05/11/10 4:55pm

Selling this home a block north of Westheimer in Royden Oaks has been a long slog — and it’s not over yet! Longtime Swamplot readers will recognize the hulking 4,303 sq. ft. stucco mansion, sitting patiently like a lion with garage-apartment paws, from its Neighborhood Guessing Game appearance last June. (Well, at least the reader who won a steak dinner off of it will.) By that time, the property had been on the market for 4 months, and wasn’t budging from its 1,495,000 asking price.

But it’s done some budging since. By January of this year, the 3-bedroom, 4-1/2 bath 1987 property was up with a new listing — for $1,449,000. And just last weekend, there was a bigger price cut:

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05/07/10 11:52pm

Unfazed by Swamplot’s now 0-and-2 record in promoting local Apartment Therapy design contest submissions (no, that Venue Museum District apartment we showed last week didn’t get too far either), reader Chris Nguyen writes in to ask for votes in the finals of that website’s Small, Cool 2010 design contest. That’s right — entries in 4 divisions have been whittled down to Nguyen’s 450-sq.-ft. Westmoreland district apartment shown here (originally entered in the “Tiny” division) and some other dude’s Brooklyn flat from the “Little” division that’s more than a third larger. The final voting takes place this weekend. Can this tiny Houston pad win it all?

Win or lose, we hope to reveal a bit more about Nguyen’s certifiably small living space later. For now, though, have a look at these pics and the floor plan:

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05/05/10 2:23pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: REASON ENOUGH TO STRIP OFF THE WALLPAPER “There was a time when people didn’t have quite enough stimulation to totally tax their brains, so, they covered every surface of their environments with color, texture & pattern. Today we just multitask like Quakers on crack and, so, choose to return to minimalist architecture/surroundings. (It seems like a trend but it’s just self-preservation.)” [movocelot, commenting on Richelieu Style: The Patterns of Shepherd Park Plaza]

04/28/10 11:28am



When last we
heard from Vernon Caldera, the proprietor of the Keep Houston Rich video website was promoting a little 710-sq.-ft. apartment in Isabella Court for a design award from Apartment Therapy. This year, he’s on to bigger things — well, 53 sq. ft. bigger at least. It’s his and Adam Gibson’s new place a ways down Fannin St. at the Venue Museum District, and it’s up again for an award in the “little” category of the website’s Small Cool Places contest.

It’s all done with mirrors, Caldera explains to design voters:

Our favorite element is the beautiful view of Downtown Houston visible from the living and bed rooms. We placed a large mirror over the sofa in the living room to carry the view and light into the entrance. By adding a mirrored wardrobe in the bedroom we get much-needed storage and floor-to-ceiling views.

Oh, and there’s some art to look at here, too:

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04/26/10 8:57am

Eastside mod chaser (and Swamplot advertiser) Robert Searcy reports on a peculiar property he toured last week on Allendale Rd., not too far from Meadowcreek Village Park:

“. . . it is an odd mix style & architecture wise. The exterior looks like some suburban office building while the interior has a semi-commercial utilitarian feel with a heavy dose of Boogie Nights decor. The rooms are all ridiculously large with huge vaulted ceilings and lots of glass. Giant room dividers, not unlike what you see to partition off hotel ball room spaces, divide the giant open kitchen from . . . large U shaped front living areas. Could be a living room and a den, or a conference room and a reception area. Walking through the cavernous space, which appears much larger than HCAD records, you find yourself describing the rooms with sentences that all start with “well it could be either….”

Seems to fit right in with another hint in the listing: If you like that cute little white home you see next door [see bottom photo], it’s . . . available too!

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04/21/10 2:45pm

A reader with a longstanding appreciation for the party house at the corner of Harold and Graustark in Montrose writes in to provide a little background on the property for Swamplot readers. After sitting on the market since at least last September — and working its way down $130K to an asking price of $514,900 — the mammoth early-eighties brick in-town home with 4 bedrooms, 4 full- and 3 half-baths, and 4 staircases is now nearing the end of an online foreclosure auction. Who will end up with this 9,111-sq.-ft. prize?

The house is large and an odd mixture of no expense spared features (marble floors throughout, wood floors cut on bias, acres of woodwork…) and typical early 80’s tract home construction techniques. Design features include the dance floor off the master bedroom (complete with freestanding bar and speakers in the wall!), brass banisters on the winding marble staircase, scads of quick exit staircases and mirrors on the ceiling of every shower.

Oooh! Can we see any of that in the pix?

