11/07/07 5:31pm

3740 Willowick Dr. in River Oaks by Architect John Staub

A 1955 River Oaks “country house” designed by John Staub appears on MLS just days before architectural historian Stephen Fox’s book on the Houston architect appears in bookstores. Mere coincidence? Or brilliant upper-end home-marketing technique?

There’s a slight price difference between the two: The Country Houses of John F. Staub lists for $75, though Amazon.com whacks 37 percent off of that. No telling if the sellers will accept a similar discount off the $7.495 million asking price of 3740 Willowick.

The house overlooks Buffalo Bayou and features four fireplaces, three bedrooms, and six full and one half baths — all in a single story. Yes, it looks like some ranch-house flavor got mixed in here. There’s a garden loggia and lots of trees, plus a three-car attached garage. It’s a 5,532-square-foot home on a quarter-acre lot.

The book is 408 pages long and comes in hardcover. It features photographs by Richard Cheek, and will take up just three-quarters of a square foot on your coffee table.

After the jump: the not-so-ranchy interiors.

Of the house.

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11/02/07 10:38am

1342 Rutland Lofts, Houston Heights

Just what is it about cheaply built condos in Houston that attracts so much, uh . . . “bank interest”? According to HCAD, of the fifteen condo units at 1342 Rutland in the Heights, only six have non-bank owners — and that includes the three owned by Freddie Mac, the “1342 Rutland Lofts Council,” and an investment group. Fortunately for buyers, the financial institutions appear to have no desire to hold onto the condos for corporate housing: eight of the units are on the market, and four more are due to be auctioned off at the huge REDC foreclosure extravaganza at the Reliant Center on November 17th.

(Special bonus for foreclosure bidders: the same auction features four units from Swamplot favorite Tremont Tower!)

Sure, there’s a downturn, and maybe a few problems with some nasty mortgages, but why do so many foreclosures concentrate on a few ugly buildings?

HAIF poster Kirzania provides a few clues:

from the inspector’s findings it would appear the second level of condos was added to the top of a pre-existing building. However, the first level was not reinforced for the second story. The walls were bowed on the first level and there were evident issues of structure problems. My understanding was there wasn’t a problem with the foundation itself, but the frame of the building.

The HOA itself sounded like it was barely staying afloat; the banks owe the HOA $$$$$ for past dues but these funds are being held up in bureaucratic nonsense. I would very much reconsider even stepping foot in this place.

Let the bidding begin!

11/01/07 12:10pm

4907 Main St. and 1017 E. 16th St., North Norhill, Houston

Can’t decide whether to buy a beauty salon, a small corner store, or maybe a bungalow? Why not get all three, in your very own North Norhill mixed-use compound? We’ll even throw in a garage apartment!

Just listed with Greenwood-King: a two-bedroom, one-bath bungalow at 1017 E. 16th St., a small store building next door, and a separate converted garage apartment. Downstairs in the garage apartment is a beauty salon with six stations, currently renting — sez listing agent Amanda Anhorn — for $500 each. The apartment upstairs goes for $500, and the shop on the corner has rented for $500 too.

Current owner lives in the bungalow and works out of the beauty salon.

All on a 8900-square-foot Norhill Historic District lot that fronts North Main. Continue reading for more photos — and the asking price — of the North Main Beauty Compound!

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10/24/07 8:23am

Lots for Sale on Avondale, Stanford, and Westheimer in New Avondale West Historic District, Houston

Here’s one of those great coincidences that makes watching Houston real estate so much fun:

Asking price: $5 million. Being able to tell your new neighbors that you can tear down whatever history you want in their new district after 90 days: priceless.

10/12/07 12:01pm

The Party House That Might Have Been City Hall for the City of Piney Point Village, Texas

Remember the $1.53 million party house the City of Piney Point Village bought back in April? The one it wanted to use as City Hall, because City Hall was being kicked out of a strip center outside city limits? Remember how Mayor Carol Fox was all excited about it, and didn’t think they’d even need to redecorate? And how local residents were all upset about a City Hall in a Party Pad moving into a quiet residential neighborhood and having visitors park in a church lot across the street? Sure, the place looked cool, but what would it be like holding police court in the pool room?

