Norman and Contempo leanings are but the start of the stylin’ mashup incorporated into a large waterfront property in the Village of Panther Creek in The Woodlands. On and off the market since the summer of 2010, when its initial asking price was $3.2 million, the 1990 custom estate popped back up last month as a re-relisting seeking $2.5 million. Earlier this month, the ask dropped to $1.95 million. That’s a price point a previous relisting sought for nearly a year, ending in May 2012 at $1.85 million.
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Read more about: 77381, Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, The Woodlands, Village of Panther Creek, Waterfront Properties
That steel frame on Centenary St. that roused some West U residents to name-calling and concern-raising 2 years ago now has a steel house built around it — and a single father and his two sons inside. Still, says architect Cameron Armstrong, the build wasn’t as smooth as it might have been: “[C]ertain neighbors were actually quite hostile — they heckled the subcontractors (and not always from across the street!), and made numerous frivolous complaints to the police about things like (non-existent) parking violations by workers. . . . They thought they were living on a street with a predictable visual future, which turned out not to be the case.” Adds Armstrong: “[I]t’s hard to identify substantive objections. . . . The good news is that most of the neighbors are just fine with how the design turned out.”
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Read more about: 77005, Construction Materials, Home Design, Houston Architects, Tin Houses, West University
Smile and step carefully. No fewer than 16 security cameras are installed in this battened-down Braeburn Acres property, a 2007 custom design by Cameron Architects. It’s a big, big stucco-over-concrete-block house — more than 10,000 sq. ft. — with 50 stone columns supporting a double-decker carousel of arches and tile-topped rotundas. The cleared 1.2-acre lot includes a pool-in-progress and very little landscaping (other than lawn). Maybe that explains why a cartoony rendering (at top) is employed as the listing’s featured photo.
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Read more about: 77074, Braeburn Acres, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Swimming Pools
Before this property in the secluded Tall Timbers section of River Oaks was a colorful contemporary by Carlos Jiménez, it was a much smaller home by San Antonio architect O’Neil Ford. Its acre of pie-shaped lot off a winding lane has wide-side frontage along Buffalo Bayou. The property atop rugged terrain listed a week ago with an initial asking price of $4,995,000.
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Read more about: 77019, Carlos Jimenez, Contemporary, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, ONeil-Ford, River Oaks, Tall Timbers
Far away from the Amsterdam canal along which it was originally envisioned (though perhaps with slimmer proportions), this timber-frame structure has been a stand-out property on Dunlavy since the mid-aughts. It’s a mixed-use building; its barreled-with-a-flattish-top roof — with an outlined upper lip — adds higher stucco stylin’ to the neighborhood just north of Westheimer. The retail-residence has 3 levels — each with some distinctively hewn and preserved wooden ceilings.
The work of former owner (and gallerist) Albert Cherqui, in 2010 the venue became the focus of a lawsuit filed by Cherqui — by then its tenant — against the building’s current owners. (The suit was settled out of court last year.) It shares a mostly commercial street that’s lined by galleries, shops, warehouses, apartments, and repurposed postwar houses. Inside, the all-in-one main floor — described glowingly in the listing as “cavernous” — includes a wavy pair of Gaudi-inspired staircases (above). They lead to 2 upper floors of living quarters, each with its own kitchen and yet more timberland touches.
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Read more about: 77006, Art Galleries, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Hyde Park Heights, Interiors, Lawsuits, Mixed Use, Montrose
January 22, 2013 – 3:30 pm
Look familiar? Two weeks after its smaller look-alike housing unit appeared on the market, this bigger-by-a-bedroom version finishing up right next door listed for a bit more. And speaking of doors, this mini-mod’s entry is cool blue instead of the cheery yellow one marking its neighbor. Other differences include the roofline’s wider wingspan — to accommodate a broader, shorter driveway that bumps against that extra room downstairs.
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Read more about: 77003, Carports, East Downtown, Green Design, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Redevelopment
January 22, 2013 – 12:30 pm
Maybe the looks of this spa are too brutal a reminder of how the season went down the toilet? Houston Texans middle linebacker Brian Cushing injured his knee in October and was forced to watch from the sidelines as his team bowed out to the New England Patriots in the NFL playoffs. Now, his 7,007-sq.-ft. Missouri City home is for sale, starting at $1,299,900.
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Read more about: 77459, Home Decor, Home Design, Home for Sale, Interiors, Listings, Missouri City
January 9, 2013 – 4:46 pm
Animal bones, mirror shards, scrap lumber destined for a landfill: Dan Phillips builds houses up in Walker County out of almost anything he can get his hands on. The former Sam Houston State dance instructor finished this one, known as the Charleston House, in 2004. It’s got a hallway floor composed of corks (at right) and a fence (above) detailed with the wine bottles from which those corks very well might have been popped. Phillips’s organization Phoenix Commotion tells Swamplot that he likes to sell to low-income families and hungry, if not starving, artists, who often help build the houses themselves. But the Charleston House is one that’s changed hands a few times. Now it’s ended up on the “regular market.” The 935-sq.-ft. 3-bedroom at 912 University was originally listed last fall at $899,900. Then it came down a bit to a rather more sober $89,900.
Photos: HAR
Read more about: 77340, Adaptive Reuse, Dan Phillips, Green Design, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Huntsville
January 9, 2013 – 10:24 am
A sun-baked mini-villa in White Oak Terrace that spent most of 2012 on the market is back from its winter break as a re-listing with a new agent. Same price, though: $250,000. Symmetrical on its street-side, the 2010-built home likes columns, arches, and contrasting color so much it used them outside and in, where dappled tile floors further styl-i-fy the somewhat open floor plan. The garage-free property is located off T.C. Jester a little south of W. Little York. Elsewhere on the street, which has a dead-end in the next block, mostly single-story homes in the little northwest neighborhood are either a decade old or well past 40.
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Read more about: 77091, Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, White Oak Terrace
January 8, 2013 – 11:45 am
The smaller of a wee pair of snaggle-topped properties built since April 2012 on a Scott St. corner of the new East End Southeast rail line popped on the market last week. Initial asking price: $175,000. No listing yet for its equally efficient slightly bigger sister right next door, which employs the same corner windows, criss-cross rooftop, and slew of eco-friendly components.
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Read more about: 77003, Carports, East Downtown, East End, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors
Comment of the Day: The Sound of an Open Kitchen
“I really miss the days when kitchens had doors that you could close. Kitchens are noisy. The open kitchen thing just sends all that noise out into the living areas. As a result, people in the living areas turn up the TV or have to talk louder. Any attempt to communicate between the kitchen and living areas sound more like a shouting match. It is also nice to be able to put an actual physical barrier between pets, toddlers and other intruders and the kitchen. And where are you supposed to go mid-meal in order to have a heated argument with your spouse?” [Old School, commenting on Tiny and a Little Piney: A By-the-Bayou Idylwood Bungalow]