- 5006 Waterbeck St. [HAR]
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Tag: Swimming Pools
An expansive Mediterranean number in The Woodlands borders a nature reserve, but there’s nothing reserved about the sprawling home itself, which looks over the 11th fairway of the Carlton Woods Creekside Golf Course. Even the listing description eventually runs out of over-the-top adjectives to go with the photos. Envisioned by Patrick Berrios Designs and built by Termeer Custom Homes, the former Showcase of Homes home landed on the market earlier this month with a $3.35 million price tag. Its lot occupies about an acre well beyond the (manned) entrance gate of the community, which is accessed from Kuykendahl Rd. south of Spring Creek’s swath. Amid the interior’s layers of materials, iron ornamentation unspools (top) throughout the home, keeping anemia at bay.
Indoor Grilling
When architect Tom Wilson designed a contemporary residence for himself in West U back in 1977, he divvied the lot down the length, giving home and extensive poolscape each narrow side-by-side footprints. Twenty years later, the current owners took over, paying $535K for the privilege. Last week, the property popped up on the market with a $1.45 million price tag. Architectural guides peg the design as “a low-key medium tech house” engineered with steel and panels of metal and wood. The “front” door is on the side; it lies inside the porch and privacy screen (above) facing the street, which is located south of University Blvd. and west of Buffalo Speedway.
Skinny But Loaded
This 2004 custom home with broad shoulders settles into 3 acres of land south of Spencer Hwy. in La Porte. It’s a Mediterraneanish spread that seems to have a thing for columns, posts, and pillars. A year ago, it debuted on the market at $749K, dropping slightly to $745K in May 2014 and $739K in February 2015. A week ago, a relisting by the same agent kept that final price point.
Columns!
Its spread wings don’t fly, but a horizon-hugging 1960 mod in Memorial — once known as the Lapin House — did rise to prominence in 2009 after a Good Brick Award from the organization now called Preservation Houston was bestowed on its humdinger of a renovation. Actual bricks on the property are mostly to be found on the street side of the home. Window walls in back face the poolscape, yard, and a bend in Buffalo Bayou, bringing the outside in. To reach the waterway, take the stone steps set into the slope backing the almost-an-acre property.
It’s located in the Willowick neighborhood of Hunters Creek Village, west of Voss Rd. and south of Memorial Dr. The original design by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson (yes, the Astrodome architects) has a later addition attributed to architect Joel Brand. When listed earlier this week, the posh property’s asking price was $2.495 million.
Adjusting the Horizontal
Some of the shadows in Pasadena’s Shadowlawn Terrace neighborhood fall within a property fitted with a cavernous structure soaring over the pool and terrace (top). The 1978 custom contemporary was designed by Richard Ainslie (“with input from O’Neil Ford,” the listing says — the San Antonio architect was a family friend of the owners). Well-tended by its original (and only) owners, the climate-controlling property splashed onto the market last week bearing a $250K price tag. It’s located east of S. Richey St. between W. Harris and W. Southmore avenues. Let’s take a peek at the teak within . . .
Shadow Play
Rising stately on its corner in the Westmoreland Historic District, a well-appointed and well-maintained hundred-year-plus-old mansion fitted with terraces, balconies, and porches features all the craftsmanship of its day — and one very large indicator of the present: this freeway-side billboard in the back yard, by the pool:
In the Shade
One of the lookalike garage-front homes on a redeveloped block in the western reaches of the Houston Heights took steps to distinguish itself in that brick-faced lineup by doubling up its corner holdings and putting in a pool — a really, really long one (top). At more than 75 ft., its footprint waters down most of the additional narrow side lot, which parallels 15th St. a block west of Durham St. The wet-dry property (above) dove into the market last week floating a $529,900 price tag. The current owner picked it up new in 2006 for $312,000.
Lap It Up
This postwar property in Washington Terrace appears to be especially animal friendly, what with the horsey sculpture frolicking out front (above) and an embossed elephant tending the front door (at right).
But more decorative critters linger within the artsy 1945 home, where bursts of color glow in hues far brighter than the taupe visible at curbside.
Animal Crossing
Three years ago, this 2011 custom Oak Forest home with porch and pool sold for $460,000. Now? A listing over the weekend of the Craftsman-with-stuck-on-stone property carries a $750,000 price tag. That’s where price reductions from a previous listing by the same agent had landed after an initial ask of $799,500 in November 2014 and pre-holiday drop to $775,000. If the back yard’s oasis doesn’t provide enough of an escape, Oak Forest Park is a (very long) block up the street, which is located east of Rosslyn Rd.
Cabana Club
Local designer Paul Kweton submits for reader review his proposed Bayou City-proud Memorial Park outdoor competition and training pool for swimmers and triathletes.
“The pool offers a 50m competition pool flanked on both sides with 100m training pools,” writes Kweton, who is also known as “Paulbaut.” Hence the functional Nazca Line-like proposal’s name: the H-TOWN Outdoor Pool.
H Marks The Spot
BAYOU SWIMMING HOLE PROMOTERS JUMP TO KICKSTARTER TO JUMPSTART PROJECT 
Just how feasible would it be to build a 3-acre self-cleaning swimming hole somewhere near the center of Houston, so you could take your own bathing-suits-and-skyscrapers pics like the one shown here — without resorting to Photoshop? If enough people donate to the Kickstarter for the Houston Needs a Swimming Hole campaign, you may get to find out. Promoters Monte Large, Evan O’Neil, and Jeff Kaplan are hoping to raise $30,000 from contributors for a feasibility study for their proposal — including a preliminary site selection component. The study would be conducted by Sherwood Design Engineers, whose Houston branch is a tenant in office space connected to Kaplan’s New Living store on Kirby Dr. The swimming hole, meant to serve as a centerpiece of Houston’s growing our-bayous-are-our-parks system, would be patterned on the natural swimming pool model common in Europe, where adjacent plant-filled “regeneration zones” filter the water, and no chemicals are needed. [Kickstarter; more info] Photo: Houston Needs a Swimming Hole
Lake Livingston laps near the lazy river meandering within a whopper-scaled waterfront pool (top) at a 2006 property that also boasts a “barndominium” (above) with its own 15-car garage, a pool house, a boat house, but no house house. Does it matter? The existing structures come with kitchens and bedrooms, and there are 6 acres of grounds to tend. Price? $2.995 million. That’s down from the $3.4 million asked in previous listings back in 2013 and 2012.
Ready for a flyover?
And a House, Someday
A cul-de-sac in Woodside is exhibiting some fall color — in the golden tones of a 1955 Ranch home updated a decade ago. Or maybe that golden glow is from the skylights found in many of the rooms. Groomed ivy (appearing to end at the ivy clipper’s shoulder height) adds texture to the painted brick exterior, which is slightly recessed beneath the roof’s overhang. The home faces east on one of 6 lots fanning ’round Latma Ct., which is located off Latma Dr., a main street sloping diagonally through the neighborhood found east of Stella Link Rd. halfway between S. Braeswood Blvd. and the South Loop. In its listing a few days ago, the property-with-pool attached a $495K price tag and a very basic description. Is the midcentury property ripe for remuddling?
With Red Stripes
Is the sky really the limit when the neighborhood has its own landing strip, or is that what it takes for commutes from Richmond? That’s where a Covey Trails property,  located out FM 1093 near FM 1463, took off at $1.2 million in its listing over the weekend. Hangar (top) and hangouts (middle) are harbingers of the adventurous array — and many, many murals — found within the unassuming house, which previously kept its active inner life to itself. But now lookie here:
Over the Top
