- 9426 Willow Meadow Dr. [HAR]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Fondren Southwest
- 7610 Hopewell Ln. [HAR]
- 12338 Braesridge Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CHEAPER, CLOSE-IN “I would just add to what Cody said. You can avoid traffic AND get a big house and lawn here in Houston. You just need to set aside your prejudices about certain neighborhoods. We’ve been living in the Brays Oaks area, formerly known as Fondren Southwest, since 2007, and it’s wonderful. Houses prices are on-par with far-flung suburbs like Jersey Village and Spring; far less than Inside the Loop. Barring any major accidents we can get from our house to the Museum District in less than 25 minutes; the Medical Center in under 20. My commute to work only takes me one exit on the Southwest Freeway. I take a certain satisfaction and watching all the people from Sugar Land sit in traffic, knowing that they spent more and got less house than we did. (Crime issues here are overblown, by the way – the result of sensationalized local news reports. The public schools are lousy, but we have some great private schools.)” [ZAW, commenting on Comment of the Day: First We Crowd]
- 10710 Bob White Dr. [HAR]
- 10731 Braes Bayou Dr. [HAR]
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.
- 6458 Coachwood Dr. [HAR]
- 11810 Gladewood Ln. [HAR]
- 7514 Apache Plume Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BOWLED HIM OVER “I learned to swim there too, some of my fondest memories are from the Westland Y. My favorite: I was leaving swim lessons without my glasses (I was blind as a bat) and was running to my mom who was waiting in the car. I plowed into a really tall guy and knocked the wind right out of him. Hit him right in the breadbasket with my head. Couldn’t see him but I heard him laugh. There was no mistaking that laugh…I had run over Channel 2 weatherman Doug Johnson. I was mortified. My mom saw it all happen, but refused to get out of the car. She had the hots for Doug and she was on day two of “no washing your hair†after getting her giant bouffant permed at the Beauty Bunch. You know what they say, the higher the hair the closer to God, and my mom was really, really close to God back then.” [Heights Weirdo, commenting on More Rides to Gym]
MORE RIDES TO GYM 
The Westbury Christian School is buying the Westland Family YMCA at 10402 Fondren, south of South Braeswood, with plans to turn the building, its pool, and large playing field into a remote athletic campus. The 31-year-old Y is a little more than a mile west of the K-12 school’s main campus at 10402 Hillcroft. The property wasn’t up for sale, but “declining membership and increasing operating costs” convinced the organization to shut the facility. Members will be transferred automatically to the Y at 5801 W. Orem Dr. when the Westland location closes at the end of the month. [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot] Photo: YMCA of Greater Houston
The judges for this week’s game declare . . . that we have a winner! Miz Brooke Smith, you get the prize: a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance. Congratulations!
(Thanks also to flake, for writing this post’s headline!)
So where is this place?
Looks like the Guessing Game subject for this round wasn’t quite as popular as last week’s Wylie Vale Contemporary Country home in Katy. But the guesses were better!
Two of you guessed Sharpstown. The rest: Sharpstown/Bellaire, Pearland, Westchase, south of the Westpark Tollway near Highway 6, off Newcastle just south of 59, “anywhere in a wide swath from Westpark [counter]clockwise to 288,” Tanglewilde, around 59 and Beltway 8, the Dairy Ashford corridor, Sagemeadow, “between Bellaire and Harwin; Wilcrest and Kirkwood,” off Fry Rd. north of I-10, “one of the older neighborhoods on the Cinco Ranch side of I-10 around Kingsland or Highland Knolls,” Bear Creek, Katy, Pasadena, Greenspoint, “Sommerset” (Somerset Place on Memorial Dr.?), Atascocita, the Woodlands, Glenbrook Valley, “down I-45 toward Almeda,” “West side south of Buffalo Bayou between Beltway 8 and Highway 6,” Alief, and “somewhere in the stretch of floodplain between League City and La Porte.”
The winner is the reclusive Howard Hughes, for the sufficiently inclusive guess of “the 59/BW8 area.” No one came closer!
An honorable mention goes to Miz Brooke Smith, for these wide-ranging observations (including an equally wide-ranging — but accurate — stab at the map):
How generic can one place get? This could be anywhere, any time between 1979 and 2005. Definitely somewhere flood-prone, given all that room-expanding bias tile. And the wood floors in the bedrooms look suspiciously like laminate. Home-Doodle-special builder’s-grade cabinetry, marbuluxe countertops and molding-less nekkid window frames scream 1980’s el cheapo condo, as does the treeless view out the sliding glass patio doors. But where, oh where could this grim pad be? I will defer to fellow Guessing Game contestants to pin the tail on this donkey that could be anywhere in a wide swath from Westpark [counter] clockwise to 288.
Can we get a little more exact? How about the Northfield Patio Homes, in Fondren Southwest?
