03/27/14 3:00pm

11030-greenbay-01-2

11030-greenbay-13

Paul Revere didn’t ride past this pedigreed residential slice of New England in Memorial’s Greenbay Forest, but it sure looks like he could have. The classic Cape Cod home (top) is a much more recent vintage than 18th c., however. It’s a 1978 design by the go-to group for such work, Boston-based Royal Barry Wills Associates. With its simple, broad-faced elevation and snow-deterring roof, many features are true to form, right down to the “keeping room” off the kitchen (above). Earlier this week, the home landed on the shores of the MLS. It has an asking price of $3.5 million.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Colonial House
03/25/14 1:15pm

8614-nairn01

For a flat-topped 1960 mod-in-the-rough in Braeburn Glen, spring’s official kickoff last Friday was also the date of its MLS debut. Might the seasonal switch-up trigger some renewal? The mid-century home tucks its entry under the flying wing of a stone-clad carport and features floors — with and without shag carpet — on several levels. The property is in foreclosure and features an asking price of $56,500.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Renovate or Smash?
03/24/14 2:00pm

115-arnold-01

115-arnold-21

Wide open spaces are inside as well as outside a 1994 contemporary home of steel and Galvalume siding on a heavily landscaped half-an-acre unrestricted lot tucked into the southern hinterlands of Rice Military. The green-screened property first appeared on the market back in January. Its price tag dropped by $100K last week — to $2.65 million.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Ouisie’s House and Garden
03/21/14 10:45am

5709-val-verde-01

5709-val-verde-04

Garage-style doors open on 2 levels (top) in a contemporary buy-or-lease live-work property located south of Westheimer near Chimney Rock. With its 11 parking spaces out front and double garage bay, the 2005 brick-and-Galvalume structure in Raponderosa Reserve kinda looks like a modern firehouse, though there’s no pole inside. It was dual-listed in January: $2.2 million to own, $10K per month to lease.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Upstairs, Downstairs
03/20/14 4:45pm

12748 Huntingwick Dr., HoustonYou may have seen some harrowing home listings in your day, but for sheer, ballsy “abandon hope, all ye who enter here” bravado, it would be hard to imagine outdoing the agent’s MLS presentation of the single-bedroom condo at 12748 Huntingwick Dr.

How fearsome is this place? Well, let’s just say the featured photo in the listing is the down-the-hole toilet-bowl shot shown at right. Yes, if while trawling through listings, you are attracted by a full-on view of dank toilet water, surrounded on the floor and porcelain by brown bits that bear more than a passing resemblance to dead cockroaches, this might be the place for you. If, that is, the agent’s sage discouragement, dispensed in contract-friendly all-caps, doesn’t drive you away:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Fair Warning
03/20/14 1:30pm

1814-albans-02

1814-albans-08

Over in Southampton, a brick ribbon wall (top) with curve toward the curb encases the front of a 1970 contemporary by architect Tom Wilson, who later consulted on the current owners’ subsequent renovations. Behind the barricade, the minimalist property centers around the contrasts between an open-plan living space and an even more open patio (above).

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

By the Bay
03/19/14 1:30pm

511w-polk-01

511w-polk-02

When interior walls came down to open up a former duplex, planks of the original shiplap (top) found new uses within this 1932 bungalow, located in the Alden Place section of North Montrose — sometimes also known as the Reality Bites neighborhood. The retro-rustic property with eyebrow-gable entry popped up on the market for “Pi Day” (as in 3-14) and has an asking price of $549,000.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Ker-Plank
03/18/14 3:30pm

2313 Wentworth St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

2313 Wentworth St., Riverside Terrace, Houston

A couple of Swamplot readers are agog over the spare-no-tile bathroom renovations revealed in the listing posted last week of a 4-bedroom 1940 home in Riverside Terrace. Each of the home’s 3 modestly sized full bathrooms appear to have been wrapped and floored in a distinct pattern of glass or ceramic tiles. Behold:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

It’s a Wrap