Back in February, this 1970 Westhaven Estates home on a skinny lot fronting Woodway Dr. sold for $450,000. With its gray-scaled overhaul complete, the property with porch, patios, and pool re-appeared on the market last week with a one-digit-longer asking price: $1,295,000.
When showcased in the 1956 Parade of Homes, this Glenbrook Valley mod with desert-theme plantings (still in place) earned accolades for its forward-thinking children’s wing and U-shaped kitchen layout (intended as step-saving convenience for the chore-laden lady of the house). Those design details are among the features called out in the vintage promotional flyers included in the listing materials for the home, which popped up on the market earlier this month. The asking price today is $139,000, a few steps up from the $20,000 of its midcentury origins and the $52,250 it went for when it last sold, in 2008.
Since then, the compact-but-comfy home has had its internals updated; there’s new wiring, (underslab) plumbing, roofing, and appliances. Meanwhile, the carport (above right) has been wrapped in a snazzy new wooden-screen skin.
A renovated 1974 “Contemporary” in Briargrove Park is a glass act, though currently without a curtain call; most windows come unadorned (top) and look over manicured lawns (above) of Zoysia grass. The peekaboo property appeared on the market a week ago with an asking price of $799,000. That seventies show of angles and tilted roofage (at right) shelters an open-floor-plan interior with natural light beaming in from many levels and directions.
There has been a clean up on Aisle 9 in an ivy-covered Houston Heights landmark. Previously converted into a home, the former Morton Brothers Grocery Store appeared on the market Wednesday with a $564,900 asking price. The ribs inside (above) aren’t for eating, though. They’re holding up the roof above the all-in-one living area at the front of the 1928 property, which has held a spot in the National Register of Historic Places — as a domicile — since 1988.
Over in Eastwood, an updated-awhile-ago 1938 Craftsman-style home 4 blocks from Metro’s coming East End rail line presents a bit of a decision. Which of the 2 cheery and cherry-red doors off the front porch leads into the living room?
Renovated a year after Tropical Storm Allison, this glowing midcentury home plays up its mini-mod origins. The 1952 property is in the Southern Oaks neighborhood of Braeswood Place, located just off Buffalo Speedway north of Brays Bayou. Behind the fortifications (top), a sleek interior lit by a south-facing clerestory (above) shows off furnishings aligned with a more European vision of mod — in black and pearl:
Some of the green that goes with this early player in energy-conscious home building in Bellaire could be the $200,000 price increase over its sale last July, when it went for $1.35 million. The ca. 2002 limestone-and-stucco property with Texas Hill Country stylin’ — designed back then for her own family by architect Kathleen Reardon — popped back up on the market earlier this week with a $1.55 million asking price. Some of the enviro-sensitive elements are visible from the get-go, such as the deep overhangs on the eaves. Others are buried deep in the lot — where a network of caverns 250-ft. deep use underground temperatures to regulate the air conditioning and heating. Solar panels and low-water landscaping also play the green card.
Boosted optics amp up the color wattage in the listing photos for this pool-centric, book-loving Southampton home by Rice architecture professor William Cannady. The revamped 1971 property just east of Greenbriar is still lookin’ all gussied up after its April appearance on a recent Rice Design Alliance home tour. In June, it popped up on the market, increasing its price by $100K to $1,485,000 the day after its listing.
