March 19, 2010 – 12:24 pm
Yes, there’s a straight shot from that outdoor fireplace in the back of this house all the way to a walled-off courtyard in the front. And it’s all lined up for you from the back patio: Kitchen, Dining Area, Living Room, and front yard beyond. If you took down that front wall you’d have a better view — past a row of oaks and some bushes — of the Rice Stadium parking lot across the street. The address is 2239 University Blvd. in Southgate.
The home was designed by Strasser Ragni Architecture’s Erick Ragni and his wife, Emily Sing. It’s theirs.
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Read more about: 77030, Home Design, Houston Architects, Interiors, Modern Design, Southgate
March 18, 2010 – 11:44 pm
So who gets a pair of tickets to the Rice Design Alliance’s annual home tour this weekend? Why, the winner of this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game, of course! And that would be the player our judges deemed “close enough” for the win: Congratulations, JKL! You’re going to . . . Southgate!
A very close second place goes to Brian, and an honorable mention to movocelot, who just ended up on the wrong side of I-45.
How far off were you?
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Read more about: 77090, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Ponderosa Forest
How best to describe this unique home? We’ll give it a stab: Elegant, modern, cathedral-like little 6-bedroom, 8-1/2-bath getaway on the right bank of the sometime-fiery San Jacinto River in Highlands. Interior rock waterfall at entry, park-like 2.3-acre setting bounded by small creek. Floor-to-ceiling windows bring in plenty of light and refined air. Pink Kitchen with circular island. Just Minutes north of the Lynchburg Ferry. Built in 1972.
And the price for all this fabulousness?
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Read more about: 77562, Highlands, Homes for Sale, Interiors, San Jacinto River
March 17, 2010 – 11:22 am
Two Swamplot readers wrote in separately to suggest this new listing as a subject for our weekly Neighborhood Guessing Game. But really, doesn’t this 3-bedroom, 3-bath home have Lazybrook written all over it?
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Read more about: 77008, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lazybrook
So just what is the fantabulous prize for the Neighborhood Guessing Game this week? Well, it comes again from our friends at the Rice Design Alliance. It’s a pair of tickets to this weekend’s 34th annual RDA Home Tour. This year, they’re calling it Southgate: An Urban Oasis. You can read more about the tour — and see snapshots of the 8 snazzy homes on it — on the RDA website.
How can you win those tix? By guessing the location of the home pictured here! If more than one of you guess the correct location, we’ll award the prize to the player who provided the best explanation for the guess.
If you’re not guessing — in other words, if you know the pictured home already, or come across the listing while we’re playing the game — don’t blurt out the answer, or you’ll make a lot of other players very angry. Instead, there’s a special way for you to play: First, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing (so we’ll know what you’re doing). Then submit an incorrect guess, to throw the other players off track. Be sure to include some brilliant explanation to make your entry believable or convincing. If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!
On with the tour! Or, at least, this little photo tour:
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Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
March 16, 2010 – 11:15 am
A little seagrass, a few new slipcovers, a plate on the wall — Joni Webb brings a house on Albans Rd. up to date: “The dining room was formerly painted a deep red - typical of most West U homes decorated in the 90s. We repainted the upper half a deeper aqua found in the family room, leaving the wainscot painted white. The owner waited to use her table, chairs and buffet – which were a dated dark reddish brown stained wood. We had these pieces painted a distressed gray to be more in keeping with the lighter wall color.” [Cote de Texas]
Read more about: 77005, Furniture, Home Decor, Interiors, West University
Determining the winner of this week’s game was tough! But the judges have awarded first prize to Sara — and a very close second place to KimmerTX. Congratulations to you both!
We also acknowledge the solid head-fake thrown by kimberlee ann, who knew exactly where this home was, wrote in to say so, then sent gullible readers a-wondering if it might be somewhere along . . . Navigation?
Nope!
So where might it be?
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Read more about: 77019, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Montrose, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Temple Terrace
March 10, 2010 – 11:43 am
Did that more-than-half-off sale on the Piney Point Village bayou-front estate of Doug and Melanie Johnson work any magic? The cozy 8-bedroom, 10 full- and 3 half-bath playhouse recently disappeared from the MLS, but a Swamplot reader suspects something’s up:
I don’t think it sold because I watch it and I never saw it go into sale pending. I think they gave up trying to sell.
