01/08/09 8:38pm

Knollwood Village was the clear favorite of this week‘s neighborhood guessers, with 4 of you spotting the house there. A few more guesses huddled nearby in the southwest corner of the Loop: Linkwood, Woodshire, Woodside, “south of Braeswood between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link,” and “the neighborhood South of Holcombe/Bellaire and West of Stella Link behind the Palace Lanes (Lanark St).” Riverside Terrace got 2 votes. The rest: Meyerland, Afton Oaks, “around the Galleria, Chimney Rock, Richmond area,” Bellaire, Antoine/43rd St. off 290, Willowbend, east Westbury, Braes Heights, Ayrshire, Robindell, Long Point Woods, Royal Oaks, and Shadow Oaks.

Great work, everyone!

We had 2 winners this week. Chris, who included all the right names in this neighborhood roundup:

. . . ahhh those corner windows, itsy-bitsy crown molding, and green tile betray this home’s location. The only area I know of that is so corner-window crazy is the Knollwood/Linkwood/Woodshire/Woodside part of the inner loop.

And Swamplot-Award-winner Miz Brooke Smith, who turned in another strong performance:

I would narrow the area to south of Braeswood between Buffalo Speedway and Stella Link. The living room-dining room-kitchen layout, quality and nature of the wood floors, old-fashioned wooden bathroom cabinets & knobs, proportion of door to 8′ ceiling height, and tell-tale brass-colored doorknobs also speak of this time & place. Same goes for the view out the window through mature oak limbs to the one-story brick rancher across the street (both of which — house & roadbed — doubtless have their share of historic clay-gumbo cracks and seams). The handsome re-do includes new windows, and perhaps a built-out sun room and porch off the kitchen, overlooking the backyard deck?

Honorable mentions go to all the Knollwood Village guessers — Joni Webb, toadfroggy, and Pat — who were close but ended up on the wrong side of Buffalo Speedway.

And here it is:

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12/18/08 11:57pm

Great game this week!

Here’s where you thought this home was: 4 of you guessed Memorial, 2 the Memorial Villages, and 2 Crestwood; Hunter Creek Village and Hedwig Village each got a vote. There were 2 guesses of Sugar Land, 2 of Sugar Creek, and 1 of Sweetwater. There were 2 votes each for FM 1960 and Champion Forest, plus single guesses of Huntwick and Olde Oaks. Plus: The Woodlands, Kingwood, Pasadena, Clear Lake, River Oaks, Tanglewood, Twin Lakes/North Eldridge, Bellaire (or was that Bel Air?), and League City.

The winner was writergeek, who guessed around, but ended up getting it — all the way down to the golf course:

For some reason the entry screams Sugar Land to me – either Sugar Creek (near the country club) or Sweetwater… The dated decor screams of the flight to the suburbs in the 80s and it looks like they went bust shortly after since the house hasn’t been touched since. Perhaps someone who was in a S&L scandal?

An honorable mention goes to movocelot, who was first to detect the home’s actual age:

Expansive rooms, painted brick, ceiling beamlets, applied molding on cabinets say early to mid 70’s to me.

Congratulations! Here’s what you’ve won:

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12/11/08 7:27pm

We’ve had a pretty good run of 35 Neighborhood Guessing Games. So a train wreck like this week’s contest was probably overdue.

At least 6 participants in this round already knew the property posted on Tuesday. Sadly, only one bothered to spice up the game by writing in with the answer, then attempting to deceive the other players with wacky but mildly credible guesses. Most everyone stuck by the rules, but those rules will probably need to see some adjustments (beginning next year) to prevent the NGG from turning into a contest where players compete to guess at things they already know.

Here’s where those of you who were actually guessing thought this colorful pad might be: Meyerland, Tanglewood, the edge of River Oaks, Southampton, Mandell Place, Montrose, the Medical Center, the near Northside near Patton and Main, on Blossom near Shepherd, the Memorial Villages, “somewhere near the Galleria,” Rivercrest, Southgate, Rice Military, Camp Logan, Memorial near Westcott, “that modernish enclave of new houses north of Richmond and west of Kirby,” “just west or southwest of Highland Village shopping center,” or off Woodway near Buffalo Bayou.

The winner this week was John, who managed to stretch out his quick guess into this complete sentence:

My guess is, of all places, Tanglewood.

A few of the many (later) Tanglewood entries:

I think it is that hideous house that is painted school bus yellow just off the boulevard that was built maybe 10 years ago.

this has to be that horrible house in tanglewood near chimney rock.

This has to be that bright yellow, Legorreta wannabe house just east of Chimney Rock.

It reminds me of the hotel Pierce Bronsan stayed at in Matador. All that purple, pink and yellow sure is festive.

Special honors go to this week’s double-agent, Richard, who unleashed some mad FUD-inducing skillz:

The owners of this paean to contemporary high-class-Mexican architecture are probably maxing out their platinum American Express cards at the Louis Vuitton shop at the Galleria. The scale and colors remind me of the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico City, but if they want to sell this house in Rivercrest, they’re going to have to make a trip to Home Depot for some taupe and tan colored paint. This second-home for Mexican immigrants of the non-gardening-or-custodial variety is in Rivercrest, probably even north of Briar Forest on Crestbend. . . .

