Neighborhood Guessing Game: Room for Fun

What happened to Tuesday’s Neighborhood Guessing Game? This week it became Wednesday’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. And here it is!

Up for grabs this week: a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance. And you’ll win it — if you guess the location of this week’s mystery mansion. If more than one of you guesses the correct neighborhood, the prize will go to the player who provided the best explanation for the guess.

What if you already know this home, or if you come across the listing while the game is on? Please don’t blurt out the answer and ruin the game for everyone else. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing — to give us a heads-up. Then submit an incorrect guess, but make it sound entirely plausible. If you do this well enough to throw other players off the scent, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the correct location, you could win the prize!

How about taking a good look around?

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Think you’ve got this place figured out? Even with these rooms?

This week you’ll have until Friday to come up with that answer! Put yours in the comments and check back in to see how you did!

Update, 10/2: The game has been extended!

Update, 10/5: And the winner is . . . !

Photos: HAR

48 Comment

  • My guess is somewhere just outside the Loop, looks a lot like the houses in Oak Forest between Afton and TC Jester to me, especially with the vaulted ceiling in the living room and the mature live oaks out the window.

  • Katy, just west of south Fry Road. After Ike, they had severe brick damage that the insurance company doesn’t want to pay for, so they are hoping it burns down while they are out of town.

  • Olde Oaks off 1960. 1970s & updated through the years.

  • I’m going with the Memorial/Dairy Ashford area. I’ve been in several houses over there that had a similar layout to this one. However, those homeowners must have had less of a problem with evil spirits lurking in their living rooms, since they didn’t have nearly as many crosses nailed to the wall.

  • Looks like a big old rambly rancher from the late 60s. Kitchen and bath have been updated at least once, but it’s got the old fashioned diamond “burglar bar” things that characterized that time. Probably one story. I’m thinking Memorial Villages or somewhere south of I-10 and east of Highway 6. There’s a lot of color and texture here, I actually kinda like it.

  • The neighborhood is heading south just like our 401K. We give up let’s… sell this place off Briar Forest between Dairy-Ashford and Wilcrest, near Lakeside CC.

  • A lot of close guesses, but these free spirited retirees are certainly looking to move to an upscale patio home now that all the kids are squared away with kids of their own. This gem of an old house is just a block or two south of Memorial Herman/Mall.

  • Hey. That’s my kitchen, or it’s one just like mine.

    And that front door — I’ve been dragged through that front door by my kindly, yet easily confused, elderly neighbor who insisted I come visit with her. Or at least, a front door just like it.

    And that bathroom. They took out the original one-inch tiles, and pebble motif counter and backsplash, but we still have ours.

    I’ll be darned if this house isn’t inside the Beltway, most likely west of Bunker Hill, but I can’t say if it’s north or south of I 10, because the floor plans are very similar. If it’s on the north, it’s south of Hammerly. If it’s on the south it’s north of Memorial.

    It dates back to some time between 1959 and 1965, and probably has 3 or 4 bedrooms, two baths – this one probably doesn’t have the half bath that occasionally pops up around here. The square footage is south of 3200, but probably above 2700.

  • I agree with most of the other posters that this house is in Memorial…..probably close to Beltway 8. “Chester” may be in the name. (I don’t know the subdivision names out there)

    I’ll take a stab at the people live here. Their fortunes have improved and they are moving to the better section of Memorial for a bigger house and the schools. She stays at home and, thus, has plenty of time to shop. Ikea first (red couch room), then Pottery Barn, then finally West Elm (chocolate colored bedroom), with many trips to the Marshalls Superstore as well.

  • The circles in the bedroom say Kingwood to me.

  • I’m gonna shoot at the Lake Houston area around where Red Wolf or Redd Foxx Golf Course, or whatever that goat track is called now. They seemed enamored with the little diamond shapes in the windows and things seemed to come to come to a dead stop around 1969 in the housing stock for a looong time ’round there.

  • The faux-Leaded glass window inserts in certain rooms scream “Tudoresque”, which could put this in many neighborhoods, such as Bellaire, Westbury, etc. However, the living room’s high ceilings in the rear speak differently, which makes it seem much more “suburban”, most likely placing it somewhere in the “outer-inner-loop” or “inner beltway” vicinity. This home has plenty of updates, which compliment the menagerie of design origins. Most likely built in the 60’s.
    The garage is visible from the dining/breakfast nook shot, so it is on a decent sized lot. Perhaps Tanglewood is not too far off then? Neither is Meyerland, or Riverside Terrace, for that matter.

  • This house give me a clear feeling of Clear Lake.

  • Layout looks just like my old house off Memorial and Dairy Ashford, Nottingham something, minus the circles in the bedroom!

  • I think this is a ranch-style in the braes heights area near the medical center.

  • I am guessing this house is from the early 80’s and has been updated quite a bit. Maybe Lakewood Forest?

  • The trees and the open yard, the slightly-aged but expensively updated interior, all say Brook Forest/Clear Lake to me.

