Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: The Houston Highlands

Which one of you just won a night at La Torretta Del Lago?

We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, a recap of your guesses for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. The most popular locations were Nottingham Forest (6 guesses), the Energy Corridor (4), and Spring Shadows (3). Thornwood, Kingwood, Nottingham Country, Lakeside Forest, and Barker’s Landing got two guesses each. The rest: Crestwood, Rice Military, Camp Logan, off Dairy Ashford, near Terry Hershey Park, Wilchester, Westchester, “Dairy Ashford/Wilcrest area,” “the Ponderosa Forest area (1960/Kuykendahl),” Ponderosa Forest, Newport subdivision in Crosby, Briargrove, Tanglewood, Memorial, Spring Branch, Shadow Oaks, Sherwood Oaks, “Braeswood/Bellefontaine area, sorta south West-U-ish,” “north of Memorial, south of I-10 . . . between Gessner and Kirkwood,” Montrose, “one of those out-there, almost Energy Corridor, Memorial Villages,” Nottingham Forest 8, Clear Lake, “the Spring Branch/Shadows area between the Beltway and Gessner in the vicinity of Hammerly Blvd.,” Memorial Meadows, Shepherd Park Plaza, “around the Bear Creek Park area,” Ashford Forest, Olde Oaks, Baytown, Memorial Villages, Hedwig Village, “that bit of Houston proper between Bunker Hill & Gessner above Memorial,” Lakeside Estates, Lakeside Place, Briargrove Park, Walnut Bend, Nottingham, Nottingham West, Memorial Northwest, “somewhere between Gessner, Memorial and I-10,” Champions, Greenwood Forest, College Station, “older Champions, south of 1960, Greenwood Forest, Theall Rd. runs through the area,” “somewhere off Memorial View Drive, just west of Eldridge and Memorial,” “that little old neighborhood . . . tucked in between Memorial Oaks Cemetery and Hershey Park . . . could be a little further west off Barker’s Landing (closer to Hwy 6),” “in the middle of the 1960/Champions/249 asteroid belt . . . a block or two from Champions Forest Shopping Center,” “I45 and Cypresswood, near Spring High School,” “the neighborhood bordered by Kempwood and Hammerly and Campbell and Gessner in Spring Branch,” Memorial and Dairy Ashford, Sharpstown, and Bellaire.

Did you leave anything out?

The winner of an overnight stay with breakfast for two in a Tower suite at the La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe is . . . Rachel, who sprung this wandering guess on us:

I grew up in a house similar to this style too of Wilcrest and Memorial. How I loved going to the neighborhood pool during the summer. Many have already guessed that area so I am going to guess elsewhere…Hmmm the multiple locks on the front door does translate to either a nervous home owner or an area of town which isn’t the safest. I think my Mom has those exact same chairs in the pictured in the livingroom, she has had her’s reapolstered…All along I45 there are some smaller older neighborhoods closer to the freeway. I would say the Huntsville area, but there aren’t enough pine trees in the backyard…I will go with I45 and Cypresswood, near Spring High School.

Congratulations — and enjoy your stay! Also very close, with guesses of Ponderosa Forest, were Jeff and David. David takes special honors this week for this compelling walkthroughand guess:

I can see why so many are drawn to Kickerillo and the Energy Corridor. I feel like I know this house. Come in the front door, wainscoting in the foyer, formal living on the left, formal dining on the right with a bay window. Continue through to the paneled den with corner fireplace to the left and further to the left the downstairs master on the front and master bath toward the back past all the built-ins. Kitchen and breakfast on the right in the back. Period porcelain pulls on the dark stained kitchen cabinets. Walk through a utility room to the detached garage connected by a breezeway. Office is an upstairs bedroom on the right side front of the house with a door out to the upstairs balcony with a wrought iron railing. Probably four bedrooms up with hollywood baths. I bet there is a pocket door between the dining room and the kitchen.

I don’t think it is in the Energy Corridor, though. Some details are Kickerillo but some don’t seem right like the bay window around the tub. It is the right aluminum framed variety from that era but I don’t remember any houses like that. Kickerillo did some other developments – I am going with Ponderosa Forest due to the lack of recent updates and a feeling in my gut.

Very nice. But probably better to go with this gut feeling:

***

Location: 1202 Glouchester Ln., Inverness Forest
Details: 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths; 2,953 sq. ft. on a 11,050-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $149,500
The Scoop: 2-story 1970 brick-and-siding Colonial on corner lot directly behind the Ashton Gardens event venue in Inverness Forest. Convenient to FM 1960 and the Hardy Toll Road; not far from Cypress Creek. Covered patio in rear; brick path leads to potting shed with “bubbling fountain.” Upstairs bedrooms connect to front balcony. On the market for 3 weeks.

Hey, that’s just about halfway to Lake Conroe, no? Let us know when you’re ready to play again — we meet here every Tuesday!

3 Comment

  • It would be worth more if it was in Nottingham Forest.

  • RE miss_msry’s point – it is amazing how that works in Houston. Same house, probably same builder, same sort of subdivision when it was new. If that same oil and gas junior executive had bought the same new house back in ’70 in Nottingham Forest, he’d be looking at a $450K + pay day. It will be interesting to see which areas developed in the most recent boom will be the Nottingham Forests and which ones will be more like this subject. Any speculations out there??

  • Not knowing either neighborhood well, I’ll venture a guess: Nottingham Forest is closer to more jobs, shopping, etc. Just for kicks I plugged this house’s address into Google, and then picked a random listing from Nottingham Forest.

    The car trips were theoretically close; the transit trip from Nottingham forest involved a 5 minute walk and one bus ride (under an hour); the Inverness address began with a 20+ walk to a park and ride.

    Add in the many jobs on the west side of town, and I have to think that the same home there is more valuable because the location is inherently more valuable that a neighborhood north of 1960.

    It works that way everywhere, in fact.