Home Design

77005, Buying and Selling, Faux-Finishes, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions, West University

Buying and Selling

01/11/08 8:33am

In River Oaks, This Sort of Thing Is Called Tall Timber

Demolitions, Home Design, Land Sales, River Oaks

Entrance Patio, 3840 Willowick Rd., River Oaks, Houston

A reader writes in to report that a house discussed recently on Swamplot had also been featured in Architectural Digest last October. And so it had! But really, they called it “Trapezoidal Transcendence”?? Whatever. Swamplot had the guts to call it what it really was: A River Oaks teardown.

Oh, well — there’s no accounting for taste. Unless, of course, you consider demolition a form of judgment:

By the way, that amazing modern house in the Tall Timbers section of River Oaks is definitely toast.

In this case, apparently, the decision of that judge was final.

River Oaks Land Rush: $2+ Million Memorial Park and Bayou Frontage with Modern Obstacle [Swamplot]
Estates for Sale [Architectural Digest]

77019, Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Home Design, Land Sales, Modern Design, River Oaks

Brookesmith

01/10/08 2:42pm

The Brookesmith Shipping-Container House

Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Transportation

House Made of Shipping Containers at 206 Cordell St., Houston, Under Construction

That house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith looks like it’ll be ready for delivery soon. Yes, this was a spec house — and yes, there already is a buyer.

Last year, Numen Development owners Katie Nichols and John Walker used shipping containers to construct the Apama Mackey Gallery on 11th St. in the Heights — because the gallery owner wanted a structure she can move when the property owner kicks her off the land. But the house Numen is building on Cordell looks like it’s going to be around for a while. It comes with its own, uh . . . doublewide lot, and it’s right across the street from a meat-processing plant.

After the jump: drawings, models, and an earlier construction photo of this neat little three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,851-square-foot package!

77009, Brookesmith, Construction Materials, Green Design, Green Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Shipping-Containers, Transportation

Development Strategy

12/11/07 1:22pm

Not So Gaudi on Antoine: Barcelona Villa Boxes!

Home Design, Homes for Sale, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing, Spring Branch, Townhomes

Villas of Antoine Ad

Houston is such an international city! If you’ve been here a while, you’ve probably already found Tuscany in Houston and Hong Kong in Houston, and perhaps also Charlottesville, New Delhi, Versailles, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Dubai, Atlanta, and maybe even some Lubbock in Houston as well.

Well, here’s a new one: Now you can discover Barcelona in Houston too. And it’s in Spring Branch!

Fortunately, for those of you tired at the thought of all that around-the-world-in-eighty-themed-apartments travel, this little bit of the Spanish Mediterranean comes in the familiar form of a Houston townhome six-pack: two rows of bright yellow tightly fit stucco-coated boxes facing a bare concrete driveway.

So really, it shouldn’t seem so foreign after all.

After the jump, more pics!

77055, Development Strategy, Home Design, Homes for Sale, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Real Estate Marketing, Spring-Branch, Theming, Townhomes

Foreclosures

11/30/07 5:32pm

Meyerland Mystery Mod: House of Formica and Foreclosure

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Meyerland

5103 S. Braeswood in Meyerland, Houston

Midcentury Modern Meyerland home with a distinctively shaped Living Room. In uncertain condition, on a large corner lot.

Sound familiar?

With the Carousel House reduced to rubble, Mod fans on HAIF have turned their attention to this 3,352-square-foot home from 1964 on a third-of-an-acre site at the corner of South Braeswood and S. Rice. It’s a foreclosure, and went on the market earlier this week:

I went and saw this house yesterday, and it has some amazing features. I think it’s likely that it is the House of Formica, for every surface–walls, cabinets, bars, etc.–is covered in Formica. I don’t think there’s is a drop of paint anywhere.

But . . .

the house is also really odd. I like strange, and this one is strange without being cool. Some of the design features just aren’t right. Therefore, it’s possible that we’re heading for another Moonlight. I hope not, but I doubt the house will go for anything above lot value.

After the jump, photos of some of those just-not-right design features — available free with land purchase! Plus special bonus: it’s really close to the bayou.

