Hey, we have another Rice Design Alliance membership to give away!
Your guesses for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game were: Rice Military, the East End of Galveston, Camp Logan, Oak Estates, The Woodlands, Avalon Place, “the area between Shepherd & Montrose and 59 to Milford or North,” Southampton, “west of Chimney Rock to around Voss, between Woodway and Westheimer,” West Lane Place, Nantucket, Southside Place, “Indian Trail/Indian Circle/Tecumseh off Chimney Rock btw Woodway and Memorial,” along the “divorcee belt” between Beltway 8 and 610 “crossed by the likes of Westheimer, Woodway, Richmond, Bissonnet et al.,” the divorcee belt north of Westheimer and east of Voss, “in the area of the Houstonian off of Memorial, closer to San Felipe-Sage/Post Oak,” Midlane at San Felipe, near Bering, “past the Galleria heading towards Voss,” and West University. Plus two each for the Heights, Afton Oaks, and Bellaire. All very sharp!
The winner of a one-year RDA individual membership — donated by the Rice Design Alliance — is Rachel, for this entry:
This home is in the area of the Houstonian off of Memorial, closer to San Felipe-Sage/Post Oak. The kitchen dates it to around 2001 and the small size makes me think the lot is not especially large. It looks to me like they had a decorator come in and all of the built in book shelves suggests a higher end builder.
Congratulations, Rachel! Deserving of an extremely honorable mention this week is Harold Mandell, who stepped out of a shadowy corner of Montrose to deliver two classic NGG entries — first, introducing the Great West Houston Divorcée Belt:
Long time lurker, 1st time player–impelled to jump in because I really want the prize. And because you guys are so off the mark on this one.
No man doth live in this house– and the baby in the baby’s room is a guest baby. This home is found in the great divorcee belt- one of those late ’80’s or newer townhomes found west of Chimney Rock to around Voss, between Woodway and Westheimer. The stairwell and the upstairs ceiling tell all.
. . . and next, in response to a broader definition of the belt, tightening it in a wide-hipped circle around the target:
Bobby Hadley, you see the Great West Houston Divorcee Belt right on– but remember, there’s also the divorcee demographic that arrived from comfortable circumstances in say Briargrove, or even Memorial. Comfortable until there comes a time when “she’d rather be homeless than be at home with him”. Then she finds herself in downsized quarters– but at last she can decorate it just like she wants it. I say this place is definitely north of Westheimer, and except for Hammersmith I would say east of Voss.
So, what’s the real deal with this place?
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“This one looked like the love child of Bushwood Country Club and the Houston Junior League building on the inside, but remove the Boise State football field, consign grandma’s victorian chandelier collection, remove grandpa’s smoke infested wood paneling and replace with a mix of ranch-modern interior and 21st century awesome…[and] this place would rock.” [
“We mowed the lawn this weekend, so we’re giving it to them in nice shape.” — Dougal Cameron of Cameron Management, leader of an investment group that delivered the freshly LEED-certified and entirely vacant 12-story 2000 St. James Place office building just south of Tanglewood to Wachovia Bank (now a part of Wells Fargo) in a sparsely attended foreclosure ceremony earlier this month. 
Comment of the Day: What Do I Hear for an Original Tanglewood Ranch?
“serious question . . .
as the number of 1 story ranch houses in tanglewood dwindles to what is now only about 20% of the market, does this type of product ever carry in ITSELF a premium for being a certain ‘historic’ structure? or is the value of these houses always going to be simply a function of their dirt value? and if they are renovated enough for entry level tanglewood families (like mine) to live in, is there a value to be established there? the answer is probably as suggested.
i realize that ultimately these houses are saddled with 8′ ceilings and outdated wiring/plumbing, but it’s still a 1:4 coverage ratio housing product, where you want to be, surrounded by the schools you want to send your kids to, and spending $1.25 to buy it and $250,000 to renovate it (to the studs)” [HTX REZ, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: School of Hard Knocks]