Ever wondered what a little duplex on Dunlavy might look like done up as . . . say, a personal injury law office? So, apparently, did the folks at the Manginello Law Firm. Thanks to the go-getters in that firm, all the heavy furniture lifting has been done for you. And now, thanks to the partners’ apparent eagerness to move on to a different sort of space, the firm’s bang-up legal interiors work is on display. It’s all featured in this new for-sale listing:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM THAT NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTH OF THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL “Who says this is going to be townhouses? This is my neighborhood. While there are certainly plenty of townhouses in the area, the overall trend has moved decidedly toward single family homes. As I type, there are at least a half dozen new single family homes under construction within a few blocks of this site. While this house appears to be quite nice, I’m guessing whatever replaces it will be much nicer. I know it’s standard operating procedure for Swamplotters to hate everything new, but the single family homes (and even the townhouses) being built in this neighborhood are typically quite nice. This demo is more the exception than the rule. Most of what gets torn down around here is garbage.” [Bernard, commenting on Tiny Done-Up Woodhead Cottage Is Townhome Fodder]
This cozy little white-picket-fenced 1,224-sq.-ft. cottage on Woodhead north of Fairview went on the market just as the holiday weekend began. But already “developers are swarming with offers and not even looking at the home and gardens,” a source tells Swamplot. Why bother, when the 1930 home sits on a 5,000-sq.-ft. corner lot along Welch St., just 4 blocks south of the River Oaks Shopping Center? New driveways away! But . . . okay, what would $369,500 would buy here?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR MAKES THE ASKING PRICE GO DOWN 
“Who thinks $300,000 is completely unaffordable? Seriously? I won’t be dropping that on this unique piece of history, but that’s a remarkable price for that house. You’ll have to put in another $300,000 to make it livable, but in a city where West U bungalows with 2 bedrooms and one bath go for that much, or a simple 4/2.5 goes for a cool million, that folly is a steal. All it needs is a dedicated, kooky restorer/designer and a ninth fence! From that top platform, you can see enough to pretend you’re in another neighborhood, or even Admiral Boom himself!” [Meg, commenting on Wichita St. Mystery House Goes on the Market Today: Your First Peek Inside]
This sprawling $2.35 million 13-acre estate sits on the left bank of a Dickinson Bayou tributary, across from that little shopping district with the steakhouse and the barber shop and the Dairy Queen. Past the gatekeeper’s cottage, you’ll find this 6-bedroom 2-story stucco home on the site, deep into a landscape of Spanish moss-draped oaks and crape myrtles. The home and its well-paneled interior dates to 1933, though a few of the interior floor coverings look like they might be a bit more recent:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A COLOR ANTHEM “You know what? Pink is UNDER rated. I’m not being sarcastic. Its period appropriate. Its Pantone’s color of the year (Honeysuckle). If I had $695K I would ROCK this house AS IS! Except for the carpet in the bathroom. BUT i would replace it with pink rugs FOR SURE! Replace the Hollywood Regency furniture with updated pieces and this place would be badassssssss!!!! Why do people bag on pink so much? Because it takes a super awesome person to pull it off and most people can’t decorate beyond copying the latest Pottery Barn catalog. Pink is bold! Pink is unique! Pink is more than a song from Funny Face or Aerosmith!! Pink for the WIN!” [brilliant.girl, commenting on 1956 Ranch from Del Monte Says Yes to Pink]
Such a rosy disposition about this Mod Ranch planted in the thick of the Galleria area. The 1956 home jumped into the market late last week, beneath Photoshop-blue skies: a 3-or-4 bedroom, 3-1/2-bath spread fitted onto a 12,960-sq.-ft. lot with just enough room for a pool in back. But what about the pinkage? How serious a case do we have here?
Photos of a 2-story brick home in the Easton Commons area of Copperfield featured on Swamplot last Friday have since found their way onto 2 national real-estate websites. 14818 Chetland Place Dr.’s moment in the media spotlight is surely a testament either to a nascent farm and star-making infrastructure for breakout local real-estate listings — or to the sheer attention-getting power of bizarre listing photos.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HE-MAN, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO SAVE THESE TURRETS! “This house will more than likely be torn down. It’s a shame, really, because it’s one of the most unique structures in town, but the list of people who, a) could afford the $300K price tag, and b) would want to live in a house that looks like Castle Grayskull, is probably pretty short.” [Stormy Blanco, commenting on Wichita St. Mystery House Goes on the Market Today: Your First Peek Inside]
After the Orange Show, the Beer Can House, and the Third Ward home of the Flower Man, probably no Houston home has accumulated more outsider-art street cred than Charles Fondow’s decades-long transformation of a former Riverside Terrace daycare center into a bubbling stew of half-timbered gables, turrets, and towering rooftop decks. The ongoing Wichita St. skyward expansion project had an air of mystery, too. In Jennifer Mathieu’s 2001 Houston Press profile, Fondow comes across as shy and self-effacing, though he had by then spent $300,000 and countless hours of hard work on his grand, mostly-DIY creation, inspired by visions he had collected from visits to exotic far-away lands like Russia and Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Fondow, who loved to travel, passed away in March after falling ill on a Caribbean cruise. His gotta-keep-adding home-improvement project had lasted 31 years. And earlier today, a for-sale sign went up on the property. The listing features a first public viewing of what everybody wants to see: the building’s innards. Could this place be just as weird and wonderful inside as what Fondow carefully assembled outside and on top?