77096, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Meyerland, Modern Design

Buying and Selling

11/14/07 4:04pm

From Mod Pad to Mold Pit in Four Years: The Sorry Saga of the Carousel House

Demolitions, Fraud, Historic Preservation, Home Design, Homebuilders, Meyerland, Mold, New Construction: Residential, Toxic Sites

9602 Moonlight Dr., Meyerland, Houston

One detail glossed over delicately in Lisa Gray’s colorful tale of the decline of Meyerland’s Carousel House, featured in today’s Chronicle: The abandoned home’s apparent awful stench. From a few would-be visitors, posting on HAIF:

The owner told me that everyone he’s taken in there has gotten sick soon after coming out. Apparently it is REALLY nasty in there. I may swing by and get some new filters for my mask.

and

i could smell “the smell” just standing in the driveway

But hey, the interior shots from just a few short years ago make the house look super fab! Built in 1964 by owner Robert Cohen, the Modern gem merited a Texas magazine feature story in 2003. Just four years, one ultra-rich attorney, one shady personal assistant, countless hookers, umpteen heroin hazes, and a couple of dozen missing exotic cars later, the house on the corner of Moonlight Dr. and Braesheather appears headed for an almost-certain but certainly difficult demolition. (15,000 pounds of steel, anyone?)

After the jump, highlights of the home from its heyday, excerpts from the sordid and fetid tale of its fall from Modern grace, and a photo of the far more up-to-date carousel that just might be built in its place!

77096, Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Fraud, Historic Preservation, Home Design, Homebuilders, Meyerland, Mold, New Construction: Residential, Toxic Sites

Buying and Selling

11/07/07 5:31pm

Great Moments in Houston Home Marketing: The John Staub Tie-In

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Real Estate Marketing, River Oaks

3740 Willowick Dr. in River Oaks by Architect John Staub

A 1955 River Oaks “country house” designed by John Staub appears on MLS just days before architectural historian Stephen Fox’s book on the Houston architect appears in bookstores. Mere coincidence? Or brilliant upper-end home-marketing technique?

There’s a slight price difference between the two: The Country Houses of John F. Staub lists for $75, though Amazon.com whacks 37 percent off of that. No telling if the sellers will accept a similar discount off the $7.495 million asking price of 3740 Willowick.

The house overlooks Buffalo Bayou and features four fireplaces, three bedrooms, and six full and one half baths — all in a single story. Yes, it looks like some ranch-house flavor got mixed in here. There’s a garden loggia and lots of trees, plus a three-car attached garage. It’s a 5,532-square-foot home on a quarter-acre lot.

The book is 408 pages long and comes in hardcover. It features photographs by Richard Cheek, and will take up just three-quarters of a square foot on your coffee table.

After the jump: the not-so-ranchy interiors.

Of the house.

77019, Books, Buffalo Bayou, Buying and Selling, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, John Staub, Ranch-Houses, Real Estate Marketing, River Oaks

Home Design

10/26/07 8:25am

When Graffiti Artists Paint the House

Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Renovations

This Old House by Aerosol Warfare at the Diverseworks Satellite Space

DiverseWorks gave graffiti collaborative Aerosol Warfare free reign to paint the arts organization’s satellite space at the corner of Alabama and Almeda in Midtown, and this is the result.

You remember this house, right? It’s the one that used to have giant Sesame Street characters airbrushed all over it.

â€œThis Old Houseâ€ [Houston Press]
The Official Unveiling of This Old House [DiverseWorks]

77004, Graffiti, Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Painting, Renovations

Historic Preservation

10/18/07 10:00am

Fifties Cool Revived: A Houston Case Study

Home Design, Houston Architects, Interiors, Memorial, Renovations

Sunken Play Area at the Frame-Harper House, Houston

Texas Architect magazine features a home that shows what the famous postwar Case Study program of modern steel houses might have looked like if it had landed on bayou banks in Houston instead of L.A. hillsides.

Of course, what was cool in the fifties wasn’t especially appreciated in the eighties. The home’s second owners

removed the terraced landscaping and painted the entire house white, including its darkstained walnut paneling and load-bearing walls of pink Mexican brick. They filled sunken terrazzo soaking bathtubs in children’s and parents’ bathrooms with concrete. They removed the lacy, cast-plaster screens separating the living and dining rooms designed by Gloria Frame’s father, Joseph Klein, and the unusual turquoise St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets with their little shiny stainless steel legs. In the main living areas they covered over a series of recessed light coves in the ceiling depicted in superb photographs by Ezra Stoller, which were published in House & Garden in September 1961. They also replaced the original copper roof flashing with galvanized steel flashing that had rusted to the point of failure by 2004 when the house’s third owner, Dana Harper, persuaded them to sell it.

After the jump, more swank pics from Harper’s expensive restoration of this cool modern home off Memorial Dr.

77024, Buffalo Bayou, Historic Preservation, Home Design, Houston Architects, Interiors, Memorial, Modern Design, Renovations, Restorations

Airports

10/10/07 11:14am

An Airplane Hangar-Home for the Almost Jet Set

Home Design, Homebuying, Homes for Sale, Transportation, Waller

32124 Skyway, Waller

If you’re looking for something just a little sleeker than the typical country-home-with-hangar featured here earlier this week, you might want to try the house right next door: It’s newly remodeled, sportier, and there’s still plenty of room to park your airplane, just steps from the Living Room. Best of all, though, you can bid for it on Ebay.

