10/11/18 1:45pm

Between 1111 Guinea Dr.’s 1966 appearance in Better Homes & Gardens and the date it listed last Tuesday, there’s been time to mix things up in both the kitchen and the rest of the house. Not that everything’s different inside, though — those racket-like chairs, while not the originals, definitely take a page out of the magazine.

The house, a couple blocks west of Wirt Rd., is under contract now; it’s asking price: $890,000. Stepping on through the double doors pictured at top puts you right around the corner from the living area shown below:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

1111 Guinea Dr.
05/10/16 5:15pm

Biohazard signs in Spring Branch at Westview and Moritz drives

Biohazard signs in Spring Branch at Westview and Moritz drives

The latest addition to the growing collection of signage at the Westview Dr. crossing of Spring Branch: a shiny new stick-in-your-yard-style biohazard warning sign, one of a number that popped up over the weekend along stretches of the creek that got the full vermillion treatment after last week’s chemical-fueled warehouse fire about a mile upstream. The newcomer joins the inveterate kiddo-crossing and school-zone signs tipping off drivers to the proximity of both Moritz Pech Family Park and Valley Oaks Elementary School, along with a Keep Spring Branch Clean & Green! anti-litter placard and a vintage No Dumping $200 Fine.

Other indicators of last week’s spill include the multi-colored booms still strung across the waterway (shown here looking south):

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Trickling Through the Memorial Villages
12/01/15 11:00am

1 Pine Creek Ln., Hilshire Village, Houston

Positioned above a fork in Spring Branch Creek just north of I-10, this 1971 mod was designed by former occupant Roland Beach, who passed away last April after living in the home for more than 40 years with his family. Beach, an exporter of construction materials to Barbados, produced much of the 2,630-sq.-ft. home’s extensive wood paneling and detailing in his own shop in the property’s detached 2-car garage.

His 3-bedroom, 3-bath dreamhouse was remodeled in 2008, when Beach added a master suite containing a round sleeping area, a sauna, and a kitchenette with dining space — allowing occupants to get away from it all without actually leaving the home. The house was named one of Houston Mod’s “Mods of the Month” for November; the asking price dropped to $825k from just under $840k at the end of October, after a few weeks on the market.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Suburban Retreat
08/25/14 5:00pm

1035-ridgeley-03

1035-ridgeley-01

Apart from the snazzy red cars parked by the home’s courtyard entry, a flat-topped 1963 Hilshire Village property keeps a low profile beneath the canopy of mature trees on its large lot, which is located in the Burkhardt Plaza neighborhood west of Wirt Rd. and just north of the Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church on the eastbound I-10 feeder road. Updated in 2009, the midcentury modern with the not-so-modern decor landed on the market a week ago, asking $1.1 million. By the weekend, though, the price had dropped to $997,500.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Price Drop
06/04/14 5:30pm

7901-hilshire-green-03

7901-hilshire-green-01

Like a pair of bookends, opposing wedges of a mushroom-hued 1977 contemporary in Hilshire Green seem to press against the home’s recessed double-door entry. The freshly painted property sprouted on the market with the weekend rains. It has a $715,000 asking price.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

From the Seventies to You
01/08/14 12:45pm

10-pine-creek-03

10-pine-creek-01

Spring Branch Creek runs past the ravine lot of this updated 1978 Pine Creek Village home in Hilshire Village. The property tested the market waters with a listing in October 2013, but withdrew it within a month. When relisted earlier this week, the tidy contemporary on a cul-de-sac kept its previous asking price: $745,000. The home’s varied roofline translates into various ceiling heights and treatments. In the living room, for example, exposed beams in the half-vault (top) lead the eye to the wood-burning fieldstone fireplace and views out several sliding glass doors overlooking the back deck. And somewhere beyond the treetops lies the water, though it’s a vista curiously absent from the listing.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Where’s the Water?
06/11/13 2:00pm

The deeply set lot of a porchified plantation-ish spread in Ridgeley Place lends a Southern — or maybe just South Fork — feel to this 6-year-old home in Hilshire Village. The south-facing Acadian-style structure also features plenty of  pull-up-a-chair gathering spots inside.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

04/25/13 5:00pm

The rather restrained and carefully appointed front lawn of this 1980 brick-box home makes the barely tamed nature center installed on its back lot an unexpected twist. A series of wooden decks, patios, terraces, garden follies, and walkways meander through the half-acre ravine property like a theme park’s winding queue, peppered with distracting greenery. The outdoor ensemble overlooks Spring Branch Creek, beyond which a detention pond and the Katy Freeway feeder road lie:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/12/09 3:12pm

It’s a Wednesday, about 3 o’clock, which means it’s time for Houston’s newest — and probably smallest — “farmer’s” market, in a corner of the parking lot at the School of the Woods Montessori school, 1321 Wirt Rd. at Westview, in Hilshire Village. It’ll last until 6. Yelper Aeryk P. says the market started out pretty small a few weeks ago. He found:

Village Botanica’s produce and meat, Quick-n-ezee’s Indian food, Shirley Ann’s pies and [quiche], Barky Dogz natural dog treats, Katz’s Coffee, Trentino’s Gelato and CareKindly’s environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Photo: School of the Woods

07/10/09 8:51am

BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SCHOOLS “Inspired by the birth of our first baby” and the idea that there might be some deals out there, a reader writes in to ask for help with a home search: “We started off looking to be zoned Spring Branch – Memorial HS or HISD – Bellaire high school and are looking for a single family home (no townhome or patio homes). Generally speaking range house price expectations $400 – $600k, so we are expecting to end up in a lower to maybe lower mid range value of homes in the applicable neighborhoods. Recently discovered area code 77055 (had been focused on 77024 for Memorial). We are wondering what people’s opinions of Hillshire Village / Spring Valley / Hedwig in terms of long term appreciation / ability to resale / quality of neighborhood? Seems from an outsiders perspective Memorial and Bellaire area have generally hung in there, not sure of the perception of 77055 among Houstonians. Of course, high school for a little one is a long ways off – where would people target in this price range to squeeze into the best neighborhood (qualitatively based on long term appreciation and quality of neighborhood for a family) in the current market?” [Swamplot inbox]

01/18/08 9:05am

House on Winningham Ln., Spring Valley, Houston

What makes Hilshire Village and Spring Valley different from the rest of the Memorial Villages?

Both these Villages are north of I-10, which for Memorialites is sort of the wrong side of the tracks. Indeed, if you look at the household income of 77055 in the year 2000, the zip code that encompasses Hilshire Village and Spring Valley, it is $36.7 thousand. The average household income in 77024, which consists mainly of the southern Villages, is $82.6 thousand. The two northern Villages, however, are probably far closer to the Southern Villages in terms of wealth. It’s simply that as you go north and east from Spring Valley and Hilshire Village, you enter more working class neighborhoods, with lots of Hispanic and Korean immigrants. They may not be rich, but they are strivers, and the area North of I-10 on the Westside is, I think, getting wealthier and more middle class.

Robert Boyd returns from his latest bicycle tour — through Memorial’s northern outposts — with photos of his finds: wobbly Metro bike racks, shed-roof seventies Modern Memorial classics, ivy art, creekside barbecue, Tae Kwon Do parking-lot attendants, low-calorie McMansions, plus a couple of misplaced Victorians and a faux Adobe.

Photo of house on Winningham Ln.: Robert W. Boyd