12/06/16 12:00pm

9230 Buffalo Spdwy., Houston, 77025

The ribbed tank hiding behind the track excavator in the north-facing shot above will soon be going completely underground, per current plans at the corner of Durhill St. and Buffalo Spdwy. First Stop Food Store, the current occupant of the retail shell on the property, sits right across Buffalo Spdwy. from one of the 2 planned senior living facilities in the vicinity — that property is just out of the frame to the right, while one of the houses in the Pemberton Circle gated townhome cluster can be seen peeking over the fence on the left.

The 1950s convenience store building and property itself changed hands early last year. Here’s a shot from July, a few happy months before the parking lot breakup seen above:

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Tanking Up
10/13/16 11:00am

Brays Bayou from Buffalo Speedway to Bevelyn, Linkwood, Houston, 77025

A mobile reader sends some fresh shots of not-quite-green-yet redone greenway along Brays Bayou, looking west from Buffalo Spdway. along S. Braeswood Blvd. The Harris County flood control folks have been widening this section of the channelized stream this fall as they work their way through the Project Brays checklist; the stretch seen above and below is about 2 miles downstream of some of those more submersion-prone areas of Meyerland near the Brays crossing under 610.

The new trail is a fair bit wider and smoother than the one it’s replacing — for some soggy comparison, here’s a view of the trail from around noon on Tax Day, just up past the next bend near where Ilona Ln. meets S. Braeswood:

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Widening Greenways and Waterways
06/06/14 1:30pm

2323-dorrington-01

It’s a bit of a prickly walk past the cacti to the low-key entry of a palm-shaded 1948 Art Moderne-ish contemporary home with pool that’s available for lease in Braeswood for $4,800 per month. The residential street is located a block south of W. Holcombe Blvd. on a block west of Greenbriar Dr. that’s chock full of housing styles ranging from postwar to more recently built townhomian.

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Lease Me
10/14/13 3:05pm

In the market for a historical home inside the Loop but just can’t find one that fits your budget? Why, here’s the 6-bedroom mansion that former Houston Post publisher and Governor William P. Hobby had built in 1929 — it’s only $2,385,000! And it looks nothing like an airport! In Braeswood, just a few blocks from the Med Center, the stately Tudor at 2115 Glen Haven has been available since the middle of August.

Wanna get closer?

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03/04/11 12:18pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: PUSHING DAISIES “The Greenbriar house is on a 11,500 sq ft lot just a stones throw from the Med Center. I bet the new construction will be something modest, leaving most of the grounds for a beautiful garden.” [Old school, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: All Together Now]

02/07/11 3:20pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE YOU WANT ALL THOSE FLOWERS “Seriously – in the bathroom sink? In the yard? By the pool? It’s like if you crossed Ladies Home Journal with Dr. Seuss (‘Would you, could you on the grass? Would you, could you on desk of glass? What about near the commode? Or three vases, on the road?’)” [LT, commenting on Old Braeswood House of Bouquet]

06/15/09 8:41am

A Swamplot reader thinks this 1959 ranch at the corner of Bellefontaine and Morningside in Braeswood is priced too high even though the property is listed as “Pending Continue To Show”!

Here’s the scoop:

Location: 2401 Bellefontaine Blvd., Braeswood
Details: 4-5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths; 3,748 sq. ft. on a 14,436-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $700,000
History: Currently under contract. Listed as “Pending Continue to Show.”

Our nominator writes:

I was thinking about this property three ways.

It could be sold as a remodel (which would probably require $100K or more just to update surfaces – a little birdie told me, for example, about the bright purple shag carpet in the entire bedroom wing of the house) – if it was an updated large ranch on this prime corner it could probably get close to 800K on a resale IMO. So what would a “flipper” pay for that? I’m guessing in the 500’s.

It could be sold as a teardown. The land value here is good and probably won’t ever collapse, but it will not be generating any income for a couple of years at best. There is way too much inventory in the neighborhood right now (big houses, old houses, new houses, empty lots) for more building to make much sense.

It could be sold as a rental. I’m currently living in . . . a big beautiful ranch house that hasn’t been touched in 50 years. In some ways that’s neat, but in other ways (plumbing, electrical) it is not. So I’d guess the rental income here will be about $2700/month. What would be the math on that for a purchase? I think that would depend on how much cash you put into the house and if you were landbanking it. I’d still end up in the 500s.

So . . . you got a better number?

