- 9135 Pecos St. [HAR]
From the street, this lightly landscaped property in Antoine Forest Estates appears a bit stark. The 1983 home’s greenery is out back, however, where a screen of trees at the lot line throws shade on a yard-sized pool and patio. The outback scenery’s all within view of the main living area’s floor-to-cathedral ceiling windows fireside. There’s another unobstructed view over in the master bathroom (at left), where the soaker tub’s picture window also shows off nature. In both directions. For even more natural surroundings, head to the westside trail of nearby White Oak Bayou.
A steady stream of movie-minded customers — many bearing their lengthy wish lists of titles to snag — hit today’s preview of Audio Video Plus’s closeout sale. And learned that storefront operations at the shop at 1225 Waugh will be pretty much ceasing. But not entirely: Sales will continue from the location via the internet and randomly occurring open house days TBD, a store manager declared on Friday. Meanwhile, the rarely full parking lot is getting a bit more of a workout, as are the film collectors racing through the still-stocked aisles and vying for remaining packaged and rental copies of the “Movies and More” touted on a banner above the entry. The preview continues 11 to 7 Saturday.
Photos: CALwords
There’s a new red sign stretched above the fading film posters in the storefront windows of Audio Video Plus at 1225 Waugh. It reads “Closeout Sale.†The Mecca for movie buffs has been closed for the last few days. Today, the heavy shutters securing the store’s entryway were drawn tight and the parking lot was even more empty than it usually is during business hours. The coming event, referred to as a “Customer Preview” sale in a note taped to the storefront, is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, from 11 to 7. Is this the end of the line for the longtime specialty renter-retailer, or just a little flushing of the VHS archives?
A midcentury non-mod, this rambling Riverside Terrace property has added on a few times over the years, expanding its footprint on a street of mostly brick, mostly two-story homes dating back five or six decades. Its lawn-eating circular driveway serves an attached front-loader garage and sits behind a sculpted berm off the sidewalk. Brays Bayou is a block north and Parkwood Park is down the slightly curving street. Inside, the time-altered floor plan’s formal spaces have informal counterparts. There’s a media room, miscellaneous “extra” rooms, and a bar (at right above) big enough to entertain the neighbors — possibly all of them at once. Listed mid-month, the 1950 home (remodeled in 1998) is asking $555,000.
Wraparound porches on two levels add a little more living space to this by-the-park, by-the freeway 1920 home in Woodland Heights, outside the Houston Ave. boundary of that vintage neighborhood’s historic district. The garage-free property relisted with a new agency yesterday at $325,000 — after 4-months of toe-testing at $345,000. Its crisply painted exterior trim gives way to the interior’s stained wood, one of a few elements retained or accented in a 2005 remodeling by one of several previous owners this millennium.
Arquitectonica’s row of contemporary townhomes has punched up a mixed-residential block in the Museum District since 1986. Remodeled in 2004, this tower-tipped end unit’s natural lighting gets a boost from a tented skylight in the roofline ridge (at right), framed-in-color glass brick accents, and expanded east-facing windows on two levels.
The property popped onto the market Tuesday, priced at $446,000. It’s been for sale before, with no luck — most recently a little more than a year ago. Back in February 2010, under a different broker from the same agency, it sported an asking price of $650,000; several reductions and 18 months later, the listing expired last September at $495,000.
A top-heavy brick tower tacked onto the front and Euro touches inside this designer-owned spread morphs a 1968 Lynn Park home into a something less provincial and more Provençal — or so the listing suggests. The slightly asymmetrical corner-lot property is a block east of the railroad tracks and two blocks north of Richmond Ave. at Drexel Dr. It’s a newly re-listed home seeking $899,900 with a new agent and agency, after a summer fling with a price tag $25K higher.