10/31/17 3:45pm

What’s clearly frightening about the home for sale at 806 Oxford St. in the Heights: Its listing photos, posted last week, capture the property in full Halloween dress-up mode. At front, rows of draped ghouls festoon the double-porch streetfront façade of the 3-year-old mansionette (above).

And the freak show continues inside the house, as costumed mannequins have been artfully arranged in holiday set pieces. Here, a bloody zombie sits at the head of the dining-room table, while a creepy butler stands by, ready to serve:

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Trick or Treat?
01/28/15 3:30pm

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If you’re feeling a little tipsy as you tour this 1998 custom home on Lampasas St. in St. George Place (the Galleria-area neighborhood formerly know as Lamar Terrace) you might catch the kind of views of it that are featured in its listing, lending a bit of a Fun House vibe to the stately corner property.

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Tilt
01/15/15 5:15pm

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Spiffed up more than considerably since its purchase for $93K in September 2014, a double-decker Simms Woods spread maxes out the midcenturyisms. Do the updates — to just about every surface and system — merit the $450K asking price in its listing over the weekend? The 1955 property, in a neighborhood west of Idylwood, is one lot off the intersection of Jefferson and Hackney streets. That puts it catty-corner to the site of a planned 173-home subdivision on a cleared, former 11.93-acre warehouse property adjacent to the HB&T rail line.

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Short Ribs
11/13/14 5:00pm

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Colors a-blazing and juxtaposed vibe big time within a 2004 townhome in Crosby Place that popped up on the market a week ago. Its location is in the cluster of brightly painted townhome developments on the eastern edge of the Fourth Ward near Midtown. On listing day, the metal-clad property appears to have briefly flirted with a $330,000 asking price but reverted to its original $324,900. Today, fresh listing photos brought in crisper staging of the space . . .

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Primary Residence
11/05/14 3:15pm

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Facing a courtyard and across from a waterside swimming pool, a 2006 Tuscan townhome anchors its corner of Clear Lake’s Armandwilde development. A pond roped off from Mud Lake, the final form of Armand Bayou as it flows into Clear Lake, laps at the property’s shore, which is located off Space Center Blvd. north of E. NASA Pkwy. The old Jim West Mansion, once a repository for moon rocks but now an anchor haberdashery for Hakeem Olajuwon, is nearby. This stucco-and-tile clad unit, one of the larger for the development, was listed last week at $299,000. That’s nearly $200K less than its $495,000 ask back in the heady days of 2008, but that offering expired after 4 months on the market.

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Over a Pool, on a Pond, on 2 Lakes
10/28/14 2:45pm

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Somewhere within this recently renovated and expanded shingle-sided double-decker home in Brooke Smith lies the 1926 single-story version it sprang from. Can you find it?

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Porches and Roof Pitches
10/22/14 4:30pm

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Since its purchase in August for $86,100, a 1956 Glenbrook Valley property located on one of the mid-century neighborhood’s interior streets has been zhushed for a flip. It’s now back on the market and asking $144,900. Changes are most apparent in the kitchen (above middle, with the original below it) and bathrooms. Tweaks before its listing last week included a new roof, new flooring, repairs to underground plumbing, leveling of the foundation — and home staging with careful attention to corners . . .

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Buffed Up
10/07/14 3:00pm

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You’ll find just a splash of red in almost every interior pic here. No, you aren’t looking at a portfolio of images from National Geographic: This is a renovated 1990 Georgian in Sugar Land’s William’s Glen neighborhood, southwest of Sweetwater Blvd. Listed on Monday, the 4,232-sq.-ft. spread is now asking $619K.

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Flipping for Red
10/06/14 3:30pm

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One of the contemporary homes backing up to a twin on a split-but-still-large lot in Brookwoods Estates is on the market again. Its relisting last week dropped the price to $549,999. Before the previous listing expired in last month, the asking price had dropped to $614,400 from an initial $659,500 in July. The current owner paid $250K for it back in 2005. Updated since, the 1978 property is a front-loader that focuses views from 2 levels on the back lot’s pool and hot tub (above). The neighborhood is located west of T.C. Jester and just north of the North Loop near its arc to U.S. 290.

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Northern Exposure
09/23/14 3:00pm

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Bright landscaping has perked up the front of an updated 1955 Shepherd Forest property, earning the property Yard of the Month status in its section of the tight-knit neighborhood, located north of the North Loop and stretching east from T.C. Jester. The home sprouted on MLS yesterday with an asking price of $260,000. Views of the bloomage from inside the home are well-shaded, though:

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Mid-Rise Living
09/17/14 5:15pm

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Over in Woodshire, a fifties-vintage neighborhood hugging the South Loop west of Stella Link Rd., a recently renovated 1956 mod returned to the market earlier this month. Its distinctive airplane-wing roof slants nearly to the ground above a brick exterior that’s now been whitewashed. Inside, a few structural changes have opened up the living space, removed a series of exposed ceiling beams, and restored a studio floating above the double-wide driveway. The home last sold in May 2013 — for $240K. After its overhaul and repositioning by P&G Homes — in collaboration with LynnGoode Vintage and Jamie House Design — the flip-ready property now carries a $775,500 asking price. What does the half-million upgrade get you?

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Once Beaming, Now Gleaming