09/24/12 2:03pm

You’ve reason to believe that you will be received with some gentility at this Lindale Park home on Graceland St. just west of Irvington, 7 blocks south of the North Loop. The newly listed triple-peaked brick cottage on a double-wide lot gained central air conditioning in 2005, but otherwise the 1945 home appears to have retained the qualities of an earlier era. Note the glass knobs on the interior doors and the lack of a dishwasher (or disposal or microwave) in the piney-woods-paneled kitchen.

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09/12/12 4:02pm

A day after this Memorial West home hit the market late last month, its price rose by $15,000 to $465,000 — where it remained until today. Now, in honor of the new deep discounts on the iPhone 4S, it’s been cut to $425,000. The tidy ranch-style home sits upon the clipped suburban grasslands of Britmore (one “t”) Oaks, a neighborhood that appears to have pine trees and magnolias as well as the namesake oaks. Like its neighbors, It’s a mid-fifties single-story. The street is 2 blocks south of I-10 off Brittmore Rd. (2 “t”s), has drainage gulleys, dead-ends 9 homes in, and takes a bit of a jog right out front of the property.

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09/11/12 3:11pm

On a few maps, this false-shutter-and-keystone-bedecked Arlington Court home appears to occupy a lot at the corner of E. Terrace Dr. and E. Terrace Dr. One of those streets, however, is just a stub serving 4 driveways within the enclave development just east of Memorial Park. The property is one lot in from the Memorial Dr. entry of the ungated-but-guarded neighborhood. That puts it on the block-long main drag — the only straight shot in the community of mostly front-loading, 2-story homes lining winding roads, a cul-de-sac, and one loopdeloop. (One interior street discreetly ties into Crestwood Dr. and its by-the-bayou estates.) Listed last week at $1,295,000, this property with a side-loading double driveway previously changed hands in April 2009 for $1 million and change.

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09/10/12 1:11pm

All rooms within this Briargrove custom home by Rudolph Colby “open to atrium and fountain areas.” Earlier this week, the corner lot property lowered its asking price once more, to $1,329,000, for its re-listing by the same agent. Back in February, the home debuted at $1,595,000, with reductions to $1,469,000 in April and $1,380,000 in June for the summer months.

Built in 1994, the 4,929-sq.-ft. home is not the largest of the newer homes infiltrating the tight-knit neighborhood. On its stretch of street, however, the house stands taller, bigger, and distinct. Landscaping between its two gabled wings helps conceal a brick wall that appears to match the height of neighboring fifties ranch homes. An entryway streetside leads into a brick-paved courtyard-with-fountain surrounded by window walls and glass-paneled doors:

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09/05/12 1:18pm

Columns accent the front porch — and are left to define rooms in the opened up floor plan of this $323,900 listing that popped up over the weekend in Candlelight Woods, south of Pinemont Dr. The shady northern approach to the 1964 ranch-style home is a contrast to its brighter pool-view side at the back of the home. Meanwhile, just beyond the back fence, there’s a patch of veggie garden — and a path along a ravine off nearby White Oak Bayou. CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

09/04/12 2:44pm

A bit like icing, the stucco smoothed over the exterior of this renovated-to-the-studs 1930 brick home in Riverside Terrace was a finishing touch. Interior work reconfigured some of the space and added “engineered wood” flooring, fresh paint, and carpet, plus new wiring, plumbing, and HVAC. In mid-April 2012, the property changed hands at $67,000 after 3 months on the market — it was initially priced at $110,500, with $10K-or-so reductions coming every few weeks. The completed project appeared a week and a half ago as a new listing — for $249,900, though for an extra $20K prior to closing, the seller will add a 2-car garage to go with that new driveway:

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08/30/12 2:41pm

Some saddle-up bric-a-brac remains on the exterior of the former Harwin Western Wear store on Navigation, a few blocks south of the original Ninfa’s. The 1935 retail-residential property contains a few apartments plus more living quarters in the converted attic. Located on the corner of N. Palmer St., the partially painted brick-and-board (and barbed wire) structure with awnings is across from a parking lot, a light-industrial building, and a vacant lot. A Metro bus stop sign sits right out front. The new listing, $200,000, offers no interior photos — but plenty of peeks at the exterior and environs:

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08/30/12 1:27pm

Just over the water from First Colony’s Lake Pointe development, you’ll find this waterfront property with 110-ft. of frontage on Oyster Creek. It faces the Greater Houston Rowing Club‘s Oyster Creek boathouse; behind the home is a cul-de-sac, connecting to Sugar Lakes, an eighties-era neighborhood of mostly brick homes with a tree canopy on its winding streets — plus a neighborhood pool, playground, playing fields, and sports courts. This 1990 home was posted as a new listing earlier this month, for $545,000.

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08/29/12 4:14pm

Step proudly through the front door, then take it down a notch into the slightly sunken living room of this new listing in the Northbrook part of Fondren Southwest. A 1976-minted contemporary — updated in the interim — the home has an initial asking price of $179,000.

The home’s driveway curves off the cul-de-sac of a 10-home street. Behind the property, there’s a narrow easement beyond which lies the 4-pronged classroom wing of Eleanor Tinsley Elementary School, north of W. Bellfort Ave. near Bob White Dr.

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08/28/12 1:36pm

As Federal-style homes go, this ivy-clad example on North Blvd. in Edgemont has a pedigree that earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places. An understated bronze plaque displayed discreetly beneath a demilune portico says so, but doesn’t elaborate. The 1925 home’s design is reportedly the work of C.B. Schoeppl & Co., whose efforts can also be found in a NRHP pair on Westmoreland Ave., as well as in a few other older Houston neighborhoods. Listed a couple of weeks ago for $1.9 million, this green-roofed home at the eastern end of the Boulevard Oaks Historic District sits back from — and a bit above — the tree-lined esplanade along North Blvd. But its corner-lot address is a tad shy of the double-allees of live oaks found a half-block to the east, in Broadacres.

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08/27/12 10:27am

Pick a path. Each leads to this duplex-turned-single-family residence in Southmore, but only the left fork heads to its front entry. The 1930 home is on a street of octogenarian 2-unit houses and newer 3-story townhomes just north of Southmore Blvd. in the Museum District’s transforming hinterlands. This newly listed two-for-one is asking $395,000.

Since the reworked interior retains much of the original floor plan and features, the home’s next owner might want to undo the conversion. Or not:

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