Neighborhood Guessing Game: Black and White

The sponsor of the prize for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game is the recently opened Fleming’s Prime Steak House and Wine Bar in Town & Country Village. The winner of this week’s game will receive a dinner for 4 at the restaurant, in the form of a gift certificate worth $200!

Now that you know what’s at stake, are you ready to play? The rules are the same as ever: Just tell us where the pictured home is located. If you guess correctly, you win! If more than one person guesses the correct neighborhood, the player who gave the best explanation for the guess wins the prize.

Of course, your guess must be a guess. If you already know this home, or if you happen upon the home or listing while the game is being played, do not post the answer and ruin the game for all the other steak-hungry players. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, so we know that you know what you know. Then, enter an incorrect guess, but make it sound extremely plausible. If you do this well enough to trick other players, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the correct neighborhood, you could win the prize!

Let’s see how this place lays out, then . . .

***

Well, now . . . this one should be easy to figure out. Shouldn’t it?

Got your guess ready? It belongs in the comments, below. The answer and the winner will both show up in this space on Thursday!

Update, 6/4: Time’s up! Now who won the steak?

Photos: HAR

51 Comment

  • cue Cream’s “White Room”… “In a white room with black curtains…”

    No time for snarky, this place is on the south side of Memorial Drive, west of Westcott… whatever that subdivision is named.

  • Holy Jeebus! More parquet flooring to haunt my dreams! Tiny yard, close neighbors, long halls – if this isn’t within a garage band’s noise from Memorial Park, I will retire from this game. For at least a week.

  • This is too nice to be a standard tract home – check out the window trim in the game room. The close neighbors, the landscaping, the quality of construction, and the recent kitchen and bath remodels in what appears to be a ~25 yr old home point me towards West University or Southside Place.

  • Crestwood-Glencove area adjacent to Memorial park. I’m guessing it was demolition and new construction. Small yard fits this area.

  • This place makes me feel like I’m gazing at one of Bill Cosby’s old sweaters. I wonder if their friends refer to the house as “The Art Barn”? Oh, well, there’s steaks on the line. I’ll shoot for that chunk of Afton Oaks, or whatever it’s called, between Banbury Place and Vossdale.
    I would love to play ping pong on that parquet goodness with the a/c blasting. Sure beats my garage.

  • hmm.. big house.. small lot.. lets say somewhere in the denser part of river oaks.. around shepherd and san felipe..

  • Its inside the loop!!! Look at the social breeding ground of a lot. Southhampton?? maybe a certain part of Memorial or Camp Logan I cant decide. Wood paneling walls, exposed bowl sinks. Flooring is either pavers or laminate…strange. Nice mix of classic w/ a few modern touches held all together cheesy by the zebra chairs.

  • The current residents want the best for their children and have chosen to live in Houston’s best neighborhood. They have choosen a stately manor, with towering pillars than can be seen through the living room window. They surround their children with culture by making their home a gallery of art and music. That grand piano is not just for show, the music stand next to it is used by their daughter for practicing 6 hours a day. Their son is rebelling away from the fine arts by pursuing electric guitar and the drums. The son wishes his dad was around more, as father frequently travels to Africa to hunt big game with his business associates. He bagged a zebra during his last trip and laid the coat on the living room floor. Perhaps he will bring back elephant tusks next time?

    Tired of the constant pressure to pursue music and the arts, the kids sneak out of their rooms in the middle of the night to play ping pong and darts.

    Perhaps the children can put on a performance during one of the numerous cocktail parties hosted by the parents at this home in River Oaks.

  • The floors seem a bit 1960s and there does not seem to be much frontage–so I am thinking older home inside loop. The pillars look stately and it is well decorated. I am guessing Southampton.

  • I am going to go with a recent build in the 77019 zip around Dunlavy, Waugh and West Gray area.

  • Takin’ it to the lot line somewhere along N. Braeswood . . .

  • It is this weird little dense pocket west of north of the museum of fine arts, south of 59 and west of montrose. There are a bunch of old townhouses over there that are pretty ugly from the outside (hence no exterior picture) but with wonderful interiors. The person has large and interesting art pieces which helps my think they would want to live close to the museums. I will go as detailed to say it is Warwick Square.

  • Wow, the staging of this home is amazing! I especially love the screeching sculpture next to the toilet… I’d throw my hands up at that decor too. Vessel sinks seem like an early attempt at the trend. Lot’s of tacky art, huge slightly dated house, I’m going to WAG West River Oaks, near San Felipe.

  • Well, they’ve got some bucks — that’s a Bosendorfer piano and some of that art looks expensive. Not a real fan of the Dali-esque cello and the sculpture made of bent-up trombones above the piano. Drum set is small, not correctly set up, and has no cymbals. With kids they’re probably not too far from HSPVA, so where? Columns on the exterior seem to argue against a townhome, which is my first inclination. Let’s call it new construction in the area just south of the River Oaks Shopping Center — something like Haddon or Welch or Vermont Street.

  • So Mad! I thought I was going to be the first commenter but I thought and typed too slow thus Brad stole my guess. That is what I get for waiting in the queue.

