While not flashy, tweaks have tidied a 1952 rancher in Oak Forest’s section across from the White Oak Bayou Trail near T.C. Jester Park. Its listing a week ago attached am $450K asking price, up a bit from the $186K paid in 2006, when the property last changed hands. Its perky, red-painted planter full, the property is extra buffed for an open house on Sunday afternoon.
Instead of razing this ranch-style home, the new owner raised the roof, adding a heap of space on the second floor and reworking the original floor plan downstairs. Located in Woodside, near Longfellow Elementary School, the 1957 home morphed via a to-the-studs renovation and addition following its purchase in 2009 for $315,000. Now weighing in at 3,621 sq. ft., the new listing’s asking price is a much heftier $675,000.
Who said looking for a match online is easy? This remade 4,818-sq.-ft. home on a half-acre lot near Hilshire Village was on the market almost continuously from fall 2006 to fall 2008 . . . then again in the spring of 2010, and this year from April to the end of June. But you’ve gotta have hope: It’s back on the market again as of last week. How about: 61-year-old Bellewood belle has heart of gold, kitchen counter of granite, master bedroom floor of berber. Grew up in staid suburban Spring Branch Ranch; still inscrutable at first glance, very different on the inside. Dedicated to imagining romantic self, internal growth. Stuck on cul-de-sac, but willing to break down walls to get what I need. Given to recurring fantasies involving candles and wrought-iron balconies; ready to go for baroque if the right offer comes along.
It’s not looking good for the few remaining low-slung postwar Ranch homes on Banks St. in once-aptly named Ranch Estates, in the northeastern stretch of Boulevard Oaks. Last year architect Karen Lantz took apart the Ranch at 1514 Banks, piece by piece. Three more of them have been idling on MLS for months, two at what the sellers consider lot value. The third, at 1515 Banks (pictured above), isn’t priced a whole lot higher, but it’s been out there since September of last year, shedding $50K from its initial $599,950 price tag. Will the owners even get back what they paid for it 15 months before putting it on the market?
This time, the folks selling the home at 3740 Willowick in River Oaks are really going all out.
Maybe last November they hoped that the release of Stephen Fox’s The Country Houses of John F. Staub would unleash a new era of interest in the Houston architect — and result in a recordbreaking price for the 1955 Staub-designed ranch-like mansion backing up to Buffalo Bayou, across from Memorial Park.
The book did fine, but Staubmania never really took off. Now, almost five months later, the sellers can’t harbor any illusions.
This time, the John Staub marketing machine kicks into full gear:
How’s that River Oaks “you loved the book, now try the home” marketing tie-in going?
Well, Stephen Fox’s volume on The Country Houses of John F. Staub is currently ranked #10,535 on Amazon.com, which probably isn’t so bad for a book about a dead architect. It is heavily discounted, but it’s collected several favorable reviews online.
The reviews aren’t looking quite as good for the Staub ranch-mansion at 3740 Willowick: The asking price was dropped earlier this month from $7,495,000 to $6,950,000. For a 2.3-acre River Oaks lot with Buffalo Bayou frontage, that’s a healthy step closer to . . . yes, land value. And looky at all the excitement just down the street!
A 1955 River Oaks “country house” designed by John Staub appears on MLS just days before architectural historian Stephen Fox’s book on the Houston architect appears in bookstores. Mere coincidence? Or brilliant upper-end home-marketing technique?
There’s a slight price difference between the two: The Country Houses of John F. Staub lists for $75, though Amazon.com whacks 37 percent off of that. No telling if the sellers will accept a similar discount off the $7.495 million asking price of 3740 Willowick.
The house overlooks Buffalo Bayou and features four fireplaces, three bedrooms, and six full and one half baths — all in a single story. Yes, it looks like some ranch-house flavor got mixed in here. There’s a garden loggia and lots of trees, plus a three-car attached garage. It’s a 5,532-square-foot home on a quarter-acre lot.
The book is 408 pages long and comes in hardcover. It features photographs by Richard Cheek, and will take up just three-quarters of a square foot on your coffee table.
After the jump: the not-so-ranchy interiors.
Of the house.
Five little words slipped into the end of an MLS profile remind us, gently, that updated but low-slung houses on large lots in tony Houston neighborhoods aren’t meant for homebuyers who want to enjoy a simple home in a natural setting. No, an older ranch like this is meant for a family willing to tolerate a “gorgeous” and “spacious” (but also apparently cramped and doomed) home until they can tear it down and build something that’s five times as big and that blankets the 10,665-square-foot lot more definitively. It’s a sacrifice, we know.
See if you can find the magic words in this listing:
GEORGEOUS, UPDATED, WELL MAINTAINED 3/2.5/2 W/LRG ENTERTAINMENT RM & WET BAR OVERLOOK POOL, BRIARBEND SUBD, ZONED NEW BRIARGROVE ELEM. $55K+ IN UPDATES: 2007 Paint/Hardware, 2005 Silestone Kit Counters/ Dbl Ovens, Baths, Entertain Rm Roof, Replaced Ducts/Added 4 Return Vents. UPDATES LAST 6 YRS: Dbl Pane Windows, Refinished Hardwood Floors, Refinished Pool Surface/Robotic Pool Sweep, Garage Doors, Recessed Lights in Kit, LR & Hall. Park @end of blk. Live in now/Build later/2 story allowed.
More photos of the amazing $466K Briarbend house you’ll love so much you won’t be able to wait to tear it down—after the jump.
