02/13/17 10:00am

2 Tiel Way, River Oaks, Houston, 77019

2 Tiel Way, River Oaks, Houston, 77019The remodeling permit issued last fall for 2 Tiel Way (shown above in its previous listing portrait) was augmented by a demolition permit at the end of January, as Diane Cowen reports in this weekend’s Chronicle. The 1960s house (designed by Karl Kamrath, like a few others of the not-yet-demolished original houses on the street) was bought last July after a 10-month stint on the market; Cowen writes that the new owners had planned to restore the home, but structural issues including uncovered termite and water damage boosted cost estimates to around twice the likely cost of a rebuild.

The house was torn down to the slab and fireplace late last month, and some of the interior redwood paneling and light fixtures were salvaged. The new home designed for the site will purportedly mimic the old one to a significant extent — here’s a rendering from Robertson Design, the architecture firm of the new owners’ son:

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Theseus’s Ranch
10/19/16 4:45pm

922 Boros Dr., Hunters Creek, TX 77024 922 Boros Dr., Hunters Creek, TX 77024

Behind the well-spotted Lucite front door of the 1958 mod above, living and dining room spaces wrap full-circle around an open-from-all-sides central kitchen. The home, full of floor-to-ceiling mirror walls and other retro finishes, was put on the market in June at just under $1.1 million, took a quick break in early October, and was put back up for sale a week ago with the current asking price of $975,000. Journey onward to check out the house’s eclectic light fixtures, the 3-ish bedrooms, and the guest suite out back by the pool:

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Following Yonder Pendant Lights
09/22/16 1:00pm

10749 Joann St., Willis, TX, 77318

Don’t fret: The dangling fireplace in this 2-story 1976 home on the eastern shore of Lake Conroe is chained securely in place in the center of the living room’s linoleum-lined couch pit. The 3-bedroom main house is planted right next to a freestanding 1-bedroom guesthouse; the 1.3-acre Willis lot also contains a no-bedroom boathouse and an insert-your-own-bedroom RV-ready metal shed. The house has been floating around on the market since July of 2015, though the price took a $54,000 dip in May.

The upturned corners of the guesthouse’s roof and toppers are visible from Joann St.:

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A 3-Bedroom Tour
09/13/16 5:30pm

8008 Colgate St., Glenbrook Valley, Houston8008 Colgate St., Glenbrook Valley, Houston

That recovered 2-story mod at 8008 Colgate has been getting further retouching by the newest owners, Sandra Cook writes in this month’s Houston House & Home. The previously dilapidated house made HoustonMod’s Mod of the Month list back in 2014 after it was rehabilitated to a poop-and-mold-free 5,870 sq. ft. (scooping in a few upstairs patios behind new walls in the process). Above is a comparison of the main entryway — the top photo shows the space’s trendy new white outfit, while the same wall appears in blue below that following the 2014 redo. (The lower left side shows the space midway through those earlier reconstructive procedures.)

The house will be receiving visitors during the Glenbrook Valley Home Tour in October; here’s a few peeks at some of the new retro-ish finishes, if you can’t wait until then:

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Re-Re-Mod-eling
05/05/16 5:00pm

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The listing for this 3-bedroom mid-century mod a few blocks south of Sims Bayou says that the home was considered as a filming site for the Astronaut Wives Club teevee series — but didn’t get the part.  The house did, however, get picked to be in several of the Houston Builder Association’s Parade of Homes showcase tours back in the 1950s, according to Glenbrook Valley’s historical district designation report. That document cites a 1954 Houston Chronicle writeup noting the home’s cutting edge electric features, including a precipitron (“a device that removes all odors“). It’s unclear whether the precipitron survived the 2008 remodel (following damage from a 2007 fire), but the listing says the current owners tried to keep era-appropriate stylings in mind during the repair work:

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Space Age Spaces
02/18/16 4:30pm

3627 Braeswood Blvd, Houston, 77025

White walls, glass walls, and mirrored walls provide ample opportunities for looking inward and outward from this 1958 house designed by Houston architect Arthur Steinberg. Overlooking Brays Bayou across Glen Arbor Dr., the home contains 3 bedrooms and 2 and a half bathrooms on 3,765 sq. ft. of pale polished concrete and marble floors.  Mid-century minimalism comes with a $1.495-million price tag. CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

A Whiter Shade of Pale
12/02/14 10:18am

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A demolition permit has been filed for 2 Longbow Ln., a Buffalo Bayou-side 1956 Mid Century Modern home designed by Astrodome architects Wilson, Morris, Crain, & Anderson for renowned internist Dr. Mavis Kelsey, founder of the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic.

Kelsey died at 101 in November of 2013. The home and 4 acre lot in Circle Bluff — a warren of streets with Robin Hood-themed names just outside the West Loop, east of Chimney Rock Rd., south of Memorial Dr. — went on the market in late May, and after a little under 2 months, sold for $6.9 million. The buyer is listed as David M. Weekley, chairman of David Weekley Homes.

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Snapping The Longbow
09/26/14 4:45pm

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Will a mod-minded buyer be willing to commute from Brookshire? What if it means calling this “ultra-swank one-owner mid-century rancho deluxe time capsule” — priced at $275,000 — home? Located up the road a spell from the Energy Corridor, the long-and-lean 1954 custom property comes with “Mad Men” finishes, vintage tiles in the bathrooms, and mod-era fixtures and hardware. Intrigued? Grab yourself a high ball, why don’t you, and take this tour . . .

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