A completely remodeled home and new airplane hanger located in the beautiful country side of Waller Texas, just 20 minutes from Houston. Located in the Sky Lakes Subdivision this gorgeous home and hanger that backs up to the taxiway and leads out to the long grass runway allowing you the access to fly your plane at a moments notice.

Great, but 20 minutes from Houston?? Oh, right—by air. The house has three bedrooms and two baths in an open plan: 2330 square feet of living space, plus a 2000-square-foot hangar.

Hurry! There’s only about a week left to place your bids. Or buy it now for $274,900. Our quick fly-by photo tour begins after the jump.

77484, Airports, Auctions, Ebay, Garages, Home Design, Homebuying, Homes for Sale, Sky-Lakes, Transportation, Waller

Airports

10/08/07 10:00am

On the Market: Home with Airplane Parking

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Transportation, Waller

32102 Skyway, Waller

It’s just down the street from the golf course and from Skylake Airport in Waller. A three-bedroom, two-bath house with an attached woodshop, listed at $249,900. Oh, and you can probably fit several of your airplanes in the hangar. The current owner has three in there, plus a helicopter.

After the jump, more pictures of this lovely airport home, including . . . an aerial view!

77484, Airports, Garages, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Sky-Lakes, Transportation, Waller

Apartments

09/27/07 8:27am

Sticking It to the Landlord

Home Design, Interiors

Ambition Killed the Cat Wall Decal from Blik Picky property managers won’t let you paint the walls of your apartment? MarketWatch’s Ruth Mantell suggests you stick it to them:

Renters with an inflexible landlord, or those who want to avoid the mess of painting, can try wall decals, suggests Annette Hannon, founder of a Burke, Va.-based design firm.

She likes the removable decals available through Web sites such as whatisblik.com and modernwallgraphics.com. The decals come in geometric and free form patterns, with designs such as flowers, and patterns inspired by Rococo style and artist Keith Haring. A multicolored three-pack of Haring’s “Pack of Dogs” costs $23 on whatisblik.

“It’s those kinds of things that are quirky and fun, and very much something that shows your personality,” Hannon says.

“When it’s time to move, they come off really easily. And you’re not spending so much money that you become so invested in it.”

Of course, with designs like multicolored Rainbow Poops (yes, you read that right), some renters might be tempted to leave a colorful grid of decals on the wall when they move anyway—just to send a special message to that special landlord.

Six low-cost touch-ups that will make your apartment livable [MarketWatch]
Wall Graphics for the Commitment Phobic [Blik]
Wall Slicks [Modern Wall Graphics]

Photo: “Ambition Killed the Cat” decal at Blik

Apartments, Decorating, Home Design, Interior-Design, Interiors, Landlords, Renting

Home Design

09/05/07 10:26am

For Sale in San Leon: Dusty Hill Estate

Homebuying, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, San Leon

2293 E. Bayshore Dr. in San Leon

Does this look like the home of a rock star? Okay, how about a â€™70s rock star with a long beard and hearing problems?

Yes, this is the custom-built San Leon enclave of ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill: a 19,560-sf trio of homes on a three-and-a-half-acre lot facing the crystal-clear waters of Galveston Bay.

Features include recreational, media & entertaining areas. 2 story entry w/dbl staircase, gourmet kitchen, mahogany library. Coffered ceilings, travertine marble floors. Circular motor court w/fountain & Crestron lighting. Pool. Exterior lighting, rollac shutter & storm doors. Above ground gas tanks. Two 3-car garages. Designer appointments & much more!

Yours, for just under $7 million. Including the gas tanks. After the jump, the ZZzzzzzzzzzzz interiors!

77539, Home Design, Homebuying, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, San-Leon, Staging

Construction Materials

09/04/07 10:13am

Waverly Goodbye

Demolitions, Home Design, Houston Architects, Museum District

1 Waverly Court, by Glassman Shoemake Maldonado Architects

From the design mags to demolition . . . in less than ten years! Remember the modern house with the curious metal proboscis off Bissonnet, near the Museum of Fine Arts? It won a couple of design awards a few years back from the American Institute of Architects, but if the judges had realized it was temporary housing it probably would have swept that category.

A week ago 1 Waverly Ct. appeared quietly in our demolition report, but it became a smashing success just a few days later. It was built in 1999.

After the jump, what lurked behind the proboscis: photos of this record-shattering short-timer from the architects’ website.

77005, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Home Design, Houston Architects, Museum District

Airports

08/02/07 2:24pm

Airport Living

Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Environmental, Home Design, Mixed Use, New Construction: Residential, Spring, Transportation