02/15/13 1:30pm

Note: Photos from the listing have been removed at the request of the seller and the listing agent.

There’s no getting around the power lines, but there’s still a relatively unimpeded look to the south from the viewing deck of this 4-bedroom, 3-story house at 1322 Dart St. in the First Ward. Designer Charles Tibbits — working with architect Robert Hoover — alerts Swamplot to the house a block east of Houston Ave. and two north of Washington, near the Amtrak Station and the old Jefferson Davis Hospital. It’s listed at $1.5 million.

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02/14/13 1:05pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW THEY COVERED UP THE GARAGE DOOR MECHANISM IN THE EXERCISE AND TAXIDERMY ROOM “When you look at the other listing photos there is one that shows the ‘trophy’ room. This room has a two level ceiling, and you will notice a hogs head and a fish on the wall. The overhead door backs into the space that is above the lower ceiling section.” [Bill, commenting on Spring Home Listing Photo of the Day: Easy Access]

02/14/13 10:30am

Earth tones are easy in this 1970 classic over in the Pasadena area’s South Houston Gardens. Beams, bricks, dark woodwork, patterns, and juxtaposed floor and wall treatments (above) help carbon date this February re-re-listing. There’s decorative nostalgia aplenty to be found within the Midcentury but not-entirely-modern home; the property has a current asking price of $159,000. A previous listing by a different agency had started the ball rolling in June 2012 at $180,000; $10K was soon whittled away for the rest of the run as well as last month’s brief retry.

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02/13/13 10:30am

Another unit has waded into what seems to be a recent flurry of turnover in Lovett Square, the 36-stuccoed-condo community occupying a city block at Bagby-Tuam-Brazos-Anita in Midtown. The 1979 project by William T. Cannady Architects was an early stab at high-density redevelopment of an area once considered downtown’s South End, where vacant and aging properties and freeway ramps hung out together. This was before the Midtown moniker and the multifamily multiplier effect grew legs, however.

One of the larger homes in the staggered-like-a-pueblo project listed Friday at $193,000. The gated complex has several courtyards off a central promenade. This unit’s entry, however, is off a shared mezzanine-level terrace (above), reached by this exterior staircase:

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02/08/13 9:30am

Before and after photos of a renovated 1965 home in Maplewood South (above) show how the transformation flipped not only the property but also its finishes, which deepened in tones and accents from light (top) to dark (above) as part of the overhaul. The property sold in November 2012 for $182,500. After its 3-month makeover, though, the home’s initial asking price is $334,000.

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02/07/13 10:00am

Most of the green in this Cambridge Green home is at the front of its off-a-commons lot, but the bricked-up front elevation doesn’t make the most of that greenbelt view. Compact, the house hugs the back corner of the 1979-built subdivision, located off Kirby Dr. south of W. Holcombe. Listed yesterday, the hidden home carries an initial asking price of $445,000. The last time the property was on the market was back in 2000, a year after its remodel, when it sold at $339,000.

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02/07/13 9:30am

If you like intensely cinematic video renderings of former housewares stores set to a really rocking soundtrack, you’re going to love this one: It’s Block 10 West Office Park! This screenshot from the video shows how developer Hicks Ventures plans to maintain fidelity to the original I-10 site near Beltway 8, retaining the parking lot that used to front the former Great Indoors, which Sears sold along with 9 other stores about a year ago.

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02/06/13 1:30pm

WHERE WILL THE RAMEN BE? You can order ramen at dozens of places in Houston, but The Modular food truck’s Joshua Martinez’s Goro & Gun, declares Houston Press‘s Katharine Shilcutt, is going to be the first dedicated to the squiggly noodle: Doubling as a bar, Goro & Gun is set to open in about a month somewhere Downtown; CultureMap’s Tyler Rudick hazards a guess that 306 Main St. will be the new spot, but Martinez calls that story’s reporting “very inaccurate.” So where, then? Martinez and his fellow gaijin Brad Moore and Ryan Rouse aren’t ready to say, but Shilcutt does slip in a few clues: “The downtown restaurant which will house Goro & Gun hasn’t been home to anything successful in years. Its last resident was a sandwich shop, which closed almost as quickly as it opened.” And it’ll be in a “shotgun-style space.” [CultureMap; Eating Our Words] Photo: First We Feast

02/06/13 11:15am

Austin-style eco-landscaping finishes out the front of this renovated 1940 Oak Forest home new listing, which comes with an initial asking price of $319,000. The property’s far greener outback includes a fenced-off veggie-herb-fruit garden. Next to it, an air-conditioned treehouse stands guard; a balcony allows visitors to the raised clubhouse to keep a watchful eye on errant vegetation. Inside the main house, meanwhile, a super-sized master suite occupies a goodly portion of the total living space.

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