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Tag: 77025
The bandana-clad figure atop the trailer pictured above demonstrates the type of behavior that’s expected from patients at the ReadyPet clinic, parked and open for business in the parking lot on the corner of Stella Link and S. Braeswood Blvd. While the vehicle itself has been there since late 2016, its rooftop topping didn’t arrive until the following year. Among the services offered inside: ear cleanings, blood work, nail trimmings, vaccinations, and other routine veterinary procedures for dogs as well as cats, despite their lack of representation on the exterior.
The clinic’s location puts it just north of the former Preferred Bank branch indicated by the standalone yellow rectangle on the left in the map above. A bit further away is the largest storefront in the Stella Link Shopping Center, home now to the clinic’s affiliate, the Houston Pets Alive animal shelter.
It took over the former Sellers Bros. grocery store — pictured below — that closed down in the strip in 2015:
Top Dog
Bethany United Methodist Church has officially closed its doors at 3511 Linkwood Dr. after 68 years of services, putting a question mark on the map between Timberside Dr. and Buffalo Spdwy. At the back of the 5.5-acre religious complex, a portion devoted to the Bethany Methodist Weekday School remains open. But the church — which occupies the majority of the structure’s 48,000 sq. ft. — has been shuttered since early last month.
The last time Bethany planned to use its land for non-clerical purposes, it signed off on a 4-story senior living development that would’ve gone right up on a portion of the church complex — but the midrise never got off the ground. Had it risen, it would’ve been the first real shakeup on the block since the late ’90s, when the decades-old Dome Shadows nightclub fronting Buffalo Spdwy. bit the dust and nearly 70 newly-built homes rose up in its place — just east of the church.
Here’s what the club looked like on one of its slower days:
Latest Religious Relics
Step up here for stamps 4080 Breakwood Dr., a 2-bed, 2-bath structure in the block-long row of townhomes that sits between Lakeland and Fordshire drives, just off the South Loop West. Not many interior walls divide the open space you step into upon entering the house, and the one that does is done up as the service counter you’d find in an old post office.
On its employees-only side, the previous owners finished the bedroom floor with pennies. Here’s a closer up view of their investment:
Floor in Mint Condition
If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll see books are still on the shelf at 4103 Falkirk Ln., shown in the middle of its demolition last week. Work left an open-air reference section fronting the street from the fifth-of-an-acre parcel 2 blocks north of N. Braeswood. $500,000 is the asking price for the property, which hit the market last December. Since then, its across-the-street neighbor was also torn down, leaving a vacancy of the same size at 4102. Both houses went up in the early ’50s.
- 4103 Falkirk [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Dow and Out; Daily Demolition Report: Janak Junked
Photo of demolition: Swamplox inbox
Public Library
- 9011 Latma Ct. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: A SOGGY MOD FOR GRABS IN BRAESWOOD 
“For what it’s worth, my house flooded. I’m selling as is and would be thrilled for the free publicity.” [Joe, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Halfway House] Photo of 3611 N. Braeswood Blvd.: HAR
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BEWARE OF NEIGHBORHOOD AVERAGES 
“Anything zoomed out to the neighborhood scale post-Harvey impact-wise waters down the data so much as to be useless. In the Knollwood-Woodside area where homes are “up ~3%,†it’s a mix of ~$800k newbuilds that mostly didn’t flood and ~$400-500k 1950s houses, some of which flooded and many-most that didn’t. That means any additional newbuild sale immediately skews the pricing average. What has already hit the market lately are mostly original homes that flooded, being sold as-is as teardowns (continuing the trend of the neighborhood), with lot-value on an upswing. I guess I presume all of Knollwood will be new construction in the near future, and almost all of ‘greater Braeswood’ being new construction soon, with everything getting higher elevations . . .” [juancarlos31, commenting on Harvey’s Effect on Housing Prices, Neighborhood by Neighborhood; Houston Press Stops the Presses; Astros Fans Flood Downtown] Photo of house for sale at 8311 Lorrie Dr., Knollwood Village: HAR
It’s coming a little late for many homes in Meyerland, but excavation crews are once again at work widening the segment of Brays Bayou just downstream of that flooded neighborhood. Work on the segment between Buffalo Speedway and S. Rice Ave. began this past summer. The widening is a part of the decade-plus-old Project Brays, begun before but accelerated as a result of flooding during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
Water levels on the bayou have returned to a manageable level; this photo, sent in by a Swamplot reader, shows an excavator at work on its south bank just west of the inlet between Timberside Dr. and Bevlyn Dr.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Braeswood Place
Popular yet again in Houston: The DID NOT FLOOD sign topper. Here’s a new one spotted by wandering photographer Joshua House in front of the Covington Builders 4-story townhome development at 3821 N. Braeswood Blvd., one block north of Brays Bayou and a couple blocks east of Stella Link.
