the inbred natives who have never traveled (and can see no reason too) keep it that way.
WR- Pretty stupid comment. I’m sad to hear you have grand kids stuck with your DNA.
No surprise that Upper Telephone gets more cool coffee as it is the new Lower Westheimer…and the tin townhouses are cool too and will get cooler with time.
@J
I guess the truth hurts. BTW, my kids are doing fine, have had a great educations and HAVE traveled so they know the truth.
Hey WR…why not try California..?..you’d love the weather, the politics, the mass mind control and the unsustainable economics….
WR- please tell us where you get the idea that non-travel is some sort of issue here. I have yet to meet anyone who hasn’t travelled out of the country or isn’t from another country. Your blanket statement only shows how closed minded and hateful you are. You need help.
WR, sounds like ya got some anchor babies!
If you hate Houston so much, why would you frequent and contribute to a Houston blog? You sound like a sad and hateful person.
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I’ve traveled the world and lived/worked in Europe for awhile, and I’m proud to call Houston home.
I think the headline/article was focused on the allure of the tin houses. Not on the larger scope of Houston. .
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That being said, Houston is a good place to make and save some money. Is it the cultural capital of the world? Oh, no. Is it naturally beautiful? Oh, no. Is the climate great? Get outta here. Are the schools “world class”? Nope. Is it a political or cultural cesspool (as described by WR)? No, it is not but it is no Nirvana, either.
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Houston is a decent place to live. When you want to travel, go. When you want to retire to your own version of paradise, go. A means to an end, thy name is Houston.
@ WR
I’ve traveled all over the place and lived in the Mountain West and East Coast. I have two graduate degrees from East Coast Institutions. Although I was down on Houston when I left for college, I’ve built renewed appreciation for it upon return. There are places with better weather, better culture, and plenty of other “better” qualities, but Houston is a much nicer place to live than people give it credit for.
WR – I agree with everything you said. Houston is awful, and Texas is even worse.
I wouldn’t say Houston is horrible, but it’s definitely not great either, just somewhat ok.
@ commonsense: One of the early discoveries on fighting fires at oil wells was that a sheet of tin does wonders for reflecting thermal radiation; I would think that that would apply to sunlight just as well. I would also expect that a thin sheet of tin would have a lower thermal capacity than brick (owing to less mass and volume, even if density is greater), so intuitively I’d think that tin would be a better material. But is this metal really tin? And do you have any evidence to share? Sincere question, btw. I’m keeping an open mind about this.
@TheNiche – I’m pretty sure it’s galvanized steel, or something similar. Tin is much too flimsy for structural material. I live in one of the ubiquitous Urban Lofts homes in “Tin Town” (i.e. 4th Ward), and can vouchsafe its durability and heat reflective properties.
The key difference between metal and brick is thermal mass. What commonsense is thinking of is how how the reflected heat is during the day, because the metal reflects most of it back. But that’s exact opposite of what he’s thinking it means, that it would heat up the house. It’s REFLECTING, not absorbing. Brick absorbs heat. That heat very much passes through the brick, and can be radiated back into the house at night. In cold climates, they use the thermal mass of bricks as an energy-saving mechanism in “passive house” technology, called a Trombe wall. Put a glass face on the outside of the wall, and it keeps the infrared energy from escaping outside, using the bricks to heat the house. Down here, all these brick houses just suck for your cooling bills. A nice reflective metal is the way to go.