COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY HOMEBUYERS REALLY WANT BEIGE “it is understandable why people would want neutral colors though. moving into a home is a huge price shock and it can take a while until people save enough to throw down for all the interiors as they choose. i would certainly prefer to live with neutral colors until the time comes to change rather than someone else’s preferred color of choice. it’s not necessarily a lack of creative thinking in buyers, but often a choice of practicality.” [joel, commenting on Comment of the Day: Staging Is for Wusses]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: Interiors
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STAGING IS FOR WUSSES 
“yeah, we are fun people to know. this was my mom’s amazing project, so much fun to see it take shape. if you’d seen it BEFORE the makeover, THAT was tacky. what do you expect us to do, waste money redoing the whole house just to sell it? i’ve lived there my whole life, love it to death. cream colors? BORING!” [prudoodle, commenting on Magenta Is the New Fuschia: A River Oaks Home That Glows Inside]
Just what is it that gives this Sweetwater chateau that authentic French je ne sais quoi? Could it be the multipurpose wine room? The big-enough-for-giant-pancakes breakfast area? The Vince Young seal of approval? No telling if any actual chateaus were harmed in the making of this grand home, but that’s all likely ancient history anyway — this place dates from the last century!
Listed earlier this week for just under $3.5 million, this little cul-de-sac palace backs up to the grounds of the Sweetwater Country Club and packs in 4 full bedrooms and 3 full and 3 half baths — all in just 7,744 sq. ft. Many delights await you in this photo tour:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE’S THE RED PIANO? “The whole time I was looking at the pictures I was trying to spot Elton John.” [Hugo Rodriguez, commenting on Magenta Is the New Fuschia: A River Oaks Home That Glows Inside]
The last time a Glassman Shoemake Maldonado house in the Museum District with a notable staircase went up for sale, things didn’t end so well. Now the 1997 home the local architecture firm designed for Carl and Pam Johnson in Ranch Estates is on the block, for $1,395,000.
The 3- or 4-bedroom, and — yes — 5-bathroom — house is probably best known for its inset nautilus-spiral-stair nose, dramatically framed at night (and in magic-hour photos) by porch and interior lights. Inside, at the end of the staircase spiral on the first floor there’s a round bar, which faces into the double-height dining room. One of the exciting things about the sale of a minimalist house like this: There’s no telling how much furniture and stuff a new buyer will be able to pack in there. Just look at all the available space:
It only went on the market yesterday, but Swamplot readers are already gawking at this house on Locke Ln., across Eastside St. from the Lamar-River Oaks shopping center. The 3-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath number is listed for $1,089,000, and sits on a 10,147-sq.-ft. corner lot. What’s to look at?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST ANOTHER WOODSIDE GARAGE EMERGENCY OUTPOST “Is that a chalk board I see in the third to last picture? If so, no wonder why cops and EMT types are interested in this place. Maybe they can hold roll call in the den.” [bgreen, commenting on At Loop’s Edge: A Bit of Woodside from 1958]
Hidden behind the tall soundwall that lines the westbound South Loop feeder road, just before Stella Link: this 1958-model kitchen-dining-den cockpit, control center for an original-owner listing in Woodside that went up for sale last week. “Be sure and notice the exceptional original doorknob” on the front door, instructs the listing. What’s more to see here?
This home in Lakeside Place, one block north of Briar Forest between Wilcrest and Kirkwood, was until recently the location of Briar Oaks Home Care, an assisted-living facility. What a nice place to live for a while with a little assistance, no? But not for too long: The facility was foreclosed on, and just went up for sale earlier this week.
The listing counts 6 bedrooms, but that may include the converted dining room. Also on its way to living-space status: a drywalled but unfinished garage.
What’s hiding behind the gates at this brand new listing in The Woodlands? Oh, can’t it just be a surprise? What you’re working with: 6-7 bedrooms (one of those in a separate apartment), 6 1/2 baths, and a 4-car attached garage. An unmentionable amount of square footage on a 35,588-sq.-ft. lot. And a private dock at the stub end of one of Lake Woodlands’ many splayed fingers. All dating from 1990.
