COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CASE FOR TAKING DOWN TIMBERGROVE “. . . The Timbergrove houses East of TC Jester are not particularly well built, and they don’t really lend themselves to expansion. The slabs are undersized as well, so building up is very difficult. I would love to update and add to our house, but by the time everything is done, we could almost build a modern house with more room, better infrastructure, and lower operating costs. And that’s after adding something that will really be just a tacked on space that’s not well integrated. Tear downs make a lot of sense under those conditions.” [Ross, commenting on New Timbergrove Manor Cottage Puts Some Skin in the Real Estate Game]
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Tag: Timbergrove Manor
There’s a crack team of construction professionals readying this brand-new single-story on Prince St. in Timbergrove Manor for some lucky new owner. And looky here, out of the closet: Workers are bending over . . . uh, forwards to make sure the hardwood floorboards are aligned perfectly, deep in a pantry corner recess. It’s a view of the “Open Entertainers Floor Plan” touted in the listing. Maybe this space has been transformed into a kitchen by now, but isn’t it a whole lot more fun to see an action shot of the transformation in process?
Harris County Housing Authority interim CEO Tom McCasland takes a visitor from Portland along the path of the bike trail he hopes will soon connect Downtown Houston seamlessly to the city’s northwestern suburbs. From Georgia’s Market downtown they head out the MKT Trail into the Heights, which dead ends near the Shepherd-Durham overpasses. “The lot turned into a truck path, which ended at a decrepit railroad bridge. We took a sharp right down a singletrack path along the edge of the bayou far below us,” writes Elly Blue, who’s been touring U.S. cities to assess their bikeability. McCasland, an advocate for expanding Houston bikeways, tells the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax that “part of the city’s latest grand biking plan is to dynamite [that burned-out bridge] and rebuild it as a bike/pedestrian thoroughfare. The trail will then continue along White Oak Bayou’s banks and connect with the existing trail that begins at West 11th and TC Jester and heads north through Timbergrove, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest and all the way up to Acres Homes.”
A Timbergrove Manor home that changed hands in November 2011 is back on the market and asking $440,000 following an overhaul. Gone is the brown exterior, repainted in a spicy mustard tone, perhaps in homage to Harvest Gold. Other changes to the home built in 1964 include a new roof, new windows, and an automatic driveway gate. Inside, the 3-bedroom, 2-bath home gained stone, tile, granite, carpet, and lighting. Plus fresh paint in shades of pale yellow.
WHITE OAK BAYOU BIKE BYPASS IMPASSE What’s preventing the Houston Parks Board from connecting the end of the MKT Bike Trail in Timbergrove Manor with the White Oak Bayou Trail to create a continuous 14-mile route, and giving Oak Forest residents a path to stroll or roll all the way Downtown? Well, there are these 5 tracts of land in “a key section” in the 3/4-mile gap between Lawrence Park and T.C. Jester Park, project manager Trent Rondo tells Greg Densmore: “. . . of the five property owners tied to those tracts, four were working with the Parks Board while the fifth ‘was being a little feisty’ and was not yet ready to negotiate.” [The Leader, via Swamplot commenter KS; previously on Swamplot]
- 2011 Croydon Ct. [HAR]
- 1345 Foxwood Rd. [HAR]
So many cute little diamond shapes on display at the front of this redone 1963 Ranch on the western bank of White Oak Bayou in Timbergrove Manor! And a few more show up elsewhere: In the tile floor of the breakfast room and den, and on the lily pond backstop wall. But still, so many other places a new owner could add them:
It was only closed for a few evenings during construction, but the Merchants Park Kroger at 11th and North Shepherd in the Heights is marking today as its grand re-opening. Work on the project began 13 months ago. A new section of the store, which was expanded by 39,184 sq. ft., opened last October. Today, all the expansions and renovations on the 24-hour market are complete. Total tally: 88,988 sq. ft.
What’s new? A Starbucks with free wi-fi; a “Kitchen Place” featuring small appliances, cookware, and dinnerware; and the now-de-rigueur drive-thru pharmacy. Plus: an “open-air” seafood market, an order-on-the-computer deli kiosk, a “Cheese Shoppe” with more than 300 cheeses, and an Artisan Bread gallery that features store-made tortillas in your five favorite flavors: white, wheat, butter, salsa and cinnamon sugar.
There’s more:
Come June, promise the owners of SSQQ, the popular social dance studio will reopen just to the west of Restaurant Depot, in the former Kmart beached on the asphalt shores at 20th St. and T.C. Jester near Timbergrove.
Last weekend, SSQQ shut down the Bellaire strip-center site it had occupied for 30 years. Why’d it up and leave? Doctors’ orders, reports the Bellaire Examiner‘s Steve Mark: First Street Hospital, which owns the center on Bissonnet just outside the Loop, is planning an expansion that would slice the center in half, knocking out SSQQ, Sweetwater Pool & Patio, and a Radio Shack. (Not all is lost, though: Charlie’s Hamburgers and that nail salon in the center at 4803 Bissonnet will get to stay.)
Besides easy access to restaurant supplies, what’s in store for students taking a swing at new Bachata and Whip moves at SSQQ’s new location?
We know what you’re wondering: Which Swamplot reader is gonna walk slide away with that gift basket of personal lubricant products?