  • I think it screams Southampton, although I know I’m not the first person to guess it. They’ve added on extensively to the original 2500 sf home and added a garage apt that’s only being used for ping pong at the moment. The kids have to share the relatively small hall bath, much to their consternation.

  • Has to be Camp Logan! Lots’ of swampy looking greenery out the windows, small lot. Lots of soft contemporary in that hood as well.

  • These folks have expensive taste and a love of art….I think of Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — “That house is like a museum, no wonder he’s so screwed up.”

    Due to the fact that the floors on the ground floor are all brick, this house must be near a bayou or other flood-prone area. The brick floors date the house to pre-oil bust (80’s). I’m going to go out on a limb and guess a house on Tiel/Troon on the east edge of River Oaks — which ever one is on the bayou side. The house was a steal when they bought it because modern houses were not in fashion then and there were no kids in the picture. My other guess is a townhome between 610, N Post Oak, Memorial, & I10.

  • I think this is a 50’s house with a very tasteful redo. Braes Heights or Ayreshire where the neighbors are close and the original houses are your basic ranch construction that some have chosen to update. The parquet floored gameroom feels like a garage conversion to me.

  • Down and dirty — Bellaire!

  • I am going to go with Memorial / Eldridge / HWY 6 area of town. I have seen small yards in that area. About the right age to be in that area also.

  • smells like Bryker Woods

  • Hmm…looks like an older construction to me. Huge open living spaces but small bathrooms make me believe the home is at least 40-50 years old. I wanted to say Meyerland but those lots are generally big, this backyard looks tiny, and is that the neighbors house in one of the pictures? Small lot + older construction + big house = West U/Rice Village area. Something off of Bissonnet sounds right to me.

  • I agree with the river oaks guesses.
    This house is huge, and everything in there says they have money to burn.
    BUT, Big but though, it does appear to be on a small lot, so probably south of San Felipe and far away from ostentatious Kirby.
    And its obvious they have several young kids, so I’m gonna say the area of River Oaks just north of westheimer, near River Oaks Park.

  • It’s nice, but not quite the right style for River Oaks, and the neighbors are too close. The owners clearly have some money, though, and the modern art says inner loop to me.
    I’m going with the northern half of Afton Oaks, or whatever you call that just east of 610 and south of Westheimer

  • Furthermore..
    The kitchen bay window appears to mirror the master bedroom bay window…which appear to be on either side of the living room window with the huge columns. So i no longer think this is a small lot… i think its a wide lot and this house uses up every available bit of it. And eventhough it looks from the exposed aggregate walk in the back that they might have swimming pool, the back yard doesnt appear very deep at all.
    anyways.. just throwing stuff out there.

  • What’s new, pussycat? Whoa,oowhoaoowhoaaaa…That’s some decor! All the obvious guesses have already been placed so after a stab at one of the more recent remodels in Hudson Oaks — naw, not green enough outside — I’ll venture that this pattern-filled family pad is actually somewhere near the Houston Country Club, say around the San Felipe-Potomac-Bering area. The grandeur and size of the house, the too-near brick wall of the neighbor’s place, the wood fence and established southwest-Houston verdure point to this part of town. Also it is close enough to Kinkaid and the Fay School to make the morning carpool not too onerous. But inquiring minds want to know if that sculpture facing the commode is in fact a toilet-tissue holder that has been cleaned up for the shoot.

  • Seems like a bit too much yard for Camp Logan area, so I’m going w/Briargrove or an adjacent ‘hood, maybe around Nantucket or Potomac. This was an area of ranch homes and small apts., until the eighties or nineties when this home was built.

  • Old money with new taste. I’m going with Tanglewilde.

  • I’m with marmer: that drum set is a toy and not really playable. This divorced parent is stuffing music down the kid’s throat; he just wants to skate-board & tramp through the house with dirty Vans!

    I don’t get how many folks think its a 50’s house. I think it’s early 80’s construction. I like the spacious rooms and the natural light.

  • It’s gotta be around Rice – north, I think. He’s a music prof at Rice & teaches on the side, hence the recording setup in the LR. She’s a SAHM who’s expecting her 3rd or 4th (see the baby glider in the kitchen?), thus the need for the move.
    The drum set was bought used (hoping that Junior would outgrow the passion).

    What is that structure across the street?

    The house flooded in the epic flood of 1976 when the water on Greenbriar completely covered the cars – the original floors were replaced with brick at that time.

    Ok, well, if Rice U area won’t work, how about that strange little pocket east of 610 & above Post Oak? Briar Hollow Lane-ish?
    P.S., I love Fleming’s, Gus – give me the prize & you can have half of it… *wink*

  • Ain’t no music prof at Rice with a SAH spouse who can afford a place like this…

    flake, I remember that ’76 flood, and our carpool mom trying to get us home to Meyerland from Rice that afternoon. She kept her cool and was resourceful and safe the whole time, even when the sedan floated with the currents now and then. It took about four hours and we saw what really happens with flooding at the Braeswood/610 intersection. Looking back, it really was a miracle that we and the car got home at all that day.

  • Southgate. Do I hear my sirloins sizzling?