In fact, after reviewing a previous Swamplot headline, may I venture to guess it’s on the corner of Crestbend and Enchilada??

So what’s the scoop?

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12/10/08 5:35pm

From HAIF, a brief but classic conversation from earlier this week about the house for sale at 423 Electra in Memorial Bend:

Has anyone been inside this house lately? The realtor seems to be a little confused in the HAR listing. It reads that it is 2 bed from 3, has 6 bathrooms, a garage and a manned gate?? well I guess the fence and gate was put in by a man. And its a “absolutely gorgeous must see” and also sold for “lot value”. huh? My biggest question is what’s with that front yard nursery plantings?

Is the house re-muddled too far?

The response, after the jump — from someone who’s been there. Plus: all the remaining photos from the listing!

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12/04/08 11:47pm

Where was this thing?

First, your guesses: 2 each for Braes Heights, Bellaire, Westbury, and Garden Oaks. Plus: “within a mile of Montrose/Studemont /Studewood,” east of Montrose near Alabama, near Westheimer and Kirby, Highland Village, Montrose, Meyerland, Castle Court, near the Menil, Sharpstown, West University, Larchmont, Oak Forest, Timbergrove, Lazybrook, Timbergrove or Lazybrook, Spring Branch, “Maplewood, west of Chimney Rock, maybe even right on Beechnut,” “somewhere right off of Shepherd between 59 and Allen Parkway,” Idylwood, near Stella Link, and Afton Oaks.

Fortunately, nobody guessed the Heights. Is it in the Heights? In a lazy, geographical way, maybe. But not really. Only the real-estate agent would call this neighborhood the Heights. Or, more specifically, “Heights/East.”

Which means the winner is . . . the quick-to-the-draw marmer, in the very first response:

This smallish one-story was probably built just before or just after WWII, and is probably within a mile of Montrose/Studemont/Studewood, could be anywhere between Bissonnet and North Main.

And it is — just barely — at the top end of both ranges.

If someone is able to detail the garage history of this home, it might win Carol an honorable mention. Without that, the nod goes to Howard Hughes, for this bit of only somewhat peccable real-estate logic:

Lack of seperation between the living/dining areas, as well as a small squatty window denote this as a post-war house…probably from the mid to late 1950s. $ was spent on the interior decoration, so it’s probably in an area enjoying a resurgence.

So . . . what’s with the garage?

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12/01/08 1:22pm

Conspicuously absent from the MLS listing for 834 W. 24th St. in the Heights: any mention (or photos) of the Scar Room, a small chamber of sculptures and small wood panels on which house owner and artist Dolan Smith and sympathetic visitors graphically documented their physical and psychological afflictions. Sample Scar Room decor: “a submerged doll with a piece of rubber hose wrapped around its neck, representing the umbilical cord that nearly strangled Smith at birth.”

But it isn’t too hard to find exacting descriptions of the home online. The Houston Press, for example, featured this bit of color as it celebrated the home’s come-from-behind win of the paper’s “Best Shrine to the Abnormal” award back in 2002:

Donations of every imaginable variety show up weekly: horns, doll heads, a film canister of Tommy Lee Jones’s spit, balls of Saran Wrap, clumps of hair, an appendix, color photos of fallopian tubes and contemporary art of a disquieting nature. Artist/nutball Dolan Smith has turned his Heights bungalow into a mecca for all things weird. . . .

Smith is supplementing his empire of the bizarre with a two-thirds-complete pet cemetery. Last year, Tropical Storm Allison took its toll on the nascent final resting place for pets. Rising floodwaters filled the jars of 32 dead rats, inadvertently creating biological pipe bombs.

Sure, you’re thinking . . . Who’s gonna buy this place?

No problem. Realtor Weldon Rigby, himself no stranger to homes graced by an occasional mannequin, has already done himself proud. After just a month and a half on the market, the home — listed for $150,000 — went “option pending” on November 14th.

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11/20/08 3:16pm

Looks like the Guessing Game subject for this round wasn’t quite as popular as last week’s Wylie Vale Contemporary Country home in Katy. But the guesses were better!

Two of you guessed Sharpstown. The rest: Sharpstown/Bellaire, Pearland, Westchase, south of the Westpark Tollway near Highway 6, off Newcastle just south of 59, “anywhere in a wide swath from Westpark [counter]clockwise to 288,” Tanglewilde, around 59 and Beltway 8, the Dairy Ashford corridor, Sagemeadow, “between Bellaire and Harwin; Wilcrest and Kirkwood,” off Fry Rd. north of I-10, “one of the older neighborhoods on the Cinco Ranch side of I-10 around Kingsland or Highland Knolls,” Bear Creek, Katy, Pasadena, Greenspoint, “Sommerset” (Somerset Place on Memorial Dr.?), Atascocita, the Woodlands, Glenbrook Valley, “down I-45 toward Almeda,” “West side south of Buffalo Bayou between Beltway 8 and Highway 6,” Alief, and “somewhere in the stretch of floodplain between League City and La Porte.”