The 21,640-sq.-ft. home at 11682 Arrowwood Circle debuted on the market as a $19 million divorce listing back in 2007. According to a Chronicle blog post last year written by Shelby Hodge, that price was set by now-bankrupt broadcast executive Doug Johnson (his company, Johnson Broadcasting, is the “debtor in possession” of local TV station KNWS). After a couple of uneventful years at the top of the listings, the home’s price was eventually cut to $9.5 million — and the commission doubled to 12 percent — after Melanie wrested the right to control the sale herself.
What does it matter that it’s out of the listings? Really, don’t you think a quirky little property like this would do better in a . . . uh, private offering?
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Read more about: 77063, Bankruptcies, Buffalo Bayou, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Piney-Point-Village
We just know you’ll be wanting to get in one last snoop-through of that 5,701-sq.-ft. 1928 mansion on Chevy Chase that received its demolition permit yesterday. And who is Swamplot to deny you?
Who’da thunk that — try as he might, River Oaks society architect Charles Oliver still couldn’t design something as attractive as the four-fifths-of-an-acre lot he placed it on?
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Read more about: 77019, Demolitions, Home Design, Houston Architects, Interiors, River Oaks
It’s time for yet another Neighborhood Guessing Game, in which Swamplotters compete for fabulous prizes — or, as is the case this sponsor-free week — for uh, fame and glory.
How can you win your moment in the sun? By going inside this home, poking around, then telling us all where it’s located. If more than one of you pinpoint the correct neighborhood, we’ll declare the player who provided the best explanation for the guess the winner.
This is, of course, a guessing game. If you’re not guessing — if you know this house already, or if you come across it searching online — please don’t blurt out the answer and ruin the game for everyone else. Instead, how about having a little fun with it? Send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, then submit an incorrect guess — the kind that’s likely to throw other players off track. If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!
And now, the rest of the photos:
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Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
So many pretty close guesses in this week’s game, but we’re awarding the prize to the player who came the closest of all. Flake, congratulations! You’ve just won a one-year individual membership in the NGG’s longtime sponsor, the Rice Design Alliance!
Is this place really (as commenter Phil put it) the “MOST. INNOCUOUS. HOME. EVER.”?
Have a look and judge for yourself. There’s no harm in that.
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Read more about: 77024, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Memorial, Memorial City Mall, Memorial Forest, Neighborhood Guessing Game
More photos of unknown homes — and you get to guess the location! That’s how we play the Neighborhood Guessing Game: Guess right and you’ll win a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance! Guess wrong and . . . well, hey — it won’t hurt you!
We’ll resolve any ties in this game by awarding the prize to the player who guesses the correct neighborhood and provides the best explanation for the guess. And if you already know this property, please don’t mess with us by blurting out the answer. Instead, mess with the other players — by sending us an email with a link to the listing (so we know what you’re up to) and then submitting a valiant but incorrect guess. If you do this well enough to sway or fake out a reader or two, you’ll be awarded special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody comes up with the correct neighborhood, that winner could be you!
Let’s poke around a bit and see if anyone’s home, shall we?
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Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
A couple readers recently suggested we host a “Swamplot Posters’ Living Room Views” feature, “so that names can be connected to spaces…” Even though something like that might be fun, most of our readers are likely not especially interested in outing the dowdy, dusty, or ultra-mod couches of commenters’ own homes.
But it may be worthwhile to repeat what longtime Swamplot readers likely already know: We’re more than happy to publish photos of our readers’ design creations (anonymously or not, as you wish). If you’ve got a breakfast room or a tiny apartment or a garden or a bedroom you put together that you’d like to share with more people than you could otherwise fit into the space, send us some pix and a brief description of what you think is notable about it.
And if you know someone with more than the usual something goin’ on in the furniture or home decor department, why not give that person a little push? Have your talented friend drop us a line. If you’ve got something interesting to show, hordes of curious Swamplot readers are gonna be eager to take a peek!
Read more about: Gardening, Home Decor, Houston Architects, Interiors, Notices
February 25, 2010 – 7:33 pm
Our winner in this week’s game was Señorbanity. Congratulations — you’re the newest member of the Rice Design Alliance — via a one-year individual membership donated by the organization. Thank you, RDA! We’ll also recognize a neighborly guess and award second place to Jayci.
Sweet! So where can you find this home?
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Read more about: 77479, Avalon, Fort Bend County, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Sugar-Land
Comment of the Day: And Where Would That Put Versailles?
“If Louis XIV was reincarnated as an insurance broker in Houston, this is where he would live.” [finness, commenting on Where the La-Z-Boys in Lazybrook Are Frozen in Time]