Room To Grow in Riverstone; A $1.25 Million Humperlow for Merrill St.

Wildlife Sanctuary by Dan Havel, Heights Blvd. at 5th St., Houston Heights

Photo of Wildlife Sanctuary sculpture on Heights Blvd. by Dan Havel, part of “True North”: The Heights Life

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6 Comment

  • Blah on the $1.2 MM. There goes the neighborhood.

  • Additions in the Historic District don’t have to be ugly. Look at the newly completed white house in the 400 block of Euclid for an example of a humperlow down well. The Modern Bungalow’s attempt in the 500 block of Euclid on the other hand is pretty terrible. I am a-okay with them staying out of the Historic District.

  • “But here’s the good part, when you’re outside the historical district you can make a really good looking addition. This is going to be better project because its not historically protected.”

    Translated from realtorese:

    “But here’s the good part, when you’re outside the historical district you can pile on the square footage without giving a rat’s ass how it looks or whether it fits in with the rest of the neighborhood. This is going to be a more profitable project because most realtors and builders value residential real estate by square footage and have no clue how to value good architecture.”

    And you can do a great looking addition in the historic districts. 1539 Rutland was boarded up and would have been demoed but for the historic ordinance. Now it is being beautifully restored and expanded:

    http://search.har.com/engine/1539-Rutland-Houston-TX-77008_HAR98934740.htm

  • That house at 1539 might be OK inside but from the outside it looks like a mullet with uneven sideburns. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an addition to an old house that actually looks good. As for the one on Merrill, it’s too soon to tell.

  • $260k quoted in the Chron article was the 2013 capped appraised value, HCAD had the market value last year at $272k, and HAR indicates 909 Merril sold in Dec for between $370-$420k. Either way Kubala and the investors will make quite a pretty penny selling this post-remodel behemoth at over $1MM.

  • Old School-there is almost nothing left of the old house. What exists now is a new house on a really bad foundation going for a premium.