Yes, this week’s prize — you’ll remember — is sponsored by Wet International. Shall we recap what’s in it? There’s the bottle of Wet Original, the Wet Kiwi Strawberry flavored lubricant, the Wet Together couples lubricant, and the Inttimo by Wet Total Body Shave Cream for Men.
First though, your guesses: There were 5 each for the Heights and Midtown, 4 for Rice Military and the Baldwin Park area, and 2 each for Montrose, Montrose near Nino’s and Vincent’s, “West Alabama/Bammel Lane,” Sugar Land, the West End, Bellaire, Memorial Heights, and Royal Oaks. The rest: The First Ward, Lakes of Stonehenge, Missouri City, Southdale Addition, “just outside of the West U chimney,” St. George’s Place, Southside Place, Bissonnet east of Weslayan, “somewhere over there in West Southside University Place,” on Fountainview or Augusta between San Felipe and Westheimer, “around the Augusta, Bering area between Westheimer and Woodway,” Greatwood, First Colony, Cottage Grove, the Astrodome area, Shady Acres, Pearland, Silverlake, Katy, “near the Toyota Center,” Lazy Brook, Timbergrove, Timbergrove Court, Clear Lake, Bay Pointe, “north of Beltway 8, near Ella,” “11th at Hempstead,” “the area adjacent to Audubon Place in the neighborhood bordering the sunken section North of 59,” “off Pin Oak, behind the middle school and HCC on 610,” “between the rail tracks and the West Loop east of the Galleria,” “somewhere in the Galleria/Woodway area,” and “Gillette-Sutton” in Midtown.
Happily for all of us, the winner is significantly tickled by the prize:
omg, lube! it’s my lucky day!! not even kidding!!
so sad when a family wants to make the compromise between the suburbs and the city and just doesn’t quite get there, as can be seen by the little ikea kid table at the end of a tiny kitchen that wishes to be like the ones in kingwood. sniff. story of my life
here goes: inside the loop, but just barely. timbergrove and lazybrook were too old and icky so these guys bought in the new developments in the area. maybe across from sterling elementary school so they can pretend they are providing a yard to their kid, even if it is owned by hisd. timbergrove court, maybe it’s called? if not right there, then further down 11th at hempstead in those new suburbia wannabe neighborhoods that back up directly to the railroad. still thinking it’s across from sinclair though.
my guess is that they hate this place, are sucking it up and moving out to the burbs for the schools.
Congratulations, brandy c! Yes, this is your lucky day. Enjoy!
A somewhat drier congratulations to all of you who came real close in one way or another: those of you who spotted the telltale signs of Perry Homes; of a freestanding structure; those of you who called the early aughts.
We had two entries worthy of special recognition: Carolyn — who happens to be the listing agent — sent readers not-too-far away with this fake guess:
I think it is definitely a Perry Home but possibly in Shady Acres or maybe Baldwin Park.
Then there was this second faker-outer, hoping to encourage more of you to guess farther afield:
Having lived in the burbs for 12 years this one is a no brainer. In fact I think I’ve been in this house in Clear Lake somewhere in my younger days for a house party. I’m guessing Clear Lake – the neighborhood has ‘Bay’ or ‘Brook’ in the name, which is every neighborhood in Clear Lake. I’ll go anything off Clear Lake City Blvd – Bay Pointe.
That came from Jessica, the reader who suggested this home in the first place. Great job!
Now how about a closer look?
The reader who first brought that humongously discounted house in Timbergrove Manor to our attention earlier this spring writes in to report that the tall courtyard home’s asking price has been further reduced. The 6,000-sq.-ft. home at 6204 Queenswood Ln. was originally listed for $1.8 million, but was cut to $1 million in April.
As of last week, the home has been relisted with an even-further-reduced price: $749,999. Why the continuing freefall? Writing in May, a commenter on our earlier story offered some details:
. . . the listing agent indicated that the home had sustained water damage during Ike due to broken windows. She also let me know that the home would soon be going into a short sale, which is now listed on the Agent side of the MLS Listing. . . . Unfortunately, the home did suffer major damage, which in reality looked like the roof leaked throughout the house. The sheetrock has been removed from all ceilings and top ¾ of the walls on the entire second floor. All the molding has also been removed throughout the house. The floorplan is amazing with large rooms, wide hallways and high ceilings. It is really an amazing place!
The photos in the new listing are considerably different from those in the first, and reveal some of the extent of the damage. Here’s the latest view of the central courtyard, scene of that dramatic waterfall:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SUPERMARKET STANDSTILL IN TIMBERGROVE “Outside of internal remodels, they can’t do anything with the [H-E-B] Pantry location [at T.C. Jester and 18th St.] except leave it. The Shopping center along with the one located across the bayou (old K-Mart) are located in the Floodway (not just floodplain). There isn’t much they can do [to] those [sites.] HEB would need an entirely new location.” [kjb434, commenting on Buffalo Modern: The New H-E-B in West U]
Why oh why won’t anyone buy this Timbergrove Manor pleasure palace? A Swamplot reader writes in to note that the 6,000-sq.-ft., 5-bedroom home at 6204 Queenswood Ln. — “the biggest house by far in Timbergrove” — endured a rather dramatic price cut recently.
The home has been listed since last August — presumably during construction — for a whopping $1.8 million. As of late April, though, it’s been available for just $1 million! That’s a reduction of about two neighboring houses!
