No need to knock on your way into 2309 Morse St. — the mer-person standing in the doorway will see you and can even receive envelopes through a crotch-level mail slot. On the other side of the door, the dining room’s decor is less watery, with a peacock perched up on the accent wall shown on the left in the photo above.
Although it’s now under contract, the house is still showing, so here’s a closer look at those wallflowers:
Swamplot readers Michael F. Forlenza and Karen Kane wade into the long-simmering confusion over the best way to refer to the distinctive and still-transforming Montrose-area neighborhood of townhomes, bungalows, and “an increasing number of high-end, 4,000-square foot plus, newly-constructed residences” wedged between Shepherd and Dunlavy, south of the River Oaks Shopping Center and north of Westheimer. As indicated by this Montrose neighborhood map, the area is supposed to be called Vermont Commons (Driscoll and westward) and “Park” (the eastern half).
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BETWEEN MARKET SEGMENTS “Well I guess my neighbors and I in the neighborhood no one knows what to call (Vermont Commons / Park) can now refer to our neighborhood as ‘the midpoint between the Kirby Whole Foods and the Waugh Whole Foods.’ Rolls right off the tongue.” [Bernard, commenting on Beer, Wine, Art, and BBQ on Tap: Here’s Your New Whole Foods Market, Montrose]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BORDERTOWN “Don’t tell the people who live in NoMO or River Oaks Terrace that they don’t actually live in River Oaks. They get mad. I call it Montrose, except for when I lived there a few years back. Then I called it River Oaks — but I meant it ironically, of course.” [Mel, commenting on Comment of the Day: Report From That Neighborhood South of the River Oaks Shopping Center That Nobody Knows What To Call]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM THAT NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTH OF THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL “Who says this is going to be townhouses? This is my neighborhood. While there are certainly plenty of townhouses in the area, the overall trend has moved decidedly toward single family homes. As I type, there are at least a half dozen new single family homes under construction within a few blocks of this site. While this house appears to be quite nice, I’m guessing whatever replaces it will be much nicer. I know it’s standard operating procedure for Swamplotters to hate everything new, but the single family homes (and even the townhouses) being built in this neighborhood are typically quite nice. This demo is more the exception than the rule. Most of what gets torn down around here is garbage.” [Bernard, commenting on Tiny Done-Up Woodhead Cottage Is Townhome Fodder]
This cozy little white-picket-fenced 1,224-sq.-ft. cottage on Woodhead north of Fairview went on the market just as the holiday weekend began. But already “developers are swarming with offers and not even looking at the home and gardens,” a source tells Swamplot. Why bother, when the 1930 home sits on a 5,000-sq.-ft. corner lot along Welch St., just 4 blocks south of the River Oaks Shopping Center? New driveways away! But . . . okay, what would $369,500 would buy here?
House-sitting the JustDinner bungalow at 1915 Dunlavy in Montrose for the month of August: A “pop-up†restaurant called . . . Just August. While JustDinner’s regular chef Andrew Rebori enjoys a summer vacation, Laidback Manor veteran Seth Siegel-Gardner and partners Terrence Gallivan and Justin Yu will take over the joint, even running their own creations out to the dining room. If you’re just learning about this little escapade now though, too bad: The five-course experience is booked through August, though a few openings might still be available close to Labor Day, when Rebori returns to reclaim his kitchen. Just August dinners will set you back (Just) $45, though there’s no extra charge if you want them to pop open your bottle of wine.
A few exciting scenes of the migrant chefs moving in and cleaning up house:
