THE PLAN TO MOVE RICE UNIVERSITY CLOSER TO THE WOODLANDS — OR TRADE IT FOR THE GALLERIA It’s true, and was apparently taken reasonably seriously at the time. From the Rice Thresher in February 1973. [marmer, commenting on Headlines: Calculating Lower Westheimer’s Hip Factor; Westbury Gardens’ Walkable Kitsch]
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY WE REALLY NEED THE EARLY MORNING CONCRETE CURE “It’s partly due to traffic, but the main reason you pour concrete in the extreme early hours is due to temperature. Concrete is actually a substance undergoing a chemical reaction and continues to get warmer. In the south, it’s not uncommon to pour concrete in the early morning hours before it gets too hot. If the concrete gets too warm it becomes brittle really fast. There are ways of dealing with heat such as adding ice to the mix, but it is not the preferred way to go. This is also the reason why in west Texas you don’t see to many concrete roads. It’s really hard to maintain the temperature during a large placement. So yes, there is some concern with traffic, but it has to do more with heat. Now, some of you may say that the slab of your house was placed in the heat of the day. Yes, but the strength lost in the heat for your house is not enough to effect the overall structure. Bridges, highways, highrises, and large placements where high loads are experienced can get susceptible to the heat and weaken the overall structure. . . .” [kjb434, commenting on About Those “Early Morning†Concrete Pours]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: TAKING A FENCE “Having lived in a number of other cities around the country, I am continuously shocked by what contractors in this city get away with at construction sites. No fences around construction sites (the smaller ones, anyway), complete destruction of the public sidewalks until project completion, lack of protection for street trees, work taking place at 5:30 in the morning in residential neighborhoods, etc. A new home is being built in my neighborhood, and they broke some part of the water main across the street from their site and failed to fix it for a month while we had standing water in the middle of the sidewalk. This just seems to be part of Houston’s any-construction-is-better-than-no-construction-no-matter-what mentality. This type of behavior is disrespectful to neighbors and simply not tolerated in other cities.” [tracy, commenting on About Those “Early Morning†Concrete Pours]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A CITYCENTRE IN THE CITY’S CENTER WOULD’VE MADE THE GRADE “. . . The Ainbinder/Orr/San J Stone sites represent over 30 acres of land being developed with only 280 residential units going up on the old Sons of Hermann site. About the same number of apartments were demo-ed for Ainbinder’s strip mall. That means 30 plus acres of land being developed with no net increase in housing or office space in an area that should be booming with that kind of development. There are no other 30 plus acre tracts west of Downtown that have the same development potential as this site did. It may be one step forward to replace vacant land with strip malls. But it is two steps back when you consider what a City Centre style mixed use development would have done for the area. It would have generated way more in tax revenue and made property values in the immediate west end neighborhood shoot through the roof. Instead, we are getting the lowest possible tax revenue generating development that will cost six million in future tax revenues. It is like being happy when your kid gets a C minus in school. It is better than getting an F and graduating is better than dropping out. But if your kid has the potential to do A plus work, then the C minus should be a huge disappointment. Those thirty plus acres had the potential to be one of the most significant developments in Houston. Instead, it is going to be the same development that gets put in on cheap land in the burbs when a new housing development goes in. If my tax dollars are going to be thrown at wealthy developers, I want to get every dollar’s worth and will not be happy with anything other than the most productive use of the land. Developers who will not deliver that can pay their own way.” [Old School, commenting on Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT YOU REALLY MADE ON YOUR HOUSE “. . . Most people say ‘I bought it for x and sold it for y, so I made an (y-x)/x return on my house’ which really isn’t the case. That formula can tell you your total appreciation in market value, but that is not the same as your ROI. To get closer to calculating an accurate nominal return, you need deduct the following from y: total in real estate taxes you paid while you owned the home, total expenses for repairs and maintenance, total amount of insurance premiums, the total interest and fees you paid to a lender before paying off your mortgage, and any commissions you paid to a realtor. You can then add back any income tax benefit you got for deducting your interest payments as well as any income you got from renting out all or part of your property. If you wanted to take things to the next level you could discount these cash flows and also convert nominal dollars to real, but I think even with just doing the above exercise most people will find that they didn’t really make as much money on their house as they think they did, and unless you manage to time your purchase, sale, and hold period just right, home values really have to appreciate significantly each year for the regular homeowner to just break even on it as a pure investment. That said, I think there are a lot of other very good arguments in favor of home ownership, including some financial ones. My point is just that if you bought a house for $100K and sold it 10 years later for $200K, you didn’t actually get a 10% annual return unless your property was tax exempt, you paid cash (and had a separate account set up to hedge inflation and compensate you for the cost of that capital being tied up for ten years), sold it yourself, didn’t buy homeowner’s or flood insurance, and never made any repairs.” [You Didn’t Earn That, commenting on Comment of the Day: What You Inner Loopers Got Wrong]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT YOU INNER LOOPERS GOT WRONG “. . . You could have bought a 3,000 sqft home in the burbs for $250,000 and put the $500,000 you saved in an investment that has a return that is better than 3%. Not to mention the money you had to spend putting a couple of kids through private school. The idea that residential real estate is a good investment is not supported by the data during a time of record low interest rates. Once the fed starts to raise rates again you are going to have trouble selling those homes that sit on expensive land for what you have in them. The only people that made off like bandits in the last decade in Houston were those who bought a single family home on a 7,000 sqft lot and replaced it with several single family townhomes.” [Dave Swank, commenting on Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MIDCENTURY STYLING WAS THE PSEUDO TUSCAN OF ITS DAY “. . . But let’s be honest with ourselves, if we can step out of our trendy mid-century loving selves for a moment . . . just because something was original doesn’t mean it was good, or desirable. Let’s not fall into that elitist trap. Honestly, I’m not crying over replacing that gawdawful carpet with anythingbutthatgawdafulcarpet. Yes, a lot of the updates are generic “what’s popular/mainstream right now†sort of stuff. But what they’re replacing is the exact same sort of mainstream styling, just with a healthy dose of nostalgia wrapped around it. Let’s not kid ourselves . . . as much as I personally like midcentury style, most of these houses were just as generic as the pseudo Tuscan places going up all over the area. They simply have the benefit of being fewer in number these days. There is nothing inherently better about one era’s overused style elements than another. Novelty is not the same thing as absolute superiority.” [JB, commenting on Fixed That for You: A Memorial Hollowed Modern, Corrected]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A FEW BUMPS ON THE WAY TO A HOME SALE “There is a decent fault line map at this url. Much more than this and you would need to contact the GIS department at Harris County Flood Control (I think). The Long Point fault is interesting. More interesting to me was the Pecore fault in the Heights. I bought a home with no disclosure from the prior owner or the inspector. All the neighbors knew but I did not know them. Went to sell it after remodeling the property and it comes up. Obvious when I drive that area now. Ultimately it was a disclosure item but not an issue at sale.” [sboney, commenting on Yards of Yard in Britmore Oaks]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A NARROW, GENTLE EARTHQUAKE ZONE ON HOUSTON’S WEST SIDE “. . . The Long Point fault cuts straight through the area, hitting brittmore just south of I-10, crossing saint mary’s just to the west, then going through wycliffe and Wilchester, crossing Kirkwood just south of Memorial. It goes all the way down to around Whittington just west of Dairy Ashford. But if you don’t buy a house directly on the fault, you’ll be fine. Judging from the location of this house and where the Long Point fault map shows the fault, this house should be fine. Its neighbor to the west, maybe not.” [Lost_In_Translation, commenting on Yards of Yard in Britmore Oaks]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU PAY, WE SALVAGE “. . . Under the new business model, which is consistent with national models used by various non-profits involved in deconstruction and restores involved in reselling reclaimed materials, the donor of the house will now pay to have the materials reclaimed because they are the ones benefitting from the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials. As an example . . . a property owner could simply demolish a house . . . send everything to the landfill and they will have a cost associated with that for about $8,000.00 with no tax benefit. OR . . . the donor can donate the house to Historic Houston, pay for us to deconstruct/salvage the house, which may cost an additional 3,500-5,000.00, so a total cost of let’s say 13,000.00 to demolish the house. In every instance I have ever dealt with, the charitable contribution for the gift of the materials FAR EXCEEDS the total cost of the demolition and salvage sometimes multiple times over. . . . If doing deconstruction and reclaiming building materials was such a HUGE profit center and money making proposition . . . there would be all kinds of competition out there in this growing market . . . but in fact there’s not . . . because it’s really hard work getting the material out, and storing the material until someone (hopefully) buys it is really expensive and the profit margin is incredibly low . . . thrift store value. . . .” [Lynn Edmundson, commenting on Fundraising To Reopen Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DICK CHENEY’S BIRD SHOT AND MY FOOD TRUCK PEDIGREE “‘glorified Roach coaches’? Some maybe but certainly not all. I was one of the first to start a gourmet food truck in the Houston area almost three years ago. I have been interviewed by several newspapers in Houston and have done numerous live television cooking from that truck. I am no longer in the business of food trucks because Houston guidelines made it too difficult to make any money. Now to address your ‘glorified Roach coach’ comment. I have a degree in Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu in France. I have been in kitchens for 24 years and currently work as a Corporate Executive Chef for a very large food purveyor. My work history includes having run 4 and 5 star hotels as Exec Chef, working as Exec Chef for numerous high-end New American cuisine restaurants, I have developed many menus in many cities and chances are you have probably eaten at one or more of them. I worked at The Food Network in NYC and was personal chef for George and Barbara Bush and yes I was at the ranch when Cheney shot Harry Whittington while bird hunting (it was Harry’s fault by the way and I have proof!) When I owned the food truck I carried an insurance policy with 2 million dollars of coverage (the same that any restaurant carries) and my kitchen was always spectacularly clean. I, like many other chefs, take a lot of pride in what I serve to you. My food is my craft and what I put on the plate is a direct reflection of me, my integrity and my love for what I do. Unless you have ever worked in a kitchen professionally, please refrain from making blanket statements about the men and women that run some of these fabulous mobile kitchens. You would be surprised about the background of many of them.” [Jason, commenting on Mobile Food Vendors Mobilize]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW BIG WAS THE SHAMROCK HOTEL SWIMMING POOL AGAIN? “They didn’t have boat races. We did do waterski shows there for several years.” [gary, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Shamrock Hotel Shine and Fall]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHAMROCK HOTEL SHINE AND FALL “Wasn’t the greatest building, because Frank Lloyd Wright said so? The same guy who hated every skyscraper in New York City? This was Houston’s most famous landmark before the Astrodome. It was what people around the country thought of when they thought of the city. The point of the Frank Lloyd Wright story should be that the nation’s most famous architect HAD to make a visit there and give his opinion, it was that renowned. It captured a whole era of the city’s history — its rollicking, mid-century, oil-rich extravagance — better than any other building. But it made sense to tear it down because, gosh, it would have required renovating and updating. Oh, and the ceiling heights were low! With that reasoning, any historic building in the world would be torn down at some point.” [Mike, commenting on The Park Where Houston Architecture Critics Go To Sharpen Their Chops]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: DEMOLITION IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER “. . . I see lots to be salvaged and given to Habitat for Humanity. All that wood flooring, everything in the kitchen, especially the stainless countertop and appliances, french doors, louvered closet doors, balcony railings inside and out, granite bar top and light fixture, bathroom cabinets and granite countertop, tub. Not sure if the tile flooring can be taken up, and the plate glass windows would be tough to pull without breaking. I would love to plan and build a house around items from Habitat. I have seen some very unique things there. For now, I just have a greenhouse with a door, leaded glass sidelight, and jalousie windows from Habitat. And some really neat ceramic tiles that I plan on putting on the potting bench. I’m going to go back and get reclaimed brick for the patio.” [Lynn, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Passing the Red Baton]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ALLISON’S AIM WASN’T TRUE “. . . The phrase ‘I didn’t flood during Allison . . .’ doesn’t mean anything. Most of Houston didn’t flood in Allison either because they didn’t get the large volumes of rain that portion of the city received. Many areas of Houston flood during minor summer storms, but didn’t flood during Allison. It always just depends where and when the rain falls and also if the runoff compounds downstream.” [kjb434, commenting on Riverside Terrace Stucco Redo, With or Without Garage]