Don’t you want a peek?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GOING HEAVY ON THE RANCH DRESSING “Wow. That’s a LOT of ‘updating.’ I propose a new word: ‘McRanchsion’ where a MCM-ish tract house is remodeled to within an inch of its life.” [marmer, commenting on Just Listed: A Wall-Free Maplewood Kitchen]
Yeah, that’s an outdoor kitchen wrapped around a tree in the back yard of this home that’s just gone up for sale in Maplewood. ’Neath the leaves: 2 grills, a wine chiller, a refrigerator, and a stainless steel sink. And inside? A whole lot more . . . plus carpet:
When Swamplot featured her Pearland home back in June, Bloggess Jenny Lawson was crafty enough to couch within her verbal guarantee that the place harbored NO ZOMBIES the hint that she just might be able to score some — if, y’know, you were into that sort of thing. And now, almost 2 months later? Score! Quietly last week, someone slashed the asking price on the sallow, undead 3-bedroom suburban special by another $10K. Lawson and family since escaped to friendlier digs, but the old and now empty home in Southern Trails limps on at $199,000, $20K down from its original price. Can’t someone stop the bleeding!!!?
- 3203 Bright Landing Ln., Pearland [HAR]
- Previously on Swamplot: Pearland Home of the Bloggess Is Guaranteed Zombie-Free. Sort Of
Even Later Update, 1:05 pm: A city permit official tells Swamplot she’d assume from the way the permit is written that it covers the demolition of all 3 structures on the property. But the inspector who wrote the annotation can’t be reached today.
Later Update, 10:01 am: All right, this is a little weird, but we’re going to have to retract the confirmation below. A demolition on this site is scheduled, but it’s possible it does not include all the structures.
Update, 8:50 am: We’ve confirmed it. The entire French estate (well, this one) is coming down.
As one version of the legend goes, in the mid-1960s strip-mall mogul and multi-millionaire Jerry J. Moore had this 18th-century château disassembled and shipped from the French countryside to Friar Tuck Ln. in Houston’s Sherwood Forest, where it was painstakingly rebuilt, brick by brick. Except, of course, Moore wasn’t the home’s original owner by more than a decade; and 8 years ago when he first tried to sell it (at first for $18 million, then $12.5 million), the real estate agent was careful to describe the 3-story concoction as a miniature “residential scale” reproduction of the French mannerist Palace of Fountainebleau outside Paris, as envisioned by local architect Armon E. Mabry. Oh — and the little Memorial-ish palace isn’t made of brick, anyway. Its exterior is limestone.
But that’s limestone quarried in France, “assembled with precision by French craftsmen,” Martha Turner Properties agent Marlene Rhoden explained to the Houston Business Journal in 2003. And the slate roof tiles — those came from France too!
Whatever its old-world pedigree, the home received a demolition permit on Thursday. Whether that permit covers turning the entire 12,734-sq.-ft. estate into rubble or just the whisking away of its 26-car air-conditioned garage — where Moore stored a tiny portion of his considerable antique-car collection — public records don’t say. But no renovation work has been permitted on the property, and the sewer line has already been disconnected.Â
Maybe the chateau is just being carefully packed up for a move to Phoenix or Atlanta, or a return trip over the pond? Nice try, but the demolition contractor hired for the job isn’t exactly known for his careful disassembly work.
It sure looks like this is it. How’d such a classic Houston real-estate legend come face-to-face with such a classic Houston ending?
The subdivision for this home on Meineke St. on Houston’s southeast side carries the intriguing name of “Freeway,” but most of you will just call it Gulfgate. It’s only a block south of the South Loop, and Gulfgate Center is just a mile to the east. The home is listed as the official address of All Purpose Plastering, but the for-sale listing has been plastered on MLS for only a couple of days.
The 3-bedroom, 1-bath house was built in 1960 and measures a little more than 1,000 sq. ft. But look what you can fit inside:
