Here’s a real slice of Houston: A shiny new just-redone vintage 1975 townhouse with underground garage and glass elevator, tucked into the pride of this city in the 1970s: the hidden-away-in-the-middle-of-it-all Briar Hollow ’hood.
Any problem with heat gain through those giant west-facing windows? Not at all, because the 12-story office tower across the street acts as a convenient sunshade:
Listed for $244,987: This open-air treehouse in Eastwood. Comes with 1,751-sq.-ft. 3-4 bedroom house.
Here we go with our new faster format Neighborhood Guessing Game results post: The winner of this week’s prize — free enrollment in the “Houston’s History Told Through Its Architecture” course at the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice University — is katie. Congratulations — and many thanks to the Glasscock School for sponsoring the prize!
This week’s guesses were full of brilliant and entertaining observations. And we give special mention to Porchman and AKane, both of whom ran interference with well-constructed fake guesses they concocted after writing in with the actual listing.
So much fun! Where is this week’s swingin’ pad?
A reader brings our attention to a little adjustment that’s been made to the asking price of the property at 301 E. 10th St., a house in the Heights that was the focus of a Swamplot Price Adjuster feature a couple of months ago. With the apparent encouragement of many of our readers, the price was cut from $600K to $450K — just before the end of the year. Any takers now?
If we’re going to feature more properties on the Swamplot Price Adjuster in the coming year, we need your nominations! Find a property you think is poorly priced? Send an email to Swamplot! Be sure to include a link to the listing or photos. Tell us about the property, and explain why you think it deserves a price adjustment. Then tell us what you think a better price would be. Unless requested otherwise, all submissions to the Swamplot Price Adjuster will be kept anonymous.
“Welcome to the ideal property for train lovers, its located near a semi-active train tract,” begins the listing for this 5-bedroom, 4,164-sq.-ft. home backing up to the tracks on Community Dr. in College Court, the far western edge of West U. Writes the reader who sent it in:
I give them points for having the guts to address the issue head on (may be limiting the pool of buyers by focusing on such a niche though!)
Not mentioned in the $799K listing: the high-voltage power lines that run parallel to the tracks. Also, there’s the bad feng shui: The front door faces onto the end of Judson St.
A reader writes in to report finding “arguably Houston’s best version of McKim Mead & White’s famous Low House, with maybe a little Brady Bunch pizazz thrown in:”
Complete with the classic Memorial-area window wall facing the back yard. Bet MM&W never thought of that!
It’s this 5-bedroom 1964 home on a little more than half an acre in Bunker Hill Woods, which snuck on the market for $780,000 at the beginning of this month. Plus, raps the listing agent, pecky pickled cypress paneling in the Family and Living Rooms:
Estate property built by architect for himself. Owned by one family exclusively. . . . Floor in gmrm recycled from Rice U science lab as well as lower cabinets in garage.
Never mind the Game Room floor. Where’d they get that bathroom tile?
Who won the prize for this week’s game — a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance?
Somebody who made one of these guesses: Memorial, Bunker Hill Village, Piney Point Village, Sugar Land, Champions (2 guesses), Charnwood, the San Felipe and Voss area, Katy, Cinco Ranch, “Memorial/Kirkwood area,” “Memorial/Dairy Ashford area,” Richmond Ave. inside the Beltway, Riverside Terrace, Fleetwood (2), Quail Valley, Greenwood Forest, Hedwig Village, Ponderosa Forest, Timbergrove Manor, along Sims Bayou near the Gulf Freeway, “Memorial Northwest, just north of Louetta and off of Champion Forest,” and Sandalwood.
Congratulations to Phil Hyde, for winning with this:
This house has some obvious updates, like the granite countertops. But the herringbone floors and wood paneling scream 70’s. Very typical of houses in Fleetwood.
Would you like your membership wrapped? Also guessing Fleetwood was this week’s runner-up, KimmerTX.
Let’s have a look:
None of you guessed the correct location for this week’s mystery home. But we have a prizewinner for that Rice Design Alliance membership!
Here’s where you thought the home might be: Friendswood, Timbergrove Manor (5 guesses), Lazybrook (2 guesses), Oak Forest (2), Westbury, Willowbrook, Shepherd Forest, Spring Branch (2), Sharpstown, Meyerland, Westwood, Willowbend, Braes Heights, Ayrshire, Afton Oaks, Lynn Park, Old Braeswood, Braeburn Valley (2), Bellaire, and Maplewood.
Since nobody guessed it, we’re giving a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance to a player who wrote in to identify the listing, then posted a couple of solid decoy guesses:
While the funky kitchen floor throws me off a bit, I’m going to guess based on the traditional furniture that they are Afton Oaks-dwellers.
and
Sorry – Afton Oaks OR Lynn Park (behind Highland Village). That whole area has that real estate tension between renovating old ranches or mowing them down to build a brand-new faux-something.
Congratulations, LT. You’ve won the week!
So where is this home?
“The key to buying a home in Houston is to figure out the next up-and-coming neighbourhood before it arrives,” declares Sheila McNulty, the Houston and energy-business correspondent for London’s Financial Times. Then you can knock down a home there — or fix it up! And that next hot new neighborhood would be . . . ?
Momentum is building in Westbury, a 20-minute drive from downtown. Here the tree-lined streets sell suburbia: they are quiet, close to good schools (both public and private), the Medical Center – a key employer in Houston – and the Galleria shopping mall that anchors Houston. Yet they are set back from the highways and urban sprawl that characterise any big US city.
Before Westbury hit the radar of local estate agents it was Meyerland, which followed Bellaire, which followed West University, as the circle of sought-after areas around downtown Houston steadily widened.
McNulty tours a few listings in the neighborhood with Keller Williams agent Peggie Kohnert — including this “needs TLC” special at 5842 Dryad Dr., just 6 houses in from Hillcroft:
Channel 2 investigative reporter Amy Davis sends a KPRC newschopper to buzz the 80-acre Cypress party pad estate of former Royce Builders president John Speer. More than a year after we featured the innumerable builder upgrades of that Mack-Daddy mansion on Swamplot, it’s still sitting on the market — for the same $9.8 million.
Meanwhile, less than a mile to the west, sales aren’t going so well either in former Royce Homes subdivision Grant Meadows:
“Houses are in disrepair. Fences are in disrepair,” explained homeowner Matt Adams. “The whole neighborhood’s been left in ruins.” . . .
Royce stopped paying the bill for the street lights in Grant Meadows in July 2008.
Reliant recently switched them off, and told homeowners they must pay the $14,000 owed before they can turn them back on.
“It’s pitch black out here at night,” said homeowner Evit Byrd, who planned to retire in Grant Meadows with his wife. “You can’t see anything.”
But there’s some good news: Speer has been building again! His new company, Vestalia Homes, which Speer founded 3 weeks after he closed down Royce, is busy constructing and selling homes a little closer to FM 1960, in a subdivision called the Lakes of Cypress Forest.
We have a winner for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game! Who won that membership in the Rice Design Alliance?
First, here’s where you guessed this home might be: Southampton (2 guesses), Bellaire (3 of you), Tanglewood, Champions (2), “off Memorial near the Tollway,” Baytown (2), “Gessner and Wilcrest area,” Pearland, Sugar Land, The Woodlands (2), Katy, Southampton, the Heights, Briar Forest, Downtown, Memorial, West University, Deer Park, League City, Clear Lake, Greatwood, Willowbrook, Spring, Champions, Kingwood, Midtown, Montrose, Rice Military, Camp Logan, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, Timbergrove Manor (2), Upper Kirby, the Galleria, Afton Oaks, Gulfton, Spring Branch, Sharpstown, Alief, Braeburn, Tanglewilde, Westchase, Barker Cypress, Greenspoint, Cinco Ranch, EaDo, River Oaks (2), “Wards 1-6,” Riverside Terrace, Avondale, “just inside the Beltway, just off Memorial Dr.,” West Lane Place, “somewhere south of Richmond and west of Hillcroft,” “the Stoney Brook or Westbriar/Tanglewilde area,” Tealwood, and “the Memorial/Gessner area.”
The winner of a one-year individual membership in the RDA is mojo jojo, for pinpointing the home with this entry:
The decorations in this home point to outside the loop, around the beltway or beyond! The photos give very little indication to era, except for the kitchen. From the knob placement on the cabinets (I betcha that these cabinets original had yellow or green ceramics knobs), to the custom built vent apron over the island, this kitchen screams 70’s!!! . . .