Well, it didn’t work out. The mayor backed down, City Hall moved to a third-floor suite in an office building on Woodway, and the house was put back out on the market for bids, which are due today. There were 30 showings, but only three bids had come in by Monday. How will Piney Point Village do on its city hall flip? Stay tuned!

Most of the fun throughout this adventure, of course, has been eavesdropping on politicians trying to play the housing market:

Councilmember John Ebling asked the council to allocate about $3,500 for painting and minor repairs to make the house more attractive to potential buyers. Councilmember Susan Jones objected, saying that most buyers want to do their own painting.

10/10/07 11:14am

32124 Skyway, Waller

If you’re looking for something just a little sleeker than the typical country-home-with-hangar featured here earlier this week, you might want to try the house right next door: It’s newly remodeled, sportier, and there’s still plenty of room to park your airplane, just steps from the Living Room. Best of all, though, you can bid for it on Ebay.

A completely remodeled home and new airplane hanger located in the beautiful country side of Waller Texas, just 20 minutes from Houston. Located in the Sky Lakes Subdivision this gorgeous home and hanger that backs up to the taxiway and leads out to the long grass runway allowing you the access to fly your plane at a moments notice.

Great, but 20 minutes from Houston?? Oh, right—by air. The house has three bedrooms and two baths in an open plan: 2330 square feet of living space, plus a 2000-square-foot hangar.

Hurry! There’s only about a week left to place your bids. Or buy it now for $274,900. Our quick fly-by photo tour begins after the jump.

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10/08/07 10:00am

32102 Skyway, Waller

It’s just down the street from the golf course and from Skylake Airport in Waller. A three-bedroom, two-bath house with an attached woodshop, listed at $249,900. Oh, and you can probably fit several of your airplanes in the hangar. The current owner has three in there, plus a helicopter.

After the jump, more pictures of this lovely airport home, including . . . an aerial view!

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09/25/07 10:37am

3202 Huntingdon Place, River Oaks

Note: Story updated below.

A house in Houston can’t earn much more of a modern Texas pedigree than this: Designed in 1970 for Oveta Culp Hobby by quintessential Texas architect O’Neil Ford. Built by Brown & Root. Later, the home—until his death earlier this summer—of former Texas secretary of state, attorney general, chief justice, and 1978 Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hill.

It’s just been listed with Greenwood-King agent Colleen Sherlock: three stories, five to seven bedrooms, five full and two half-baths, 8275 square feet on a quarter-acre lot in River Oaks. Asking only $2,395,000.

From O’Neil Ford, you’d expect a classic Texas modern design: clean brick lines with a sense of history, an easy flow between indoors and out. Until you get inside, where—it appears—an early-1960s interpretation of a New England colonial interior has somehow been grafted in.

Sound like a jarring contrast? Continue after the jump, and see for yourself.

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09/19/07 8:56am

1816 Bolsover St., Houston, the former home of Richard Smalley

The family of nanotechnology pioneer Richard Smalley has knocked a little more than $50,000 off the price of the late Nobel Prize winner’s Southampton home.

The 21-year-old, six-bedroom house has been on the market for more than two months. Arnoldy says she has had some trouble selling the three-story home, which features a gourmet kitchen and third-story deck, because it has virtually no yard. The 5,433-square-foot house sits on a 6,312-square-foot lot.

What do you mean, no yard? What this home clearly needs is an owner who can take advantage of small spaces.

Included in the sale—sort of: a Buckyball-shaped skylight over the Family Room.

“Rice University wants the skylight, but we see it more as a marketing tool to sell the home,” says Susan Arnoldy, a Realtor at John Daugherty Realtors Inc. who has listed the property for sale. “The new owner can decide whether or not they want to give it to Rice for display.”

New asking price: $1,295,000.

09/05/07 10:59am

Mattress Mack's Home at 3002 Pine Lake Trail in Northgage Forest

Speaking of fame and real-estate listings, we may have an answer to our earlier question about the power of endorsements by celebrities—or local celebrities—to sell houses quickly and at a premium price.

The Northgate Forest estate of Gallery Furniture owner Jim McIngvale—written up here a month ago—is still listed for sale! And the asking price has dropped a quarter of a million dollars.

