It Came from a Mod: 1954 Home Escapes from Rehab, Haunts Glenbrook Valley

The reader who sent in a few photos of a Glenbrook Valley house from over the years titles the album the “Evolution of an architectural Frankenstein.” Of course, properly, that should be Frankenstein’s monster, but what’s the difference? Around here what mad scientist doesn’t dabble in a little weekend home improvement?

Unfortunately, photos of the home in its original condition are missing from the sequence. But the illustration in the early-fifties ad above should give you a decent idea of how it looked. Next up, a photo of the same house at 7911 Glenview Dr. — as it looked in 2004:

***

Yes, this is the very same house. Clearly, though, by 2006, the home was in desperate need of additional “updates.” No problem! Just apply these electrodes, pull the switch, and . . . Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

Oh . . . that didn’t seem to work. More juice, Igor! Fire again! Bzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

You can guess the rest. And now, just 5 years later, the home is for sale! COMPLETELY RENOVATED IN 2006, screams the listing, but would you know it from these photos? Have a look:

Features “contemporary” baths!

The monster-sized 5,123-sq.-ft. home has swallowed enough space to include 5 bedrooms and 5 1/2 baths. The seller is asking $375,000.

Earlier photos: Swamplot inbox

25 Comment

  • Looks like the back siding needs to be cleaned a bit more. Otherwise, its just normal weird reno-ugly.

  • Wow, what a pile of crap. This is the epitome of what cash-out-refinancing created circa 2006. Banal uglyness purchased at cheesy home centers. Truly a ghoulish monster. In Glenbrook, the high dollar homes are the original mid-century moderns. The colonials go for a bit less, but are still valued if they haven’t been bungled. This hunk of junk…. damn near worthless. Try less than half the asking price. Apparently they don’t read the paper or understand comps? I hope the owner has the dollars to carry it for awhile, otherwise it’s destined to be a foreclosure that all of us end up buying.

  • I just threw up in my mouth. Thanks.

  • I swear, that the more of these I look at the more that I am convinced that all my neighbors are insane. What kind of people decorate like this? I think that living within such decor actually perpetuates the insanity. It could be deemed child abuse to raise children is such an environment.

  • Sad, but a great MCM on the same block recently traded for +/- $125k, the home has great bones and actually has a hill in the back yard, hopefully it will be restored and not destroyed w/a home depot re-muddle. Glenbrook is still full of gems, many in need of a good shine.

  • Who knew there was an atomic ranch buried inside there!

  • Hodge, meet Podge.

  • Yowzah………wondered what it looked like inside…..now I know….yikes!

  • To me the saddest part is if they had just restored the original house, they would have spent a fraction of what they did to make it look like …. this, and would have probably ended up with something that would be selling for more than what this one will eventually fetch.

  • I have never understood people who buy a mod then make it traditional. Mods are so few and far between–why not just buy a traditional ranch and go berserk.
    My neighbor put a dark stained Tuscanesque door with an iron grate on his mod, ADDED a popcorn ceiling and crown molding and faux finished his adobe pink brick fireplace. Damn you HGTV for making people think they know what they are doing.

  • After moving to Houston, I read a book by the Barthelme brothers describing the house their father built in the “grasslands” outside of Houston. It was totally modular inside, all walls could be moved around, and he coated it in copper thinking it would turn green and blend in with the environment.Driving to work one day down Post Oak, I recognized the name of the street. And the house was there.Also there was a sign indicating that the house was scheduled for demolition.One of my biggest regrets is that I never knocked on the door (cars in the driveway)and tour that gem. It’s now a three story faux Tuscan townhouse.Sad,sad,sad.

  • Ick

  • @ JT Re: “Damn you HGTV…”
    We’re in a giant wave of do-it-yourselfism. HOs feel empowered by the ad campaigns of Home Depot, et al. Everyone feels great about being their own designer/architect and ‘getting things done!’
    Now if I were Design Czar…

  • Can’t get past the headless kid on the treadmill…

  • I’m the first one to hate on the Swamplot standard group of haters, but WOW, this one takes the cake. Terrible doesn’t even begin to describe what they’ve here.

  • Why is that little girl playing on the treadmill, without adult supervision?

  • So much ugly.

  • “From Feufoma:
    I just threw up in my mouth. Thanks.”

    Heck, I just spewed all over the floor seeing this atrocity.

  • This house is why Houston doesn’t need historic districts – it needs an architectural aesthetics commission to approve all plans for new construction and all plans for renovations.

  • @Matt, why? The only people who ought to be concerned about the appearance of a house are the owners.

  • No, Ross.

    Just a some people should not spawn, some people should not renovate.

  • Yes. Miss Miss-Msry, you are SO correct.
    Sounds cold maybe. But it is true.

  • Not to mention they killed the two trees in the front yard.

  • Back on the market with new photos. The horror continues.