A reader sends in this photo, wanting us to
check out this newly built house in the first ward. On the dirt road aka Winter st. just east of White.
Who would build a house with the train running through their front yard?1?
Only in Houston.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Now taking bets on how long before they complain to the city/county/newspaper about the train noise?
We have watched and wondered as this house has gone up over the past few months. I wonder if the owners know that one of the houses next to theirs was the subject of a major police raid complete with German Shepherds, bulletproof vests, and door-kicking-in action. Welcome to the neighborhood!
Seriously – if anyone knows what’s up with this house, we’re dying to hear.
They’re waiting for the train-tracks to turn into a bike-path, to turn into a pleasant lane so they can utilize their garage.
Maybe the owner is deaf.
One word:
FAIL
I like trains
LOL @ Allen. Awesome.
The placement is incredibly awkward as well. I feel like this is becoming more of the “norm” in the first ward and Rice Military area. I don’t mind the trains, but I live a few blocks away. I couldn’t imagine living within 30 feet! If the photographer would have taken a picture out of the driver’s side window, you would see a neighborhood of $300k townhomes, with a handfull even closer to the tracks!
Maybe they are telling prospective buyers it’s going to be a Metro stop?
My wife and I drove by this house yesterday afternoon and couldn’t believe that not only are the train tracks across the front yard… but the ONLY way to access the house is by the one lane dirt “alley” that sits on either side of the train tracks! I’m curious what this house is going to be listed for if it hasn’t already been sold.
Maybe the owner blind.
Early Favorite for Swamplot’s 2009 “Only in Houston” award.
The city is already pushing to have this rail line become a quiet zone.
It doesn’t get rid of the vibrations though.
Wow, Jesse,
You mean like this?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Winter+st.+houston+tx&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=52.240038,114.169922&ie=UTF8&z=17&layer=c&cbll=29.772262,-95.377009&panoid=GGq6-eRNCY_UZ0PEe7cJYw&cbp=12,297.19,,0,2.51
Very interesting development around there…
If you look the other direction on Brooke’s map (towards where the house was built) you can see a better view of the one lane dirt alley that you have to drive down just to access the house… At least with the new town home development you can access it from Silver street. Imagine trying to give someone directions to your new [$400k-500k?] house.
Absolutely nuts. These are like the tenements seen abutting RR tracks all over the Northeast.
I don’t agree this is an “only in Houston” issue…
Having lived on the North side of Chicago until I moved down here, I can affirm that there are half-million dollar brownstones with bedrooms and balconies within 2-3 feet of elevated train tracks that are just as loud as the freight trains we get here and far more frequent.
I think what most people are surprised about is the appearance of what can only be described as a “suburban style” house in a very urban setting.
I do agree, though: very poor planning.
I think what Swamplotters are surprised about is that people choose to build ill-located and likely-to be-torn-down-in-a-decade homes in Houston, an area of abundant and relatively affordable land. We aren’t living in a city so urban dense, such as Chicago or New York, that people should feel it necessary to sacrifice logic and common sense just to have a slice of the inner city.
It’s really isn’t that bad I was born on Winter St., and for many years the trains ran right in front of my house. I remember the house would shake and as a kid I would run outside and the conductor would always throw me peppermint candy . Good memories.