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03/19/09 4:36pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NEW KIRBY TREES “. . . the stretch of Kirby south of Rice Village to Brays Bayou is finished. It now has a center median. The tree planting is identical to the Kirby project from Westheimer to Richmond. Tree plantings on both sides of the road and in the median. The bonus of the Westheimer to Richmond section is that all the power lines will be underground. So the trees will be able to grow freely unlike the ones that were removed!” [kjb434, commenting on West Ave School of Loud but Muffled Knocks]

11/14/08 9:10am

Den, 7309 Greenbriar St., Old Braeswood, Houston

In exile now from artist Gloria Becker’s home now for almost 9 months, her sock monkeys are likely getting a tad restless. But still: no sale!

In October, Becker dropped the price on her scrubbed and staged Old Braeswood stuffed-animal planet another $45.5K.

10/16/08 6:15pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game 28: Dining Room

We have a winner!

But first, your guesses for this week’s contest: River Oaks and Southampton each attracted 3 of you. There were 2 votes each for Tanglewood, Memorial and the Museum District. The rest: Spring Branch, West University, “along Kirby and west,” near the Ashby Highrise, Southgate, Castle Court, Boulevard Oaks, Montrose “between Richmond and Alabama, maybe between Hazard and Dunlavy,” Garden Oaks, Riverside Terrace, the First Ward, Old Braeswood, Bellaire, Rivercrest, Lynn Park, . . . and Heaven.

John (the first one, not the second) knew what to look for, and nailed it:

The built-in bookcases and day-bed thingy look exactly like those in my Ayrshire ranch house, and since this one fairly old and two stories, I’m going with Old Braeswood.

Congratulations!

A very strong honorable mention goes to movocelot, who figured out the house’s age and came extremely close to deducing the precise geometry of its recent expansion:

This house is old enough & well-situated enough to have been remodeled – seriously – twice. I see various windows, elec outlets and cabinetry.

Guess the newish family room pushed out from the kitchen has the newish master bath on top, for a new ridge at a 90 to the main house. (The original roof has the lavender office under it. Circa 1930.)

(Actually, it’s the Kitchen that has the Master Bath on top of it — saves on plumbing costs!)

Commenter karen, who was already familiar with the house, gets a special mention for trying to stir things up . . . with this wonderfully misleading entry:

Oh, this is totally southhampton! 1940’s construction, and beautifully updated. No professor in southgate could afford to do that. and it can’t be river oaks or old braeswood because the lot’s just not big enough. there are neighbors all but peeking in the windows!

Ready for the real tell-all?

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05/08/08 8:01am

Dining Room of 7309 Greenbriar St., Houston

Round about the end of April, artist Gloria Becker lopped $53,000 off the asking price of her art-and-animal-filled home at 7309 Greenbriar (near Main) featured here a month ago. It’s now listed for $795K.

Have any of you seen this place?

04/09/08 3:54pm

7309 Greenbriar St., Houston

A reader reports that artist Gloria Becker is selling her home at 7309 Greenbriar, just south of the Med Center. That’s the big brick house with the the 8-foot-tall topiary bears out front. Plus . . .

She has a wildcat in her dining room, deer on her sofa, fish in her bathroom, squirrels in her entryway, a caribou at the top of her stairwell and a prairie dog in her den.

From the foyer, where a stuffed bear in a sundress and rhinestone-studded sunglasses stands at the foot of the stairs covered in imitation tiger fur, to the farthest corner of the second-floor spare room, which is adorned with a giant cloth cow in a sun hat, a wreath of monkeys and a Virgin Mary hubcap, the house is a cacophony of contented clutter.

“Empty spaces make me nervous,” [Becker] Rasmussen says.

Becker, who makes a living selling her incredibly detailed Santa Claus sculptures and handcrafted sock monkeys, calls herself an “an upscale, sophisticated recycler.”

Her Braeswood home has 3 or 4 bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half baths, and sits on a 12,563-sq.-ft. lot near the corner of S. Main. Asking price: $848,000.

After the jump: Some interior pics from the listing, plus: Where did all the sock monkeys go?

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12/04/07 12:51pm

2335 Underwood St., Braeswood, Houston

This house in Braeswood looks like a million bucks! And it sold back in August for just over that — $1.1 million — after lingering on the market for just over half a year with an asking price $400K higher.

And it’s featured in today’s Daily Demolition Report!

Below the fold, photos of demolition-ready interiors, plus some quick math.

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