  • What’s with the pig face over the kitchen sink? And the collage picture frame next to the master toilet, got me there.

    Anyways, 2 story house, built between 1975 and 1980, I see a glimmer of water outside the family room window so I’m guessing pool, the only thing not updated/renovated are those windows.

    I’m placing this beauty in the Pinehurst/Humble area.

  • Wilchester, Westchester, Nottingham Forest, Nottingham VIII. That’s where justguessin and Amy were headed. And I agree with them – I can definitely see this house out there. The leaded glass entry, the windows, the trees, the layout, etc. It’s an interesting blend of old-fashioned (but new and relatively tasteful) stuff and new fangly design elements – I don’t see how the circle room fits with the rest of the house, but obviously someone has spent some quality time with sherman williams! The bevvy of crosses also indicate west houston to me, based on my time in youth group…

  • I also place this one around ten and the beltway. Perhaps somewhere in Spring Shadows, or on the other side of ten around the Gessner area.

  • What fun! Nicely cared for and maybe the personality of this home is over the top, but I can see it without the floral curtains and flocked wallpaper. Rooms look pretty large, and the living/family room vaulted ceiling is very nice. The door says Meyerland, Maplewood to me, but the fireplace throws me. Oh well, Maplewood.

  • Ashford Village area. Over there by Wilcrest and Briar Forest. 77077.

  • This home spoke to me because I grew up in a neighborhood of homes just like this. I want to say West U, but I think it’s just outside, like Southgate Place — my childhood stomping grounds. Definitely a neighborhood near the Med Center. I disagree with the posts that it’s an older couple, because to me this is someone who watches a heck of a lot of HGTV.

  • I’m going to Huntwyck Forest circa 1974 for this one. Is it just me or is anyone else sick of seeing that same kitchen set up that is in every other house in post 1962 Kickerillo Country?

  • Looks like a mid 70’s Custom Castle in Clear Lake, well built and well cared for but someone already guessed there, my second guess is Huntwick off 1960 but someone guessed that too. I am going with Quail Valley, lots of similar Tudors along the old course.

  • Somewhere near the Costco on Bunker Hill

  • Within a reasonable walk of IKEA.

  • That sure looks like the houses in Green Trails or Green Trail Estates where I used to live. A late 1980s development, the cabinet details, large brick fireplace, formal living/dining, and large bedrooms are all similar.

  • Some Catholic girl wrote the book of Laura Ashley and her Journey through the Valley of Pottery Barn. Then, she was possessed by a Sherwin Williams’ satanic book of ideas in the bedroom. Go figure, she took this spiritual journey without ever leaving Champions Forest.

  • Y’all are funny this week. This 50-year-old opus-in-progress is in the “opera” neighborhood off the West Sam and Memorial — Butterfly, Boheme, Tosca, in there somewhere, singing the Updated Aria.

  • I think Jacob knows exactly where this house is and has provided us with a red herring. I put this house in one of the tonier neighborhoods near off Memorial just east of Hwy. 6. Also, I don’t see any Ikea, and I know my Ikea. I spy some Crate and Barrel, though.

  • Somebody found hgtv on the cable. I’m going to guess near guessner south of clay north of i10 near pincrest golf course

  • Hummmm – I would have sworn the family room drapes and the brown and blue bespread were Swedish…

  • Hmmm, Walnut Bend.

  • The lots don’t have enough tall trees for the forested part of town, which eliminates the Villages (& the Chesters west of them) for me. Seems more open & prairie-ish, even scrubby. Yet there’s the Kickerillo feel, for sure. Hmmm. I’m going to say Sharpstown or Braeburn area. Maybe close to HBU (maybe a faculty member?)

  • looks too country-like to be anywhere near the beltway…maybe old Katy, around Katy-Hockley Rd?

  • you guys are way off. This is in Baytown; a retired Exxon/Mobil executive whose wife dabbles in interior desecration. It has been ‘refreshed’ since IKE and they are getting outta there.

  • Nottingham Country: Fry and Kingsland area. In Katy.

  • Spring Creek Oaks!! That is my kitchen and bathroom.

  • Has anybody said Mission Bend/West Bend yet?

  • Northampton.

  • It must be Pasadena. The diamond pane front windows say a 1960’s Nasa employee was the original owner.

  • Here’s my loose change: Cypress or Jersey Village.

  • Dickenson. Why not?

  • Pretty much out of process of elimination from the 45 (!?!) other guesses, I am going with Hearthstone Country Club, maybe the oldest parts of Copperfield, the newest parts of Briar Meadow right by the pool, the far eastern portion of Pearland around Green Tee or off of Yost Blvd., or finally maybe Memorial Northwest although the trees are the wrong shape to be that far north.

  • This is one of those big west- River Oaks houses, near where Willowick curves back around toward the south. Some big old rambly ranch houses around there.

  • Or why not in Texas City, up on the north side of town around 25th Avenue North.(thanks Bing Maps!)