Somewhere within this newly listed 1964 Hunters Creek home in the Tara Oaks neighborhood, a plain-old white ceiling or 2 has evaded upgrades. Most of the rooms, however, cap their decor with what the description dubs “carefully chosen finishes,” be they color, exposed beams, soaring vaults, more color, skylights, or some combo thereof. (No glass ceilings or debt ceiling, however — the Memorial Villages asking price hovers at $2,395,000.)
Custom in 1967, this barn-meets-barn Dutch-like home spreads across a lot of lot over in Pasadena. An early example of an upscale Kickerillo number, the listing’s interior finishes offer cavernous ceilings — some of them given an extra bit of zip by some vibrant plaid wallpaper (above) — and “built-ins galore,” including a handy off-the-den pre-SodaStream soda fountain bar (at right). The super-sized property listed last month with an asking price of $379,210.
Just shy of a Norman castle, this 2007 chateau with Scheherazade-swagged interior occupies a corner lot of, fittingly, Newcastle Dr., on a spit of Afton Oaks lying south of Richmond Ave. The 2-plus story property rises regally (top) above the rooftops of neighboring one-story fifties-era ranch-style homes. The fairy-tale festooning (above) found within several rooms provides a voluminous, unifying motif — and also helps screen the presence of the Southwest Fwy. sound barrier located just beyond a live oak canopy and cross street. Re-listed mid-month after a brief breather early in the year, the home has otherwise been on the market since the end of 2010, with an asking price stuck at $1,190,000.
Comment of the Day: The Scourge of the Pedestal Sink
“. . . I noticed from the photos that the sink was replaced with one of these impractical pedestal sinks — one of these things where you can’t put *anything* except a tiny bar of hotel soap on. I realize that the previous sink probably was small, too, but if you’re going to replace a sink, can’t you replace it with something more practical? I know that some interior designers love them because they think a tiny sink makes small bathrooms look bigger, but there must be better solutions than this. Pedestal sinks may be fine for powder rooms, but certainly not for full bathrooms. I know of one case where a woman sold her house because she was fed up with not having any storage space in the bathrooms (among other reasons). And I once toured a house where someone had replaced a double-sink vanity with 2 pedestal sinks and then ended up building a really ugly, made-in-garage storage thing to put in between the sinks to compensate for the lost storage space. Ugh.” [Sabaushi, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Mint Condition]