What leads me to the location is the fact that the home has almost no yard, as seen in the many photos which show the ivy covered wall outside of every window. This leads me to the many townhome communities built in the 70’s and 80’s, around the Beltway.
My scientific calculations, lead me to believe that this home is just inside the Beltway, and just off Memorial Dr.
Congratulations, mojo jojo!
We’re also handing out an honorable mention to movocelot, for being kinda close too. Now just where is this place?
A reader wants to know if this home on a cul-de-sac in Texas City’s Northside neighborhood is too far out to work as a subject of Swamplot’s weekly Neighborhood Guessing Game.
Some very smart and interesting guesses in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game!
Here’s where you thought this home might be: “Off of Highway 249, Jones Rd. and Louetta,” West University, Katy, Lakeside Estates, “around the Augusta/Bering area” (2 guesses), Riverside Terrace (also 2), “that strip between Almeda and 288,” Lakeside Place, “Barker’s Landing, between Memorial and I-10, behind the BP compound,” Gaywood, Braeswood Place, Ayrshire, Braes Heights, Braes Oaks, Braes Manor, Braes Terrace, Emerald Forest, Southern Oaks, the Rossmoyne Addition (near Bonnie Brae and Graustark), Wilchester, Clute, Meyerland, Memorial, FM 1960, along Yorktown and Sage in the Galleria, “just south of Memorial City Mall, maybe on Gessner,” Westhaven Estates, “one of the Fleetwood neighborhoods near Memorial and Highway 6), Montrose, “within a mile or 2 of Memorial and 610,” Sugar Land (2), Richmond, Sugar Creek, Quail Valley, “along Cypresswood and Louetta,” the Energy Corridor, Prestonwood Forest, “East of Eden,” The Woodlands (3), Dickinson, along Dickinson Bayou, Champions, Champion Forest, “that River Oaks Lite neighborhood between Shepherd and Kirby, north of Westheimer,” Pecan Grove, Tanglewood, Vatican City (2), Bellaire, the Museum District, Willow Meadows, Linkwood, “the ‘Ashford’ subdivisions along Briarforest west of Kirkwood,” “the older subdivisions in Pearland and Friendswood along Clear Creek,” Bay Oaks in Clear Lake, Idylwood, Briargrove Park, Spring Valley, Northfield in Fondren Southwest, Lazybrook, Timbergrove Manor, “the Shepherd Forest/Brookhollow area,” Inwood Forest (2), Bayou Bend, “the Woodstone/Woodlake Forest/Hudson Oaks area,” Tealwood, “I-10, just before the Beltway, north side of the highway,” Kingwood, River Oaks, “on Breakwood by 610 South,” Townhouse Manor, and “one of the more upscale subdivisions in outer Mongolia.”
Matt Mystery wins this one with his close-enough, uh . . . 19th guess:
The paneling is the main clue but the ceiling height is what is so mysterious – not just a high ceiling. Not a two story ceiling. It’s a one and one-half story ceiling. Wherever it is, I suspect it is a custom home. Some built custom homes in “tract†subdivisions which is what I’m wondering about – some other possibilities could be Bellaire, the Museum District, Willow Meadows, Linkwood, the “Ashford†subdivisions along Briarforest west of Kirkwood, the older subdivisions in Pearland and Friendswood along Clear Creek, Bay Oaks in Clear Lake. So many possibilities.
Yes, but this is where it is:
A couple of months ago, a TABC application appeared outside the Indian Summer Lodge, Jeff Law’s quirky and colorful Quonset-Hut-turned-event-compound adjacent to the new Hike-and-Bike Trail off lower Columbia St. in the Heights. And so the rumor began that midtown’s Tacos-A-Go-Go might be moving or expanding there.
Now, however, the Indian Summer Lodge is for sale. A new listing was posted over the weekend on the MLS. The 16,170-sq.-ft. property features three buildings — the lodge, the “loft” (the Quonset hut), and a treehouse with skyline balcony.
Here’s what $775,000 gets you:
“I’d need to get in shape to move into this house,” writes the Swamplot reader who sent in this listing for one of those new $million-plus homes in the fenced-off Caceres compound wedged between Reinerman, Feagan, and Detering streets in the West End.
Is this stucco structure really five stories tall?
