08/29/14 3:30pm

101-Westcott-01

101-Westcott-02

Other than flyovers by the occasional drone or maybe a high-flying bird or 2, there aren’t too many privacy breaches that might threaten the penthouse level of Bayou Bend Towers, a tony, 1981 condoplex. A 3-level unit — featuring an expansive rooftop terrace and cushy private poolscape (top) — arrived on the market a week ago with an asking price just shy of $5 million. Showings won’t begin until after the holiday weekend, but here’s a preview of the palace-like place and its 180-degree views that sweep from downtown, over River Oaks (and its golf course), to the Galleria:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Luxury Living
08/28/14 4:30pm

5718-indigo-01

5718-indigo-02

Too late. The mid-summer rental-rate reduction to $4,495 per month for this renovated 1967 Meyerland home expired with today’s re-listing of the property. The ask is back up to the $4,600 per month of its original rental listing, dating from early July 2014. Or you could flat-out buy the place. The for-sale listing, pegged at $657,500, also popped up on the market today.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Love It or Lease It
08/26/14 5:15pm

2924-green-tee-02

2924-green-tee-01

Even before hitting the courtyard pool, an Asian-inspired home in Pearland’s Green Tee Terrace golf community takes a dip with its pagoda-style roof — and hand-dipped gold leaf panels on the living room ceiling (top). Could the distinctive 1982 property be too distinctive for the area? In a series of successive listings, its price has kept dropping. Last week, the stately home popped back up on the market again, this time seeking $699,000. In its initial listing back in 2011, the asking price started at $1.2 million and was whittled back to $895,000 over a 2-year period. A 6-month interim listing in September 2013 found no takers at $800,000 or at the $750,000 reduction in December. Back in 2005, it sold at $614,000, down from a 1999 sale for $649,000.

Attention to detail is one of the property’s hallmarks; so are shoji screens in many of the rooms . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Serving Tee
08/25/14 5:00pm

1035-ridgeley-03

1035-ridgeley-01

Apart from the snazzy red cars parked by the home’s courtyard entry, a flat-topped 1963 Hilshire Village property keeps a low profile beneath the canopy of mature trees on its large lot, which is located in the Burkhardt Plaza neighborhood west of Wirt Rd. and just north of the Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church on the eastbound I-10 feeder road. Updated in 2009, the midcentury modern with the not-so-modern decor landed on the market a week ago, asking $1.1 million. By the weekend, though, the price had dropped to $997,500.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Price Drop
08/22/14 3:30pm

2106-orchard-country-01

It’s big, but not the biggest home on its cushy Bay Oaks block. Bigger still are the fairways of adjacent Bay Oaks Country Club, on display behind this fully loaded property that’s located south of Clear Lake Blvd. The updated 1989 contemporary clad with stucco, stone, and tile was listed this week. The asking price of $1.399 million marks a noticeable spike from the $898,000 paid in 2011, when the current owners took hold.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Clear Lake City
08/21/14 3:15pm

3203-fairhope-29

3203-fairhope-before-31-2

Up next: This 1953 ranchburger with modernized trimmings in Braes Terrace (top). Had you looked at this Buffalo Speedway corner lot property when it was listed in March (at right), you’d have found it priced at $369,000. (It sold quickly, for $361,000.) Earlier this week, a re-imagined spread at the same address hit the market with a $698,000 price tag. In addition to designer-driven cosmetic tweaks, the overhaul included new electrical wiring and plumbing, roof, French doors, garage door, side deck and driveway. Do the results merit a $337K leap?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Smooth Moves
08/20/14 4:15pm

9200-carousel-01

9200-carousel-02

The interior of a decked out 1978 Spring Branch Estates home uses changing floor finishes to cue its ups and downs as the floor plan twists around a spiral staircase beneath a 20-ft. dome. The flow creates living spaces on several levels — and some rather unusual, futuristic features . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Taking Turns
08/19/14 4:45pm

4737-buck-03

4737-buck-01

Surreal artwork and rustic structural components left exposed seem to meld into a single composition within the Fifth Ward home and studio of artist Bert Long Jr., who died in February 2013. Fifteen years ago, the attached double-shotgun row houses had been painstakingly renovated (and combined) as the year-long thesis project of Brett Zamore, then a Rice University graduate architecture student. Long, who grew up nearby and was returning to Houston at the time, bought the property near the end of its transformation but before an art studio was added — for $30,000 $70,000 — and lived there with his wife, artist Joan Batson. The mixed-use property is located in the Pinecrest Court neighborhood near Wheatley High School, east of Waco St. and south of I-10. It was listed for sale this morning, with an asking price of $200,000.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Home and Studio
08/13/14 1:46pm

Schatz and Eamon House, 5906 Grace Ln., MacGregor Terrace, Houston

Schatz and Eamon House, 5906 Grace Ln., MacGregor Terrace, HoustonHouse-porn hub Houzz visits the MacGregor Terrace home of M+A Architecture Studio‘s Mark Schatz and Anne Eamon, after their recent upgrade from the 700-sq.-ft. residence they built for themselves back when they were architecture students at the University of Houston to the far-more-expansive slate-tile-clad concrete home they designed, constructed, and then added onto next door for their current family of 4. The finished size of their new 2-bedroom, 2-bath living space? A whopping 980 sq. ft.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Little House on MacGregor Terrace
08/05/14 2:45pm

142 S. Tranquil Path Dr., Grogan's Mill, The Woodlands, Texas

142 S. Tranquil Path Dr., Grogan's Mill, The Woodlands, Texas

You couldn’t have built a home like this secluded, sprawling number in a woodsy corner of the Grogan’s Mill section of The Woodlands without really liking bricks. The washed-brick exterior sets up against an expansive brick driveway set in a tightly woven herringbone pattern. Inside, lighter brickwork makes some sort of bricky statement in most rooms downstairs. The listing in mid-July, asking $2.395 million, wants you to know that the 2009 home drew inspiration from southern Louisiana; perhaps this explains the decorative or structural lagniappe worked into each room’s features.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

From The Woodlands to the East
07/31/14 1:45pm

519-heights-01-2

It might look like a neighboring property (in the background of the photo above) towers over an updated 1926 bungalow on Heights Blvd., but the addition is actually part of the mixed-use complex. Balcony-wrapped, the modernish appendage mashes up with yesteryear’s residential front-end, which is currently employed as a law office. The switched dual personalities (and dual purposes) co-exist behind a wrought-iron fence on the southbound side of Houston Heights’ main drag. Listed Tuesday, the combo offering has a $2,101,948 asking price.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Heights Face, Yale Face
07/30/14 4:45pm

22-windermere-03

22-windermere-28

Built in 1977, a sprawling, stucco and partially stone-faced contemporary home in the Piney Point Village neighborhood called Windermere endured a big update in 2010 — as well as some sort of 1997 rebuild. Last week, the property’s re-listing flipped a couple of digits in its asking price: It’s now $1.56 million, down from the $1.65 million initial tag from a 2013 listing. (A later reduction had fallen as far as $1.595 million before timing out earlier this month.) Served by a circular driveway, the corner pocket lot on lasso-shaped Windermere Ln. backs up to the Fondren Rd. dogleg north of Westheimer.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Slides on the Sides