The winner is the reclusive Howard Hughes, for the sufficiently inclusive guess of “the 59/BW8 area.” No one came closer!

An honorable mention goes to Miz Brooke Smith, for these wide-ranging observations (including an equally wide-ranging — but accurate — stab at the map):

How generic can one place get? This could be anywhere, any time between 1979 and 2005. Definitely somewhere flood-prone, given all that room-expanding bias tile. And the wood floors in the bedrooms look suspiciously like laminate. Home-Doodle-special builder’s-grade cabinetry, marbuluxe countertops and molding-less nekkid window frames scream 1980’s el cheapo condo, as does the treeless view out the sliding glass patio doors. But where, oh where could this grim pad be? I will defer to fellow Guessing Game contestants to pin the tail on this donkey that could be anywhere in a wide swath from Westpark [counter] clockwise to 288.

Can we get a little more exact? How about the Northfield Patio Homes, in Fondren Southwest?

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11/20/08 8:58am

It isn’t even vaguely Victorian, and only half of it is new. But the Heights left room for this house anyway: A 1911 bungalow featuring a turn-of-the-century Arts-and-Crafts makeover and addition, on a double-size lot. It’s been on the market since late last month. For only $749K!

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11/18/08 10:47am

No, this isn’t the Neighborhood Guessing Game. But there’s got to be a story behind this place.

The 2,714-square-foot “workshop” building on the corner of 9th and Harvard in the Heights, which apparently dates from 1920, has been for sale since March. It’s listed, along with a 911-sq.-ft. bungalow next door along 9th St., for $430,000 — marked down from $472,000 with 2 stops along the way.

Wanna peek inside?

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11/17/08 10:31am

Readers obsessed with the Katy house designed by Wylie W. Vale that was featured in last week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game will be interested to see these additional views of the 1952 home — in all its original “little bit country, little bit Mod” glory. They were taken by architectural photographer (and yes, game winner) Ben Hill on a quick visit early last year.

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11/14/08 9:10am

Den, 7309 Greenbriar St., Old Braeswood, Houston

In exile now from artist Gloria Becker’s home now for almost 9 months, her sock monkeys are likely getting a tad restless. But still: no sale!

In October, Becker dropped the price on her scrubbed and staged Old Braeswood stuffed-animal planet another $45.5K.

11/13/08 5:54pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game 32: Office

Just what was it that made this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game the most popular ever? Carol tries to explain:

It’s not just the cool mod furniture and decorations, or the funky taxidermy room. Maybe it’s that the house looks like the family was so much fun. Maybe it represents the family we all want to go home to on holidays, when Grandma pulls out the Betty Crocker cookbook and makes the greatest stuffing ever and Grandpa tells his hunting stories for the thousandth time. Maybe this was the real American middle class dream of the 1950s. Cue the violins and the teardrop. I second the call for a field trip. Realtor: Please schedule an open house!

Here were your guesses: Garden Oaks, Garden Oaks near Shepherd, Spring Branch (3 votes), Sharpstown (2 votes), Meyerland (2), off Braeswood near the Braeburn Country Club, Bellaire, Garden Villas (2), Braeswood, Glenbrook Valley (2), Spring Valley, Willowbend, Linkwood (2), Memorial Bend, South Braeswood near Stella Link, Tanglewood, Memorial (3), Hunters Creek, Pasadena (3), Meadowcreek, Allendale, Mount Vernon, Ayrshire, Piney Point, Katy, Braeswood (2), South Houston, East Harris County, Deer Park, Baytown, Memorial Villages (3), Marilyn Estates, “Briargrove, or one of those Briar places,” off Briar Forest inside the Beltway, Willow Meadows, Riverside Terrace, between Spring Valley and Hedwig Village, Lake Jackson (2), Texas City, Mt. Pleasant, Creekside, Tynewood, Westbury, and Park Place.

How far are you willing to travel for that open house?

The winner was BenH, who in accordance with rule 3 “guessed” Katy. He’s visited the house, but deserves credit for reporting about it on HAIF last week (shortly before another reader wrote to Swamplot with the suggestion). He says the photos don’t do it justice.

Many fine and original comments this week! Honorable mentions go to JT, for some never-mind-the-carbon dating (but what if the home truly was ahead of its time?):

The house is definitely in the 1954-1958 era with the pale yellow kitchen tile counters and the MCM signature pink adobe brick being the telltale. Mrs. Matron loved her draperies but, Lord, can anyone open them up? It looks like some prime windows are hidden.

and Jessica, for expressing the spirit of many in the group, before outing herself as one of those crazed, antler-worthy fans:

You might not want to post the address of this place – I fear the homeowner might be fighting hopeful furniture buyers off with a stick! (Or a pair of antlers – plenty of those handy.) I am totally obsessed with this house, and would also like to see what’s inside the kitchen cabinets!

Eager to have a better look at this house yourself? Here’s some more detail:

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