  • It’s not a music professor at Rice. I know them all.

  • I am going with Westhaven estates as my first choice, and West Lane Place as a back up choice. It looks like a very early 80’s “patio mansion.” A cousin of the Mcmansion.

  • the kitchen is awful and i think it looks very thin like a patio home….i am going to guess around sage near the bayou (i am new to houston and this game so i am not sure of areas) but looks like the its near sage buffalo bayou near memorial

  • The floor plan and ceilings suggest to me that this is new-ish construction. Looking past the stately columns I can’t see a house across the street, making me think that this one either faces a park or the open end of a cul-de-sac. Backyard is small, lots of manicured ivy growing on the fences. Obviously the lot is not very wide seeing as the neighbor’s brick wall is all that can be seen from the windows adjacent to the fireplace.

    I’m casting another vote for River Oaks – south of Ella and North of Westheimer – perhaps near Rebecca Meyer Park?

  • @Miz Brooke Smith.. I think that freakish “sculpture” in the WC is a disguised rack to hold a wet bath towel. That ‘may’ explain the arm angles.

    Comments on the ‘kids’ room: The drum kit is staged. No throne, no hi-hat/cymbals, the floor tom is not upright…. just for looks. Also, the free weights in front are relatively substantially weighted and I see an exercise rack on the left ready to be pulled out for this recently divorced Dad to use and try to get rid of his new 12-pack abs. The small desk and bunk beds tell me he is semi-prepared for the weekends when his new girlfriend’s kids stay over.

  • Brad – lol to “divorced dad” comments….
    it’s also possible that dad’s “new” 12 pack
    isn’t new and has something to do w/his brand-new “availability”! Just sayin’…
    Good one.

  • Hopefully the “answer evaluators” throw out overly-broad “guesses” like some offered on this thread. Also, shouldn’t one guess suffice (at least to be win-eligible)?

    If not (and if the Briargrove area is wrong), then: I think the home is inside Beltway 8, west of downtown, north of Hwy 90 (main @s. post oak), and not in any of Houston’s original wards.

    On the button! Precision guess! ; )

  • I used to know someone in a house that looks similar to that, but I can’t remember exactly where they lived…looking on Google Maps I’ll say north of Stude Park, East of Studemont.

  • Mid Lane townhouse.

  • Not quite sure what is up with the Eurway style furnishings in this 1970s soft contemporary but, then again, this guessing game has proved repeatedly that there is no accounting for taste even if one lives in a spacious home in Hunters Creek Village. Could I have made that a longer sentence?

  • Tealwood (Memorial/Gessner) is my guess. Looks familiar as I have driven through it quite a bit.

  • Good call on the Bosendorfer, the legs are right. Like many others, I kinda think this place is (appropriately enough) in Sandalwood near my old piano teacher’s house. But that area is sort of covered already (except for the Sandalwood part) so I’m going to hedge my bets and be the first person to go way outside the loop to the Woodlands area. Why the heck not. I hope my vote doesn’t get thrown out for hedging!

  • Tiny lot, new-ish construction with a fair amount of money (countertops, piano, art) and at least one child – I’m going West U. They threw up the white columns on the new construction to try to fit into the neighborhood even though their personal style is more reflected by the multiple white leather sofas.

  • It reminds me so much of a friend’s house over in the Memorial area. I think this house is near Voss and Beinhorn – in the 77024 area.

  • The lot is pretty big, with the home taking up most of the lot. I feel like this could be kenny G’s vacation home for some reason (piano, mic, etc) I have to think that with the closeness of nieghbors, brick finishing with ivy, no yard to speak of. I have to go with Briargrove. More specifically the area of Briargrove in between Briargrove and Potomac south of San Felipe and north of Westhiemer.

  • OK, you’ve made it clear that I’m wrong about the prof business. So I’m changing my mind. She’s a singer; he’s an oil executive who travels most of the time, bringing home art & skins as souvenirs. The oldest boy is off at boarding school now (he’s the one that plays pingpong). Middle child is the music nut, and the baby-to-come has Mom pretty tired (she just got up from bed to help stage the pictures). I still think they are north of Rice, in the Briar Hollow area, or near the intersection of Woodway and Memorial (is all of that Tanglewood)?
    I’m still trying to make sense of the brick structure you can see from the LR. It looks too big to be a house.

  • If they have one in college and she is preggers than she must be the trophy wife and the older is the stepson.

    The piano is a leftover. Kid took lessons and they had dreams of his becoming a concert pianist but he opted for thrash. The ping pong table is actually borrowed because their realtor told them they couldn’t show a house with an empty room.

  • OK – Last minute guess here – haven’t had time to read all the previous guesses. Arched windows say 80’s construction to me as does the study with fireplace. Looks to be narrow and long with entry on the side. Also looks to be very vertical in layout. Based on the brick floors on the ground floor it must be near a bayou or water feature. Some green space outside but abutting neighboring residences. Many updates say it must be in a nice area but the kitchen cabinets are not up to par. I agree with the observations about single parents – I guess this must be in Hudson Oaks or Hudson Forest – dad divorced his wife and she got the house in Bunker Hill.