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04/20/10 12:17pm

Today, tomorrow, and Thursday are the final days for The Fabulous Flea: After this sale, shop owner Mary Daly and her husband hope to sell the little Bammel Lane antique store — along with their cozy 4,018-sq.-ft. house next door. The compound, designed by Kurt Aichler, also includes a pool, an open-air poolhouse, and a small collection of courtyards on a 15,000-sq.-ft. lot.

The whole 4-6 bedroom, 3-1/2-bath package is priced at $1,995,000. But you might be able to find a few pieces of furniture for a little less than that at the shop’s final sale this week:

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04/16/10 10:14am

A reader notes that the little Piney Point Village add-on project that TV executive Douglas R. Johnson and his then-wife Melanie bought in 1996 as a 6,000-sq.-ft. starter home is back on the market with a new agent, a new set of photos, and a new price that’s 60 percent lower than the original. But is that an air of desperation wafting up from the listing?

BUY NOW FOR HALF THE COST TO BUILD~ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY~ALL OFFERS CONSIDERED!

C’mon everybody, that’s more than 23,000 sq. ft. now for only . . . $8 million! What will you do with all the money you save?!!

How about hiring the domestic staff that’s gonna be hard at work dusting and polishing this:

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04/15/10 11:45pm

Thanks to y’all of you for sending the Neighborhood Guessing Game out in style! Bolstered by all of your encouragement, NGG will likely spend its retirement tanning by the pool . . . and plotting a comeback. In the meantime, if you have any grand ideas for making an eventual NGG 2.0 better, stronger, and more fun-filled, please send them this way!

Nobody nailed the neighborhood in this final round, but the single-word entry from Susan was judged close enough for the win. Her prize: a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance. Congratulations!

Our runners-up this week are flake and wilf. And where is this place?

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04/14/10 10:59am

Ah, there’s no rest for a hardworking interior designer, even on vacation:

Each summer I go through a little drill when we arrive at our rental:   I walk through the unit and hide all the pillows, accessories, paintings, fake plants, area rugs and assorted clutter in the guest closet.  I can’t do anything about the paint job, so I just pretend it’s not there. Over the years I have accumulated an assortment of ready made slipcovers for the rentals, along with throw pillows, drop cloths, and Indian bedspreads which make great cover ups for nasty condo furniture. The picture above is off the rental web site – isn’t that couch a beauty?

And presto! What’s the scene after Joni Webb’s little annual adventure in summer rental redecorating?

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04/13/10 7:28pm

This will be the last round of Swamplot’s long-running Neighborhood Guessing Game — for a good long time at least. NGG has been around for a while — we’re playing round number 99 this week. If and when the game returns, we’ll have a nice round-number anniversary to celebrate, no?

As NGG contemplates retirement, let’s send it out with one more prize from the Rice Design Alliance: Win this round and you’ll get a one-year individual membership in the RDA.

If you’ve ever wanted to play the Neighborhood Guessing Game but found yourself holding back for one reason or another, now’s your chance. Just look at the photos and tell us the location of the pictured home. If more than one of you identify the correct neighborhood, we’ll award the prize to the player who provided the best explanation for the guess.

If you’re not guessing — because you know this home already, or because you came across the listing while we’re playing the game — please don’t mess up the game for other players by blurting out the answer. Instead, mess up the game this way: First, send Swamplot a link to the listing, so we understand what you’re doing. Then enter an incorrect guess, but make it sound convincing. If you do this well enough to sway a few impressionable competitors, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!

Want to see the photos? Look carefully, it’s a special game this time!

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04/08/10 11:35pm

There were no winners in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. We’ll save the prize — that one-year individual Rice Design Alliance membership — for the winner of next week’s game.

Want to see what none of you guessed?

Sure ya do!

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04/06/10 5:34pm

This week marks the 98th round of Swamplot’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. And it’s the same game as ever: Guess the location of the pictured home and you’ll win a prize!

The prize this week: A one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance!

What happens if more than one of you happen upon the right neighborhood? We’ll award the prize to the player who provided the best explanation for the guess.

As always, this is a game for guessers. If you already know this property, or if you come across it while we’re playing the game, please don’t blurt out the answer and spoil the fun for everyone else. Instead, make the game even more fun by playing by these special rules: First, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing — so we know what you’re doing. Then submit an incorrect guess, but make it sound extremely plausible — just to throw the other players off. If you do this well, you’ll earn special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!

Ready to see more photos?

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04/06/10 4:07pm

Dude! Decorating an older home with flagstones is so choice! They go anywhere — floors, walls. All it takes is a little of that sticky stuff and a little, you know: imagination.

And there’s no heavy lifting, cuz you’re just sticking it on!

Like this one place, in Braes Heights? It was built in the early sixties. Wait’ll you see what we did to the garage!

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