07/11/11 1:31pm

How many games of saltwater volleyball have actually been played in the backyard pool of this opened-up 1938 cottage at one of Colquitt’s stub ends? Inside, walls have been removed in the main living space, and colors let loose. Still: 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, in 2,338 sq. ft. Plus, whatever you play in the back, all those folks in the 5-story Upper Kirby Apartments across Morningside looking down on you from their neighborhood-side windows will no doubt be jealous that you get that backyard space all to yourselves. More pics:

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07/11/11 10:55am

A reader sends in photos of several signs posted near the corner of Spring and Goliad streets, in the shadow of the 45 overpasses not too far north of Downtown. And there they are, like halved pears, stripped skinless, golden in heavy syrup. Our tipster wants to know who the artist is. (And really, don’t you?) Also, if this qualifies as . . . graffoetry? Grafauxetry?

More First Ward sign findings below:

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07/08/11 7:29pm

A new draft ordinance prepared by the city’s planning department aims to make it tougher to build tall buildings next to single-family homes. The proposal is called the High Density Ordinance, but many of its restrictions would apply to any structure more than 75 feet tall, no matter how tightly packed or slow-witted the folks are inside. Well, with some exceptions: The restrictions wouldn’t apply to buildings in “major activity centers” of the city. Districts could apply for that designation, but the planning department includes maps of 8 of them right off the bat: Downtown, Greenway Plaza, the Galleria area, the Med Center, Greenspoint, the Energy Corridor, Westchase, and the stretch of I-10 between Memorial City Mall and CityCentre. Also exempted from most of the proposed rules: Any tall building where all the adjacent streets are designated major thoroughfares. (In other words, a new office tower built on property in the middle of a Westheimer block apparently wouldn’t have to meet the new restrictions, but one at the corner of Westheimer and a smaller street like Woodway would.)

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07/08/11 2:33pm

Whatever your ethnicity, it’s probably not too far off from that of Julie, the Sitepal avatar some fun folks at Rebuild Houston have been using to narrate a series of videos demonstrating how to look up and recalculate the new drainage fee on your property using the city’s Drainage Utility Charge Viewer. Julie’s kinda like you — only maybe she moves and talks a little more stiltingly, and she probably wears more makeup. She’s probably also a little less concerned about the resulting monthly costs, or the imperviousness of the whole thing. Still, Julie’s a trooper: She appears to be standing in the middle of Buffalo Bayou, getting her own feet wet as she processes the script into remarkably natural-sounding speech, blinks occasionally, and convincingly wiggles her lips to the words.

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07/08/11 11:18am

NEW HOUSTON STEAK ’N SHAKES READY TO BAKE Thirty years after its first big move into Houston (with 5 locations that didn’t last too long), fast-food burger operation Steak ’n Shake is ready to roll into town in a big way again. Chodrow Realty Advisors’ David Littwitz says he’s been working to get 5 new franchises of the national chain open here soon — 1 this year, and 4 next. A Steak ’n Shake restaurant on FM 1960 at Eldridge has been open for 3 years; a second location on the I-10 feeder at Westgreen in Katy opened last year. [Houston Business Journal; history] Photo: Robert S.

07/07/11 8:43pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOW US YOUR PIPES! “Thats not stupid to show that. Thats’ not the inside of a sewer line, but it is the tunnel the plumbers have to dig to install the new sewer lines. A lot of old slab houses have broken sewer lines and you might never know. That work costs some serious jack!!” [Freddie J Jones, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photos of the Day: Fresh Sewage, Pipes]

07/07/11 4:17pm

NO MONEY DOWN — YOUR GOOD NAME IS YOUR CREDIT! For 3 years in Houston, Claymon Trammell pitched “an investment where the straw borrowers would not need any money down, would not be responsible for the monthly payments and would get money for the use of their name and credit.” Any takers? Sure: enough to allow Trammell, his wife, and daughter to swing “purchases” of more than 70 Houston-area homes — 17 in the name of a single repeat customer. There were payment defaults on every home, and most of them wound up in foreclosure, according to the feds. On Tuesday, the family of mortgage-loan officers from Manvel and Katy pled guilty together to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. [FBI]

07/07/11 2:42pm

Teevee news cameras provide a glimpse of the open-plan home fashioned out of a 12-ft.-by-25-ft. RV and boat storage unit in a long shed across the street from the I-10 East Golden Corral Restaurant. Prince and Charlomane Leonard have their home of 3 years all to themselves now, but they’re not happy about it: After a single 3-hour visit from Harris County’s Child Protective Services last month, the couple’s 6 children, ages 2 through 12, were removed from the home on McNair St. near Sheffield Blvd., which was declared an “unsafe environment” for the children. The Chronicle‘s Anita Hassan reports the Leonards had been planning to build a home for themselves on land they own in Liberty County, but couldn’t get a loan.

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