Where have you spotted signs like these in Harvey’s aftermath? Please send pics and coordinates to us. Swamplot wants to know what DID NOT FLOOD.
- 3821 N. Braeswood Blvd. [HAR]
Photo: Joshua House
Above It All
Entire episodes of TLC’s long-running reality TV series The Little Couple were devoted to the construction, outfitting, and decor of the 2-story home at 2802 Fairhope St. in Knollwood Village to accommodate the particular requirements — and dimensions — of the growing family of its owners, Dr. Jen Arnold and Bill Klein. The home has been shown off in magazine features, too (see the above video from People). Since the end of the show’s last season the couple has moved to Florida, however, and as of last week the home is up for sale. But here’s some news that might come as a disappointment to the show’s many fans — some of whom have chosen to show up on the home’s doorstep and leave notes for its stars: The home has already been renovated, and many of those little touches the couple so greatly appreciated (the custom-lower-height countertops in the kitchen, for example) have been replaced.
Non-fans or average-sized house shoppers just looking for a place to live, however, will probably appreciate the renovations just completed by Blackwell Design, which included raising all the shower heads; reworking the kitchen and bathrooms with standard-height counters; elevating the outdoor BBQ, and raising the cabinets in the laundry room and the vanity in the master closet. There’s also a new custom pantry in the kitchen.
Here’s a quick tour of the new interior:
Moving on Up
After Harvey hit, 2 and a half ft. of water coursed through the Adams family’s single-story home off Stella Link just north of Brays Bayou. In the video above, Tony Adams gives a tour of what was left after a dozen volunteers from Redemption Church on Timberside Dr. spent 4 hours last Thursday clearing it out and depositing the family’s ruined possessions by the curb.
Then on Sunday, more visitors came by:
Clean Break
- 3419 Linkwood Dr. [HAR]
All construction work appears to have stopped, a reader notes, on the transformation of the former Pilgrim Cleaners and (later) Shriners Hospital clothing donation drop-off building at 4005 N. Braeswood into a second location of the Bacco wine bar. (The building, at the corner of Stella Link, backs up to Brays Bayou.) A red tag from city’s floodplain management office sticky-noted to the window beside the front door and dated July 3 gives a hint as to why: “Remodeling without floodplain permit in the floodplain,” it reads. On the next line, it adds another bit of advice: “Need electrical, plumbing, and structural permits as well.”
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Sixties Ex-Dry Cleaning Spot To Be Made Over as a Brays-Side Wine Bar
Photo: Swamplot inbox
When It Pours
The monumental earthwork undertaking at 9339 Buffalo Spdwy., just south of Murworth and a bit north of the intersection with Main St., appears to be nearing completion. This is the 12-acre site where Dallas-based developer Tradition Senior Living is planning to plant its first Houston facility. A reader panning a camera from north to south this weekend from a spot on the Buffalo Spdwy. edge of the precipice shows the expansive extent of the enormous new dirt gap:
Digging In for Tradition
