Garden trumps garage in this 1930 cottage in the Lawndale neighborhood of Greater Eastwood. The home, renovated in 1990 and updated inside more recently, looks to have lengthened its footprint at some point on the midblock lot. A tad of leftover lawn behind the house (top) extends into a stub of land by the parking area. In the next block, the street dead ends at the railroad tracks that cross Lawndale St. and Telephone Rd. Listed earlier this month, the home bears an asking price of $349,900.
***
Just how many French doors have been deployed within the 2,018-sq.-ft. home’s light-extending floor plan? Count the panes per room and divide by 12, 15, maybe 18 — or come up with your own method at Sunday afternoon’s open house. Other recurring features in the home include precision-painted trim and archways, though only one of the latter comes with the former. Current furniture placement in the living room affords behind-the-sofa passage to the dining room, kitchen, and den:
Wall and ceiling paint are matched in every room, which maxes out the trim’s pop:
In the kitchen, updates include custom cherry wood cabinets with storage to the ceiling and tile flooring that matches the backsplash. Etched glass doors front the pantry. The decorative arc over the stove top . . .
duplicates those on the way to the family room, found just a breakfast room away:
The kitchen is not on the driveway side of the home’s 5,400-sq.-ft. lot.
Yet more French doors, these boosted by muntin grids, look toward gardens at the back and side of the home:
The family room’s ceiling trim displays some egg-and-dart detailing; the fully-loaded shelving unit displays glass of another sort entirely.
On the side of the home that lines up the beds and baths, the master suite . . .
appears to have captured extra space for its adjacent bathroom:
The spa retreat comes equipped with recent decorative treatments . . .
including this 5-ft.-by-7-ft. walk-in shower outfitted with picture window, body sprays, and rain-style showerhead:
Clean and dirty laundry will find a handy home in the wash-and-wear master closet:
The other bedroom (above) has the same dimensions as the master. Through the French doors is a study at the front of the home that also has a door to the living room:
Nearby, the home’s second full bathroom mixes up old-timey tub, tiles, and beadboard paneling with a modern vessel sink:Â
This mini-deck and maxi-greenery abuts the family room on the side:
This home ranks as the largest on its block — by about 200 sq. ft. Other single-story properties, many of them brick bungalows, weigh in between 1,200 and 1,800 sq. ft.
- 5226 Mulford St. [HAR]
Wow. I ain’t seen that much booze in one room since my last trip to Specs. Who staged this house, Old Mr. Boston ?
So the real estate agents are marketing this area as Greater Eastwood? It’s not Eastwood or that close to it but there are some charming brick bungalows over there and that would be a record price for that nabe. The spread of gentirication into these more eastern subdivisions is inevitable.
Cool, very refreshing to see such a respectful restoration. I really like this house, I hope they get what they’re asking.
Nice landscaping. Healthy grass.
Hmmmm….”egg and dart”….that looks more like dentil to me, but it’s hard to tell from the pics.
What a good looking little house! It’s worth a drive over just to check out the surrounding neighborhood.
It’s too bad there is not much of this genre in Houston. Most in West U were either torn down or are unaffordable. There’s a little bit in Idylwood but seemingly nowhere else.
Eastwood ends at Dumble, so this is 4 blocks away and within the Eastwood Civic Association boundaries which go just east of this house to the railroad tracks. It was on Eastwood’s 100th anniversary home tour last year.
I am pretty sure that area falls under the Eastwood Civic Association umbrella. So kind-a-sort-a is Eastwood area I guess. I hear they are selling to move to a bigger house in Glenbrook Valley.
I’ve been in that house a number of times! However, it was many years ago. HCAD does show that it was remodeled in 1990 (a huge bedroom added to the back) but it definitely was done again after that. It looks like some of the walls were removed and new windows all around. Also, I could have sworn that there was an island in the kitchen. That little study off the living room was a bedroom for one of the younger kids. A happy family of 6 lived there.
JT, actually there are many of this genre in various neighborhoods of the city (mostly inner loop), based on all the browsing I’ve done on Google Earth. But the problem is the affordability.
This is the time to grab such homes in that area. They’re probably only going to get more expensive.
JT, probably the largest remaining collection of those English Cottage style 1930s-40s houses are in Pecan Park, which is south of 75th and Lawndale. They’re simple versions and not nearly in such good condition though. There are also some in Sunnyland which isn’t far from the house in the pic on the other side of Lawndale. And those are beat up from the street up..
I drove by this house last weekend. It is the nicest house on the block. Actually it is one if the nicest houses in the neighborhood. That being said, it is next to the railroad. The houses on this street need a lot of work. I was surprised at the price point. Idylwood is much nicer with almost no blight. Plus those houeses are brick. This one is not. Pictures are good but drive the neighborhood. It may change your opinion.
Neighborhood is everything, granted. If what you say is true about the block and the railroad track, then this price point is ambitious. It’s never good when you’re the only house of the block fixed up and you back up to a railroad track. Still a very cute house, but that’s a lot of money for this area. I’ve a always prefers Idylwood to Eastwood, it has cool little houses and there is actual topography, which is unusual for Houston.
@ Shannon – Totally agreed. Idylwood is a great part of town. And with Spurlock Park and the new hike and bike trail is connecting the parks and the Bayou Greenways 2020 Project, things are only looking up. I hope people continue to move into the Lawndale/Wayside corridor and spruce up the houses that need attention.
There’s an active rail line running N-S between West U. and Bellaire that doesn’t seem to discourage the erection of big honking homes along the ROW. But it might carry only those specially muffled white-neighborhood-only trains there was so much bitterness over last year or so in this blog.
This house doesn’t back up to a railroad track, what are you people talking about?
East Ender, you are right, this house doesn’t back up to the railroad tracks. However, it is a block away from the tracks but those are the only railroad tracks in that area that are a quiet zone, so no horns!
It might not back up to the track but it’s closing to where it crosses Lawndale, and the train blows there. And that track crossing is where former Rockets player Eddie Griffin died a few years back.
The neighborhood looks run down but the housing stock is decent. The entire East End looked like that for the past 50 years or so and the gentrifiers are spreading to clean it up now. The decomposers have had their run.
East Ender is correct. The tracks are about a block away from this house. A quiet zone is in place for that crossing at Lawndale. Well, if it’s not already in place, it is in the works. They’ve already put up the barricades in the middle of the street so that crossing into the oncoming lane in order to “beat the train” is no longer possible.
TBK you are right it’s a very nice home. Several of us are the process of doing some remodeling so drive the “hood” in a few months. There are some other nice homes in the area. The home is a block and a half away from the railroad tracks. Did you drive on Polk to see what had been done on that street? Drive the area again with open eyes.