09/05/07 10:26am

2293 E. Bayshore Dr. in San Leon

Does this look like the home of a rock star? Okay, how about a ’70s rock star with a long beard and hearing problems?

Yes, this is the custom-built San Leon enclave of ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill: a 19,560-sf trio of homes on a three-and-a-half-acre lot facing the crystal-clear waters of Galveston Bay.

Features include recreational, media & entertaining areas. 2 story entry w/dbl staircase, gourmet kitchen, mahogany library. Coffered ceilings, travertine marble floors. Circular motor court w/fountain & Crestron lighting. Pool. Exterior lighting, rollac shutter & storm doors. Above ground gas tanks. Two 3-car garages. Designer appointments & much more!

Yours, for just under $7 million. Including the gas tanks. After the jump, the ZZzzzzzzzzzzz interiors!

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08/29/07 10:36am

8714 Bevlyn Dr. Exterior View

If you’re looking for a home with plenty of wood paneling, you’re probably not going to do better than this fine 1953 concoction on Bevlyn Dr., just a few blocks south of Brays Bayou in Braes Terrace. Sure, it appears sedate from the street, but the interior walls comprise a small catalog of wood-paneling possibilities.

Minutes from the Medical Center and Rice University this classic mid-century home is located on a quiet tree-lined street. Large rooms with all formals, huge Family room that leads to a sun room and the wonderful pool.

The house is 3200 square feet, sits on an oversized lot, and is listed at $384,777. At the end of the agent’s description is the requisite disclaimer:

Per seller this home never flooded.

Of course it didn’t! Otherwise you’d be looking at water lines on all the wood walls.

After the jump, photos from inside, featuring: panels!

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08/15/07 12:11pm

8810 Bonhomme Rd.

This grand five-or-six-bedroom, five-bath home on four-fifths of an acre near the corner of Bissonnet and Fondren is festooned with stucco palm-tree frescoes and an aggressive porte-cochere, and can be yours for only $347,000. At that price, you can assume that the furnishings are not coming with it. Which is probably a good thing, though much of the decoration appears to be . . . encrusted on the interior.

You simply have to see this one for yourself: Tour the overdecorated interior—before it’s ruined by a new buyer—after the jump.

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08/14/07 10:39am

Living Room of 310 Timberwilde Lane, Hunters Creek Village

What happens when a Memorial mansion decorated with animal skins and pairs of chandeliers meets a designer with a . . . critical eye?

Two for dinner? This designer really likes the “two” theme. In the dining room, we have two matching tables, each with matching bowl, and of course, two matching chandeliers! I’m beginning to wonder if there was a 2 for 1 sale at the local lighting company? Oh and look, we have two matching Oriental horsemen on the mantle!!! I’m kind of sorry there aren’t two fireplaces!

Don’t miss the zebra-print (we hope it’s a print) rug on the grand circular entry stair. More design entertainment in Cote de Texas’s interior tour of this modest estate on two (and a half) acres in Hunters Creek Village, not far from the Houston Country Club. It’s on the market for $8.75 million.

08/03/07 1:58pm

The McIngvale Home at 3002 Pine Lake Trail

Do celebrity endorsements move real estate? Okay, what about local-celebrity name-dropping, plus a few personal appearances?

This 6,840-square-foot, seven-bedroom Northgate Forest estate has been languishing on the market for almost three months, even though John Daugherty Realtors has been advertising it as the actual home of Gallery Furniture and Westside Tennis & Fitness owner Jim McIngvale—in full-page ads in luxury-home mags. And the Houston Business Journal reports that Mattress Mack himself has been mingling with visiting homegawkers at his own open houses.

Hand the downsizing McIngvales a mere $1.499 mil, and you get:

a dramatic two-story entry with winding staircase; a two-story living room with two-story fireplace, hardwoods and adjacent sunroom; gourmet kitchen with built-ins and quality appliances; breakfast room with built-ins; dining room with hardwoods; and Swarovski crystal chandeliers. Media room, den, weight room, reflection room, game room, extra room and more. Master suite with two-sided fireplace and amazing bath. Olympic-style pool, spa and pool house. Additional five-car garage with apartment above.

What about the furniture?

After the jump, more pics from the McIngvale Mansion.

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