Some Houston bungalows have to wait years before they can get into rehab, but this dark number on Brun St. has been the recipient of no fewer than 3 makeovers in the last decade.
Carol Isaak Barden bought the house in 2000 “to keep it away from the wrecking ball” — then spent so much “making it perfect,” she says, that she lost money when she sold it the following year.
The buyer, Mark Horn, thought the house was perfect . . . as a new location for his hair salon. So he made a few renovations of his own:
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- changed front porch entrance and added new stairs and handicap ramp
- took doors off of the bedrooms and plain cased them to make the openings wider for wheelchair access. Widened hall doorway.
- moved bathroom door over and widened.
- tore out master closet (which had been a sleeping porch prior) to make room for shampoo bowls
- added $10,000.00 additional lighting
- rerouted plumbing to accommodate shampoo bowls.
- took bathtub out so we could have a 5 foot radius for wheelchairs in bathroom (new changing room)
- took toilet out of half bath since a wheelchair could not move around
- added a stainless back splash to kitchen wall where we mixed hair color
Horn’s Solution for Hair parked at 1920 Brun for 2 years. “We had a neighbor across the street that was dead set on us not having the salon in the house. So, he was very instrumental in getting us out. And then there was the whole parking issue.” That’s what led the city to shut down the location. So Horn moved the salon back to its old site . . . and decided to move into the bungalow himself.
The changes this time:
- tore out shampoo bowls to make way for new master dressing room (custom cabinets made by my brother Paul)
- tore handicap ramp off front of house
- moved toilet to other side of bathroom to make way for a new soaking tub.
- added new tile to bathroom walls along with a glass shower wall
- recessed tracks in ceiling of both bedrooms and had custom drapes made to close off rooms instead [of] putting doors back on
- built a meditation platform in front of house
- took stainless off of wall in kitchen along with a box shelf
- Took $10,000.00 worth of salon lighting down and sold in garage sale
Late last month, Horn put the property back on the market — for someone else to renovate. The house has 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, and fits into 1,435 sq. ft. It’s now priced at $525,000, after a receiving a $10K haircut last week.
House stalker Carolina Saunders, who’d read about the Brun bungalow in a local magazine and had been keeping her eye on it since, arranged to wander through and take some photos when she heard it was for sale. She posted photos and comments on her blog earlier this month:
What I always admired from afar was the beautiful color scheme of the exterior. Its very bold but has a Zen feel, especially with the bamboo. . . .
I’m glad to say that I was not disappointed when I walked in the door. . . . I can say that I haven’t seen many homes with such a wonderful attention to detail. Something I really loved were the creative vignettes placed around the house.
The large open doorways are a remnant of when the house was a beauty salon. Instead of replacing the doors the owners either left them open or installed heavy draperies from tracks. The bedroom also has a fabulous dressing room that once was a porch.
P.S. The cool framed numbers are from Ebay!
Yes, that’s a mirror installed along the back fence.
- 1920 Brun St. [HAR]
- A Modern Cottage. [Carolina Eclectic]
- Extreme Makeover [Tribeza]
- Makeover magic [Houston Chronicle]
Photos: Jack Thompson (2 at top); Carolina Saunders (all others)
Wow! That is beautiful. Great photos too.
Wow! How do they keep the mirrored fence clean? The lot behind us is empty now but when the economy picks up it will be a 3-story StuccoTuscadeEspanya monstrosity that I’d like to hide. Show me to the mirrors please.
love the house!
Love the house too but the price seems about $80,000 out of whack…
It is unfortunate that the owner may have overimproved it but at the end of the day this is a 1,450 sf house.
i LOVE this house… im new to houses and want to know what i should ask for when i ask for something like this.
is it a bungalow? fixer upper? im not sure what these are referred to as… also, is this REALLY a 525k home? is that what i should expect?
i think that if i got a home with same style,location but more fixer upper id b happy.
Who sweeps up the dead birds that smash into the mirror?
I have a property in the 77019 area. I am undecided on what to do with it. I expect the property value is in the land rather then house in this instance above. $525K sounds about the going rate in that area for the house above. For the land alone my house sits on I could easily take half a million for it. It raises real questions, since anything I did to the property would not add to its value, if that makes sense. Just recently for instance I noticed that Croix are building on a lot which previously had a fabulous little bungalow on, which was in excellent condition and well restored, sadly Croix demolished it because the value was in the land itself. Sadly also the seller looks to have let it go for less than the land was worth. The house value becomes confusing in the whole value thing. I’ve noticed that builders even the ‘build on your own lot’ people are reluctant to help, give any advice, or take on the work – they want the land, it’s as simple as that. Rather than give it to those people I will probably end up restoring the property and living in it, but whatever is spent on it, it will not add anything to the value of the property which is a sad thing.
I would never put a mirror where the sun could shine on it – the reflection of the sun coming off the mirror could start a fire! I left one on my kitchen table once, and my husband came home to a house full of smoke. The mirror bounced the reflection back onto a chair under the window, and had 6 inch by 1 inch burned spot on it. We were just lucky he got home before it burst into flames!
So….what did this house sell for? Its not on HAR anymore.
And David – if you’re going to live in the house for a few years – it IS very hard to put a value on what renovations would mean for you in terms of comfort and enjoyment. If you’re going to live there, make sure any improvements you make enable you to be comfortable and happy for a long while and keep in mind, not everyone wants to live in a McMansion or Patio Home. If your renovations are good, someone will by the house because its still intact, not in spite of it.
So….what did this house sell for? Its not on HAR anymore.
And David – if you’re going to live in the house for a few years – it IS very hard to put a value on what renovations would mean for you in terms of comfort and enjoyment. If you’re going to live there, make sure any improvements you make enable you to be comfortable and happy for a long while and keep in mind, not everyone wants to live in a McMansion or Patio Home. If your renovations are good, someone will buy the house because its still intact, not in spite of it.
It didn’t sell is my understanding. It was taken off the market. It was way over listed. I looked at it and it was a very well done house but very small. The 1,435 sf number included a 1 bedroom apartment in the garage. The main house was no more than 1,100 sf.
I have a friend that made an offer, was countered at full price and told that full price was the only amount the seller would accept. He walked and I suspect that no one else came along.
This was just too much money for too little house and, regardless of posts to the contrary, the land is not worth $525,000; not today anyway. The land value is closer to $400,000 in this market where builders are mostly on the sidelines.
Charlie sounds a lot like a builder, I’m beginning to get the picture of what is actually going on over there. Builders are buying up properties like this for less than they are worth, demolishing them and building Mcmansions. That’s plain fact! The land in this case (I’m guessing the plot is much the same size as others that the older houses sit on) is worth around $500,000, which is contrary to charlie’s downplaying of it. Builders simply cannot buy ENOUGH land in that area of Houston, and only a fool would let his home AND LAND go for less than its worth. There are huge profits for the builders in the properties that replace this and properties like it. Typically down comes the house and up go two 3 story abominations. The builder easily profits at least half a million in the end. The owner should either hold out until the economy recovers and sell it then, or just live in it. It’s a lovely part of town, and if you sell it you will probably never be able to buy there again. It is a sad fact that the BUYERS over there happen to be THE BUILDERS. I say hold out and don’t play their game…
the lot is not worth $500,000. it is on brun street. brun street is in montrose. it is not even a full size 6,250 sf montrose lot. it is a 5000 sf lot. the house is amazing. it is listed at what the owner thinks is land+structure and is probably too high. again, amazing house and the incremental buyer who wants style might overbid someday. i know it will create wails of protest but i bet the lot is worth well less than $400,000.