- 2126 Westwood Dr. [HAR]
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Tag: Home Design
Outdoor living dominates a 1991 Lake Conroe waterfront property in Montgomery. The log cabin’s interior, at least, didn’t rate many photos in the listing that appeared last week. There are, however, plenty of shots of canines in repose (top). The compound occupies 7.4 acres of a peninsula north of FM 1097 near the Grand Pines Country Club and Bentwater; a slice of San Jacinto National Forest is just across the water. The property has a $2.25 million asking price. It last changed hands in 1999, for $698,750.
Ruffing It
With its streamlined demilune tower and moat-like driveway, an austere 1979 Southgate home could be considered a contemporary castle, particularly in the imaginations of neighborhood youngsters riding around the block of mostly thirties-vintage housing. There’s plenty inside this property’s C-shaped structure to make up for its no-peeking from curbside blankness, however . . .
White Castle with Sliders
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BY-THE-DECADE GUIDE TO HOUSTON HOME CLICHES 
“. . . How to estimate when a home was built:
Before 1920s: has a historical marker out front.
1920 & 30s: large porched front on narrow lots.
1940s: houses built low to the ground — almost always look identical to each other.
1950s: seafoam green/Pepto Bismol-pink tile in the bathrooms.
1960s: wood paneling in the den.
1970s: diagonal exterior wood plank paneling.
1980s: skylights, skylights, skylights.
1990s: McMansion.
2000s: faux Tuscan exteriors.
2010s: Tear down something from the above list and build whatever in its place. Doesn’t matter what — we’ve run out of ideas at this point.” [Native Houstonian, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Dead Animal Planet] Illustration: Lulu
Like sharpened cuspids, a 4-pack of aligned and angled columns screens the entry of a 1960 modern home in Meyerland. Could a toothy grill off the circular driveway have been the intent of the long-term owner, a dentist? The home’s initial design is attributed to H. Oberdieck in architectural chatter about the property and its records. Listed earlier this month, the home’s asking price is $899,000.
Say ‘Ahhhhh’?
There are vintage, historical, and perhaps sentimental aspects of this place in Merlin Place, just north of Spring Valley: The listing notes the home was “modeled after” the owner’s previous property in Piney Point. And bits of old Houston, older Galveston, and really old New Orleans worked themselves into the 1995 custom home, which still has some unfinished rooms. Thursday’s listing of the Mansard-roofed property, located between Voss and Bingle roads and south of Westview Dr., has an $840,000 asking price.
Saving Graces
What’s next for the modestly proportioned  home in Bunker Hill Village that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1954 for insurance executive William Thaxton (top and middle photos) and the more recent, more commodious addition (above) of 1995 by Bob Inaba of Kirksey Architecture? The pedigreed and restored property, on a cul-de-sac off Strey Ln., which peels off Memorial Dr. east of Gessner, landed on the market Monday with a $3.195 million asking price. That’s a bit less than the $3.5 million sought in 2010 when owner Allen Gaw previously tried to move on — but a little more than the $2.9 million that earlier listing shrunk to after a year of no takers.
CONTINUE READING THIS STORY
Wright Righted?
Jump or Dive? Try both. A Hill Country-like retreat in Memorial’s Sandlewood neighborhood is perched on a spring-fed lake — and comes with a pool, among other chill-worthy amenities. The asking price was set at $4.2 million in the property’s early June listing. Built in 1997 for its current owners, Midway Companies’ Brad and Claudia Freels, the fan-filled home appears to have waltzed across Texas to find some of the older touchstones incorporated into its finishes.
Breeze Ease
It’s a mod with original features still intact through and through. Attributed to architect Joseph Krakower and Herb Greene, a designer who worked in his office, the well-preserved and well-screened (top) custom mid-fifties property has deep eaves beneath a hipped roof (redone in 2008) and spreads across a quarter-acre Braes Heights lot. The location is on the spit of homes between Brays Bayou and N. Braeswood Blvd. near Edloe St. The home was listing a week ago with an asking price of $518,000.Â
Lots of Slots
Yet another re-listing of a 1949 home built by architect Hamilton Brown for his own family on the sloped loop of Tiel Way in River Oaks has freshened up the property’s market presence once more. But the price point is the same — it’s been hovering for a year at $2.825 million, having debuted at $3.75 million in 2010. Asking prices in the interim bounced down in listings by various agencies, hitting $3.25 million, then $2.95 million in 2011, and $2.875 million in the early part of last year, after a 3-month dalliance with $3.2 million in the fall of 2012. Like the wedge lot it occupies, the well-screened home is broader toward the few-frills front. Structural elements remain a focus inside (above) and out.
Despite the pedigree of an extensive renovation by architect Howard Barnstone (he did work on the property for LeRoy and Lucile Melcher, its later owners), there’s not a massive amount of Modern left to the house — at least if the interior decor has anything to say about it. The property was further altered in 2001 or 2002. Is that when all the beams attached themselves to the ceilings?
One More Time
The deep porch comes to a point and repeats it in wrapping around taller portions of a stuccoed 1920 cottage in Woodland Heights. Its listing mid-June, which comes with a $589,900 asking price attached, also makes a point: The previously renovated property, which still has many period details intact, might be ready for another round of redo . . . CONTINUE READING THIS STORY
Corner Pocket
One of the largest lots in Lakeside Place sprouts a 1975 contemporary with courtyard entry — and courtyard views from within the interior’s open floor plan (top). Furnishings in punchy shades of citrus currently pop against the neutral finishes found in most of the rooms. When listed Friday, the updated property’s asking price was $410,000. It last sold in 1998, for $196,500.
Fresh Squeezed Finishes
- 1343 Allston St. [HAR]
The biggest windows in this renovated 1975 townhome in the heart of the Museum District appear to be the glass-panel garage doors, which split their at-the-sidewalk orientation between both streets forming the corner property near Bell Park. But there’s more glass to see inside. A week ago, the asking price on this property dropped to $620,000 from a May listing kickoff at $640,000.
Gray Line Tour
Could the crop of buildings forming downtown Houston’s skyline viewed from a rooftop terrace north of Avondale be the “garden” reference in a contemporary townhome 3-pack dubbed “El Jardin Moderno?” Or maybe it’s the wispy palm trees that sharply mark the 2004 property’s portals? Or perhaps it’s the color use inside, where each level interprets a slice of the spectrum:
Taking a Long View
