01/11/13 2:07pm

Welcome to the new Houston Club: this rendering shows Gensler’s renovation plans for the lobby near the top of the 50-story One Shell Plaza, where the city’s oldest social club is merging with the not-as-old Plaza Club and moving in. Since 1955, the club met at 811 Rusk (shown at right); but Skansksa bought the 18-story building last year, hastening the move. Swamplot reported in early January that much of 811 Rusk’s contents are being auctioned off tomorrow — the less club members will have to drag up 49 floors to their new fancy digs:

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01/09/13 10:24am

A sun-baked mini-villa in White Oak Terrace that spent most of 2012 on the market is back from its winter break as a re-listing with a new agent. Same price, though: $250,000. Symmetrical on its street-side, the 2010-built home likes columns, arches, and contrasting color so much it used them outside and in, where dappled tile floors further styl-i-fy the somewhat open floor plan. The garage-free property is located off T.C. Jester a little south of W. Little York. Elsewhere on the street, which has a dead-end in the next block, mostly single-story homes in the little northwest neighborhood are either a decade old or well past 40.

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01/02/13 10:53am

Fully fenced to mark off its “park-like setting” out back, this $364,000 Boxing Day listing sits on the bias of a Westridge corner previously converted into a dead end where it abuts 2 churches, their parking lots just beyond this property. A small drainage gulley also separates the Methodists at Bethany UMC from the Presbyterians at St. Luke’s Church, and it runs behind this lot as well. The neighborhood’s still-sort-of-new Longfellow Elementary School and Linkwood Park are just up the cross street and around the corner, as is a lot of road construction at the moment.

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12/20/12 4:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS “As a contractor I’ve learned the sprayer is installed as a matter of cultural/religious practices relating to cleanliness. What may seem odd to you or I is a necessity for some of our neighbors who want to follow their cultural practices.” [Senor, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Diaper Duty]

12/19/12 11:34am

BRINGING THAT LADY HOME FROM MAGGIE RITA’S UH restaurant management student Catherine Martin is already eyeing the decor of the Maggie Rita’s at 1650 Post Oak Blvd. — doomed, she imagines, for lack of parking at least — for when the Carlos Mencia property follows the Kirby location on its path from former Ninfa’s to shutter-dom: “I even liked the soup, I thought it tasted good. There was this really pretty painting of the Mona Lisa, it was just her face and it was all done in blues and greens. . . . Maybe when this location goes out of business I’ll buy that painting for real cheap on the side of the road. Do restaurants have garage sales? Like in their front yard, in their garage? . . . It’s not too far from my apartment I wonder if I’ll see the signs posted at the corner of my block. I just really liked that painting, you know? The thing is I don’t know where I’d put it in my apartment, I have several blank walls in my apartment, but it’s kind of a long painting, you know, real tall, the only thing is on those blank spots, like I have a book shelf underneath, or my desk or my dresser or something. It’s just not enough space all at once. I’d have to completely rearrange all my furniture and the only problem with that is I’m a bit of a slob, so to rearrange all my furniture I’d have to completely clean my room and there’s a pizza box underneath my bed that’s been there for a while that I’d have to throw away . . . it just kind of seems like a hassle. Maybe I could put it in the kitchen . . . but then it would get, like, oil and stuff on it when I cook, I feel like that stuff gets in the air, you know, and it would ruin the painting . . . you know what, forget it, I’ll figure it out.” [Arbitrary Criticism; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Maggie Rita’s in former guise as Ninfa’s, 1650 Post Oak Blvd.: AmREIT

12/18/12 11:50am

As multiple personalities go, this spread in Spring Branch exhibits 3 faces of eaves. The modified ranch-style home’s straight-laced street facade (top) with porte-cochère and circular driveway gives way to a playful resort-like setting (above), with rocky waterfall, tiki hut, pool, and palm trees — as well as quarters way, way out back on the acre-and-a-half corner lot. A 1985 remodeling raised the roof of the 1962 main home and added a super-sized, Hill-Country-inspired, somewhat-sunken den (above right) with an across-the-back wall of full-height windows facing the well-shaded, placid-meets-partytime yard.

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12/17/12 11:40am

Cupola-capped, this perky 1967 seaside retreat in Seabrook’s El Jardin Del Mar community has expansive views of Upper Galveston Bay from cheery-trimmed windows and a gazebo-enhanced porch. Asking $350,000 since its initial listing 2 months ago, the property’s unwavering price includes all the “like-a-picture book” furnishings, many of which are as mirrored as the walls.

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