Even without the flag waving as punctuation, this 1890 Victorian serves as a pint-sized Americana residential souvenir, complete with gingerbread trim and turned posts on the porch. The fence, however, is of more modern scale — and function, given its automated gate across the driveway. Flashbacks continue inside the cottage, listed earlier this month at $369,5000. It’s located in the Bartholomew Place tendril of Sunset Heights, a long block west of Metro’s Heights Transit Center.
Countertops beneath a high overhang of cabinetry leave an open view in 3 directions from this otherwise ringed-in kitchen in Spring Branch’s Campbell Woods area. The streamlined setup accommodates a breakfast bar doubling as space for food prep and cleanup. Beyond the oven tower, meanwhile, there’s a service window into the dining room.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BETTER USE FOR THAT SPACE ABOVE THE FRIDGE “I agree that they did a great job remodeling this house, and an even better job photographing it. However, the thing that drives me nuts is the requisite wine-rack-above-fridge. Wine shouldn’t be kept at room temperature in Houston, unless you can afford to keep your house far cooler than I keep mine. Regardless, refrigerators cool by removing the heat inside. Where does that heat go? Out the back, and up! Heat rises, right into that wine. We need to find a better use for this space, maybe one that could even benefit from the heat. Built in crock-pots? Egg-incubators for backyard chickens? Anything but wine!” [Soulfinger, commenting on Spruced Up in Spring Shadows]
How design blogger Joni Webb’s Calacatta slabs have been acclimating themselves to West U.: “Is white marble really practical in a kitchen? Yes, that age old question. Doesn’t white marble stain? I’ve had my marble countertops for almost three years now and I have to say, I don’t have any stains at all. But, what I do have are a few smudges. You can’t really see them unless you look sideways in the sunlight – and then you might notice that there are – for lack of a better word – smudges. These spots look like clear water dried on the marble. I know that all I need to do is get the marble cleaned and resealed again, but truthfully, these few marks don’t bother me at all.”
Photo: Cote de Texas
Yeah, that’s an outdoor kitchen wrapped around a tree in the back yard of this home that’s just gone up for sale in Maplewood. ’Neath the leaves: 2 grills, a wine chiller, a refrigerator, and a stainless steel sink. And inside? A whole lot more . . . plus carpet:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ISLAND HOME “. . . In my home we use the island for kids art and crafts, having guests for drinks and or dinner, homework and home working, watching tv, etc. All this on top of the normal eating and food prep duties. In this way the island and the kitchen in general are taking the place of rooms such as a dining room, office, library etc that might have been included in an older home. In that case I think a good argument can be made that the room and the island can be expanded to fill some of the space that would have been taken up by those now obsolete rooms.” [Jimbo, commenting on Island Living: Inside the West U Cottage That Didn’t Get Away]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KITCHEN COUNTERPOINT “By the way I meant formica counters, not linoleum. Just wanted to clear that up. Don’t want to be disqualified on a technicality.” [Jessica, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game: Fine Dining]
Weary of so many drab and formulaic new kitchens boasting granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances? Thanks to a miracle of modern science journalism, design help is on the way. The tyranny of the knee-jerk Kitchen redo formula may soon be over!
The “Your Granite Countertop May Be Radioactive or Emit Radon” meme got a major boost in the media last week, as an article in the New York Times and separate reports from a Rice University nuclear physicist spawned fears among consumers — and dismissive retorts from industry spokespersons.
No need to panic: Your countertop may not be emitting enough radiation to cook the food you put on it. But hey, maybe you should have your surface tested? The idea of bringing a Geiger counter along on your Home Depot shopping trips conjures up so many exciting possibilities!
Whether the latest concerns indicate a pointless consumer scare or an actual health hazard, the writing is on the wall for the granite-countertop trend, which jumped the shark long ago. In Houston — which has no stone naturally, but where builders love to follow design trends long abandoned elsewhere — they were always a strange import. Cliche-weary designers will likely promote radon-and-radiation fears just to get fashion-handicapped clients to try something else. And solid-surface competitors will only be too happy to take advantage of the situation. But if the 2-decades-long granite-surface craze finally ends, how long will their “Looks Just Like Granite” surfaces be attractive to buyers?
Photo: A2D Construction
Channeling Sarah Susanka, writer and architect Duo Dickinson snarks colorfully on Dumb Renovation Fads for Money magazine. Here’s some of what sucks about “the Great Room Craze of the 1980s”:
Weird Windows: All these windows and doorways are on the ground level and . . . also floating up on the second-story space, somehow reminiscent of a burned-out building. Also, how do you light such a space without it looking like a lobby in a Marriott?
Funny, but Dickinson’s targets aren’t just renovation fads—they’re staples of most current Houston new construction. That Great Room Craze may have arrived here late, but it’s making up for it by hanging around for a while. Dickinson’s improved proposal for great rooms (two attached, lower-ceilinged spaces) though, is Not-So-Small: “as much square footage as in a great room but with a more intimate, livable feel.”
Onto the next complaint: Oversized kitchens. “The distance between surfaces and appliances in this kitchen approaches the ridiculous,” reads the caption to a kitchen you might see featured here in, say, Paper City. “You’d need a map just to find the olive oil.”
Dickinson’s suggested remedies are more Susanka-like, but without the cloying detail. Keep kitchen counters no more than four feet apart. Get rid of overhead cabinets and add a pantry . . .
Other complaints include “The Garage That Ate Your Home,” porches that block living-room light, and bad overhead lighting (“Recess Time Is Over . . . the end result of such an installation is a pockmarked ceiling that looks like a meeting room at a convention center.”)
Good luck bringing your fad-stopping sense to Houston homebuilders, Mr. Dickinson. Houston isn’t exactly the trend leader. We’ve still got a real-estate boom going on here, remember?
Photo: David Weekley Homes
