08/24/12 4:17pm

Rehab complete, this cleaned-up 1975 Forest West home is back on the market, a full year after its last sales effort. Two weeks ago, the property re-listed with a new agency at $189,000. A previous listing would have sold for $109,500 in May 2011 but dropped the price to $95,000 before ending its summer run in August.

The Colonial-style entry, a nod to the nation’s Bicentennial run-up, maintains its broken-pediment tailoring. But renovations in the interim changed a bunch of other things: adding granite in the kitchen and bathrooms, swapping out tile and carpet throughout the home, removing wallpaper and painting over paneling, repainting inside and out, and replacing the hot water heater, kitchen cabinets, exterior French doors, and all the sinks, tubs, and toilets.

And, in lieu of furniture, adding a few discreetly placed potted plants for the photo shoot.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/23/12 4:50pm

Yep. It’s pink, and a sun-baked shade at that. The adobe abode has Sante Fe styling in an age and area more prone to “Texas Tuscan.” Located in Bellaire’s Westmoreland Farms section, this 2000 home was a late work of designer Roger Rasbach, considered a pioneer of energy-conscious home design. The hacienda itself measures 5,454 sq. ft., but its footprint includes another 850 sq. ft. of covered outdoor space containing courtyards, pavilions, a pergola, a pool, and a spa. On its eastern border, the near-acre lot backs up to a utility easement, with railroad tracks beyond. The almost-an-acre lot was up for sale for a spell last year. Re-listed in April by the same agent after 5-month breather — and a price drop of nearly a quarter-million dollars — the home’s asking price has remained steady since, at $2,199,500.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/23/12 10:16am

In Highland Village (the subdivision), this single-story 1950 home with single-slot garage is 2 sidewalk-free blocks south of Highland Village (the shopping center). A somewhat-reconfigured painted-brick home remodeled in 2000, the property listed 2 weeks ago at $429,000. Its interior has an open living-dining area overlooking a patio and pool, and the entry-with-bar shares that view. Beyond the back fence runs an easement for power lines and train tracks in a no-horn zone.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/22/12 10:16am

Last fall, the restoration-minded owner of this stretched-out 1956 Mod by architect Lucian Hood in Braeburn Valley told Swamplot he was fixing to sell his property. Now, having finished reviving the redwood exterior from beneath the paint that covered it up and sprucing up the brick and ledge stone walls, Jason Jones reports his 5-year project is ready for its closeup, just listed, and now asking $365,000. The home is located on a big corner lot across from Braeburn Country Club greens — and next to Maison DeVille, a Mansard-roofed apartment complex from 1962, later converted to condos.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/21/12 2:04pm

Everything above the roof ridge of this 1959 ranch-style residence in Spring Branch Woods forms a massive, single room across the back of the home. Listed last weekend at $443,000, the biggest-on-its-block property is located in Spring Branch Woods, just west of Bunker Hill Rd. The tree-lined stretch of Westview Dr. street has mostly smaller, 1-story suburban homes from the mid-fifties, including one across the street with the proverbial white picket fence.

Since 1984, this home-with-pool has changed hands seven times, HCAD records show. And it’s been remodeled a time or two. A roof-raising addition in 2000 made way for the aptly named “Great Room,” a 26-ft.-by-19-ft window-display showcase:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/17/12 2:44pm

Over in La Porte, a Bayside Terrace home has — a bay-side terrace. The waterfront property has a panoramic view of Upper Galveston Bay and its existing spill islands and wildlife refuge. And that vista just dodged a soggy bullet: On Wednesday the Port of Commission nixed a plan that would have placed a 475-acre island of sludge in the bay in the middle of it, built from material dug up from dredging at the Bayport Container Terminal in neighboring Shoreacres, near the Houston Yacht Club. (The dredging will go ahead, but the material go onto berms at Atkinson Island instead.)

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/17/12 1:04pm

EAST OF DOWNTOWN, AND NO ONE’S BITING “I need help,” writes the would-be seller of this townhome just north of the railroad tracks from East Downtown, a day after cutting the asking price down to $254,900. (It originally sold for $236K back in 2008.) “I read Swamplot daily and love seeing what your astute commenters have to say. I’ve lived in the Houston area my entire life but am new to selling a house around here. I’ve had my townhouse on the market for a few weeks now but haven’t had much traffic. I’m wondering if this is normal around here or maybe there’s just not enough buzz for my house. Is the pricing all wrong? Are the pictures awful? Is my agent doing enough (umm… Hi, mom!)? Is my ’hood too early in the gentrification stage? It really is a great house and a pretty cool neighborhood if I do say so myself! I’d love some advice from folks in the know.” [Swamplot inbox]

08/14/12 9:32am

There’s a stuccoed Dutch-Colonial-Swiss Colony on the not-so-mountainous streets behind Weslayan Plaza’s west side in the College Court section (aka the “chimney”) of West University Place. The lookalike cottage and quarters are steps away from the new Buffalo Grille and a U.S. Post Office. West U’s Judson Park to the south and a proposed rail station for Metro’s supposed University Line are also blocks away. Railroad tracks, meanwhile, are just up the street.

During construction of the 1983 main house, a former 1940s “barn” on the site became a 2-story guest house in lieu of a garage. HCAD cites some remodeling in 1991 to the home. Last Friday, the property re-listed at $462,500 after a previous listing by the same agent initially sought $575,000 in April 2012, with adjustments to $565,000, $550,000, and then a summer of $524,990. The home’s side entry and hipped roof make for an atypical floor plan:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/10/12 3:57pm

If you squint, this house sort of puts a party face on its facade, what with the eyeball windows, nose-like roof above the landing, and unfurled tongue of stairs. The 2-story-over-garage quay-side property is on tiny Tiki Island, which, at less than 1.5 sq. miles in size, is more canal than actual land. It’s just off Galveston’s West Bay and has 91 ft. of canal frontage plus 2 boat lifts. It listed in July at $564,500. The entertainment-in-mind layout includes 2 living areas, decks at 2 levels, screened porches, and a pool with hot tub off a covered patio. Inside the 1993 home by the bay, you’ll find more than earth tones:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

08/09/12 4:15pm

The grass is always greener when it’s part of an overhaul. A redo (above) of this 1968 home in Forest West (at right) lawned-up the yard, boosted the landscaping, and thinned out the tree limbs. Then, the makeover moved inside, adding fresh paint, a new HVAC system, carpet, and 2012-ier finishes in the kitchen and bathrooms. The home is just a couple lots away from the crosswalks of HISD’s Clifton Middle School and adjacent Forest West Park.

The revamped property was listed earlier this week at $159,900, but in February 2012 it changed hands for $85,000. That previous listing’s initial asking price was $139,900 — in September 2011. But it tumbled every few weeks thereafter: from $132,500 in early October to November’s double-dips of $124,900 and $114,900 to holiday pricing of $109,900 . . . and a new year-new price of $99,900.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY