Here we go with that Neighborhood Guessing Game again! All that distracting furniture’s been cleared out, so you can focus on the house itself this time. Just one question: Where is this place?
Take a look at all the photos below, then let us know what neighborhood you think it’s in . . . and why. If you’ve never played before, please take a look at the rules before you post. There are a few twists!
Ready for more?
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That’s it! Add your guesses in the comments, below. Answer appears on Thursday.
Photos: HAR
Yeah, okay, this is the Overlook Hotel isn’t it? Y’know…Jack Nicholson walking down the hallway with an axe…those eerie twins…the elevators. Yes, this has to be one of the locations where the Shining was filmed.
Now this is a true gem. I love how they try to bring the outside in with the amazing “green room”. I would guess this is located on the East Side or perhaps the shaddy side of River Oaks.
Burglar bars on all the windows. Garish red carpet and even more garish green carpet. Built-in phone stand in hall so it is old. Tidwell/I-45 area. Close to Luna St.
I love the bars on the windows. Its very fashionable. Lets just hope there isn’t a fire. The red and green offer an astounding visual. Maybe this is where Santa Claus keeps his mistress during the year? It looks like someone attempted to do some updating but failed miserably. The plaid in the bathroom is wonderful. Anyone remember the John Candy character in Spaceballs? “We’ve gone to plaid!!”
Ahhh. I digress. Again.
This is a tiny house, probably built at least 50-60 years ago. And what on earth is that outside the window of the green room? Looks like a giant mushroom. I guess Santa likes his herbs.
I say its slum Inner Loop, but will go north into the cultural cavity that is bounded by I-45/59/I10/610.
I’m going to go with Afton Village… but specifically on the bad side of the neighborhood.
I’m going with Champions Forest.
It seems like a late 70s or early 80s where the kitchen’s were made larger and the Avocado green was given the boot!
Somebody’s poor grandma got packed off to a nursing home – this place is old – phone niche in the hallway, looks like it has an attic fan, hasn’t been updated in years except for the plaid bathroom – go Herculon! But it is so clean! Grandma loved this place – dig the fake flowers. Must be in a bad neighborhood with all the bars. I guess north side near the Hardy Toll Road.
Oh, yeah, baby… Jeff has made me spill Diet Coke on my keyboard with his hilarious Santa’s mistress snark, so I will just go with regular comments. The BIG red room looks like a remodeled garage as it is the only large room. The narrow hallway, built in phone nook, the small rooms and windows, cheezy bath fixtures and tile… all say east Westbury off Bellfort or maybe, Willowbend.
The Black Lodge from Twin Peaks.
Ryan beat me to it.. definately “Twin Peaks”ish.. *shudder*
This has “Family Circus” written all over it.
Great comments so far. I have to agree that this looks like an old 50’s northside house. Grandma most likely keeled over and bought the big cookie sheet in the sky as the place looks too neatly kept to have been lived in by someone slowly declining. And that carpeting…. only a hooker could love… or an old madam. At least grandma rated for a double oven. This could also have been in the oldest Oak Forest sections that Frank Sharp had built for the returning GI’s after WWII before the 60’s. Other possibilities could be Pasadena, or some parts of old Spring Branch, the Irvington area, north of 610 N between the toll road and 45, gulfgate area, east around the brewery or on the other side of the east loop. My best guess though is northside.
It’s been well cared for, but not really updated, so I’m thinking a neighborhood that never saw a vast decline nor such an increase in values that Grandma couldn’t resist selling. I’ll guess Lindale Park.
My official guess is I-45/Tidwell/Airline area. Next guesses are Lindale Park and Willowbend areas. Lindale Park still has lots of homes with burglar bars. I don’t know if Willowbend ever went to burglar bars.
Love it. Love it. Love it. redrum…
Maybe I am overly influenced by the walk-tour post… but I think this is in the post-oak so main area in the netherworld between the loop and the beltway.
One more thing I noticed… the mirrors everywhere make this home look HUGE! I can hear the agent now, “Get all of this furniture out, it just clutters up the room and put mirrors up! Go to Lowe’s and get about a dozen and hang them all over.”
meyerland
Sharpstown, of course!
Poor Granny. We loved her so. I’m hoping for the Stella Link/Willowbend area – to the east of Post Oak and South of the Loop. She was quite a housekeeper though. Gosh I miss her.
When did Liberace move out?? I think it’s off Irvington Park Blvd. just north of the 610 North Loop.
I dunno…something about this place says later eastside, maybe south of the Lawndale/Telephone nexus but well inside the South Loop. The phone shelf in the hall, the late-1940’s kitchen cabinetry…that long hallway speaks of an early post-war prosperity. Not too sure, so this is my wacky 2 cents this week.
Another guess: Riverside/McGregor. The paneling, the carpet (oh the carpet), the mirrors, the burglar bars, the chandeliers — this is an older place someone spiffed up in the disco era.
It’s a late 1940s house in an area that went downhill in the second half of the 20th century. I’m guessing inner-loop, east of downtown – Houston Country Club Place/Simms Woods, Hampshire Oaks, or Mason Park Terrace. The house could also be in Glenbrook Valley, but it looks a little too old.
This looks a lot like my mom’s house, which was built in 1952. The attic fan switch and heater filter detail are identical. Lots of other bathroom elements and little architectural touches are similar. Unfortunately for this particular Guessing Game, she doesn’t live in Houston. Fortunately for me, she’s still alive and has neither the money nor the bad taste to do this to her house. Mid-to-low priced postwar tract house. Not a bungalow. Pre-MCM. Could be almost anywhere. Just for fun I’ll say the OST/Griggs/South Loop area. Wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be near East Side or near South Side, though. Might even be in the Mykawa/South Acres/Bellfort/Almeda Genoa-kind-of-area.
The hall is too long for Willowbend. I’m guessing Mangum/290 area.
Westbury Square/W. Airport area
Hmm. I am thinking Spring Branch. The burglar bars make me think it may be close to Longpoint or Gessner. I love the plaid wall paper in the bath, it’s killer!
This is wannabe tanglewood aka briarcroft that only just allowed its ranchs to be zoned for two stories a few years ago.
Old Briarcroft homes did not have the phone niches. I grew up in one.
WHERE ARE THE WINDOW UNITS? It’s the heat that killed grandma. There are no registers for central air/heat and there’s an old ceramic heater in the master bath.
And that lovely double oven in the kitchen? It replaces an old freestanding stove that used to have a chimney through the ceiling (note the totally inadequate ventilation over the current cooktop).
Eastside. Inside the loop. Probably around Navigation or the Elysian viaduct.
This says ’40s rather than 50’s to me.