If Beyoncé still wants this deeply discounted Piney Point Village mansion for her mother, she might have to bring back Sasha Fierce and grab a paddle: It’s going up on February 19 for auction. The 21,640-sq.-ft., 4-kitchen rental property near Briar Forest was listed as recently as January 3 at $5.9 million — and, says the website of California-based auction house Premier Estates, that’s just where bids will start.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REAL ESTATE PHOTOS THAT ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD “I honestly love the house; it’s a very well-done renovation. But please, agents, quit with the HDR photos! I don’t know what looks stranger, the outdoor patio where the first floor appears to be in flames, or the close-encounters-of-the-third-kind turquoise glow outside every window.” [Dave102, commenting on Beaming with Built-Ins in Lakeside Estates]
Squatters and street artists might have to find another bygone building to pick on — but that’s only assuming there’s something really behind the renderings of renovations to Midtown’s Central Square Plaza that Claremont Property has been floating around. Could that demure stone mosaic on the wall facing Webster finally get its comeuppance after years of playing hard to get?
Brick-fired, you think? Swamplot tipster Ryan Lankford says that when he convinced his mom to add this tantalizing topping to her sign, the 2-story, 4,700-sq.-footer in Memorial that she’s standing in front of was shown 18 times and received 3 offers on its first day. Listed at $1.5 million, the house went option pending not 24 hours later.
Photo: Ryan Lankford
A FAKE STREET FOR REAL ESTATE SHOPPERS IN SPRING 
Opening in February, reports CultureMap, is a 10,000-sq.-ft. real estate “park” where a dozen lavishly turned-out showcase homes, ranging in styles from “The Midtown” to “The Calais” to “The Ashby Manor,” are presented for your perusal on a private cul-de-sac near I-45. Think of the immersive, don’t-mind-if-I-do shopping at IKEA blown up to the scale of Disney World — except at MainStreet America there will be fireworks and Christmases and tailgating parties and almost everything will be for sale: “Do you like the paint color, the metallic faux technique on the ceiling or the graphic wallpaper accent in the bedroom? The details are available and so are the prices. In fact, you can make the purchase on site. If that couch, occasional table or rug is what you are looking for, swap that credit card and have them delivered. Floral arrangements? Yes, those are for sale as well. Mirrors? Check. Artwork? In stock. Window treatments? You bet.” Admission for adults is only $10; children aged 5-17 can get in for half that. [CultureMap] Photo: MainStreet America
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST VISIT THE PLACE ALREADY “This is why, IMO, photos (or at least worrying about the quantity or quality) are not that important. People search for a price range, size, area, etc. After that, they’ll take their list of properties that fit and view them in person. Unless the pictures are TERRIBLE then the property will be viewed. And if they’re OUTSTANDING then the property will have to be viewed anyway (unless you’re going after someone buying sight unseen, which is rare). Photos do, IMO, almost nothing to sell a house. Then again, I could be saying this as I suck at taking photos so normally just snap off a few pics with my cell phone and call it a day . . .” [Cody, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: In the Box]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ENDING THE GAYWOOD EMBARRASSMENT “As a longtime resident of Gaywood, I can tell you we have had a lot of fun with that name. In fact, I have even entertained making the following motion at one of our homeowners’ association meetings: ‘In order to end the embarrassment we all suffer because of the name of this subdivision, we should remove that offensive, misleading, double-entendre word from the name. Therefore, I propose that we rename our subdivision . . . GayFOREST.’†[Scott, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Capping Haddick]
After slinking its nameplate away from a prominent site in North Montrose sometime after the company’s name became a not-so-revered household word in the aftermath of the late-noughts financial meltdown and the $182 billion in government bailouts it received (see sign-free photo at right from last month), insurance giant AIG has decided the froth has subsided enough that it can call itself AIG again. This week a new shroud disguising a new-again three-letter logo was lifted on the 42-story America Tower — er, AIG Building — in the American General Center at 2929 Allen Pkwy.
Photos: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: POWER WASH THE DOME! “It has been about three years since I was V.P. of the company trying to convince Harris County to let us use the Astrodome as a movie production studio. at that time, my research into costs of sprucing up the building’s exterior revealed that plain old pressure washing could make a huge difference in the outside appearance. The company I consulted, specialists at cleaning large scale commercial buildings – like international airports – said it could be done for $500,000 or under. While that is a lot of money to most of us, it is not much compared to the negative P.R. ‘black eye’ that our dirty and forlorn-looking icon gives Houston. If only the Harris County Commissioners, the true stewards of the Dome, would clean up the exterior and do some landscape refreshing perhaps the grand old building would not appear so neglected to the rest of the world. While the interior still has grand promise, if only temporarily as a storage facility, the county should invest in putting the Astrodome’s best ‘face’ forward until its future use is determined. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read about the Dome in the national media and blogs and it usually includes a negative nod to its appearance. This is something that CAN be done without a referendum!” [Cynthia Neely, commenting on The Astrodome’s New Gig: AstroTurf Storage Warehouse]
There’s a crack team of construction professionals readying this brand-new single-story on Prince St. in Timbergrove Manor for some lucky new owner. And looky here, out of the closet: Workers are bending over . . . uh, forwards to make sure the hardwood floorboards are aligned perfectly, deep in a pantry corner recess. It’s a view of the “Open Entertainers Floor Plan” touted in the listing. Maybe this space has been transformed into a kitchen by now, but isn’t it a whole lot more fun to see an action shot of the transformation in process?
