MariaO was the first to name the Yorkshire in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. Which means she’s our . . . runner-up! First prize goes to DavidW and his exhaustive descriptions of this west-side home. Congratulations to you both!
Wanna see more details?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GOING ALL OR NOTHING WITH IKEA “There’s nothing worse than a room of quality furniture and then one piece from Ikea. The only way to do Ikea is to do everything Ikea and basically rip-off one of their show rooms.” [biggerintexas, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game: Loveseat Convention]
And we are back for another round. Are you ready to play?
You’ll win this game if you tell us where this home is located. If more than one of you guess the correct location, we’ll declare the player who provided the best explanation for the guess the winner. (Yeah, no fancy prize this week.)
If you already know this property, or if you come across it while we’re playing, please don’t be a spoilsport and blurt out the answer. Instead, send us an email with a link to the listing, and then post an incorrect guess. If you do this well — throwing other players off the scent — you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual location, that winner could be . . . you!
Are you ready to play? You know you want to . . .
Can’t get enough marble tile, paneled doors, or finely wrought yet unobtrusive burglar bars? You’ll find this River Oaks gem just a swerve north of the Shepherd Curve. It appeared on MLS over the weekend.
A few delightful surprises inside:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: INSIDE THE STANFORD FINANCIAL GROUP OFFICES AT 5050 WESTHEIMER “I have been through this building and it is decorated entirely in a (expensive) mahogany-green marble color scheme, put in place about 10 years ago. There is a large Palladian skylight with an ornate stair connecting the upper levels. Sir Allen’s office was huge with floor to ceiling wood paneling with some impressive wood coffers on the ceiling. Allen wanted all the offices around the world to look the same, so they all used this exact same color scheme. The furniture was of the not-so-inspiring big heavy mahagony type and the art on the walls were bad Audubon print reproductions. What was so wierd about the office was how empty it was. This was 2002 and there was almost noone in the building, despite the extreme amount of money that he spent renovating it. There were rows and rows of empty offices and the parking garage had the same empty feeling. There was a private dining room and a commercial kitchen in the building also, with a full time chef (food was great!). The whole building seemed as if it was supposed to present an image of old money grace and prestige, but somehow, it just wasn’t quite right.” [mt, commenting on Westheimer Office Building and All: Allen Stanford Says Sell!]
None of you guessed the location of this week’s mystery home. But . . . we do have a winner of that one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance!
Two readers sent in links to the listing — and helped to mix things up by posting fake guesses. We’ll award the prize to Jennifer, who did so first, and volunteered some extended commentary about the property:
I’ve actually been to see this house. I haven’t been inside, but drove to find the property to see what in the world it was after seeing it on har.com
It’s sort of an island paradise. It’s bounded on the east by a creek and on the west and south by a drainage ditch. It borders another property to the north. The house in the pictures is the main house, but there is another ramshackle house on the property plus the barn.
The entire area is smack in the middle of the revamped FEMA flood maps 100-year floodplain. A neighbor came out and told us that the area had never flooded and that they are in the middle of fighting it in the courts because the change in the flood maps has decimated their property values.
I have no idea if it would be safe to live in this area. We drove the entire area to get a look at it from all sides. The street itself is kind of isolated and the neighbor said it was safe, but just across the drainage ditch on the west side is the kind of apartment complex that shows up on the news, and not in a good way.
Thanks and congratulations, Jennifer! Karen came up with the other fake guess. We’ll call her the runner-up.
And now the details:
Now that photos have been posted — and the asking price has been chopped a full 7 percent — the whole world gets to peek inside the full-floor condo in The Huntingdon that belonged to Enron founder and CEO Ken Lay and his wife Linda. The buildout on the 33rd floor of 2121 Kirby Dr. was designed in the late nineties by Houston architect Leslie Barry Davidson, who’s proven herself versatile in many historical styles that pre-date highrise construction. But the listing photos show what looks like a glum castle retreat for a king and queen who’ve lost their jester.
Oh, but those 360-degree skyline views of Houston! And really, with angry investors and Californians likely to approach from any direction, you’d maybe want a hideout with 4 good corner balconies, just so you can assess the risks:
Think you might be able to guess the location of this home? There’s a Rice Design Alliance membership in it for ya!
Yep, the RDA will provide a free one-year individual membership to the player who wins this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. What happens if more than one of you guesses the correct neighborhood? The prize will go to the player who provided the best explanation for his or her guess.
If you already know this property, or if you come across the listing, don’t blab about it and ruin the game for everyone else. Instead, send Swamplot a link to the listing; then post a convincing but wrong guess. If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the correct neighborhood, that winner could be you!
Just a few more pictures to pore over:
All hail the winner of this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game: Ms Cleo! Well, we promised you glory if you won. Now’s your moment to shine. Congratulations!
Some lovely sleuthing and commentary appeared in this week’s round. Our runner-up, Claire de Lune, was oh so very close but ended up on the wrong side of Shepherd.
Want to see a little more of this home . . . say, the outside?
It’s time to get ready for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game! There’s no booty for winning this round, but there is glory!
And you and your booty can bask in that glory if you can guess where the pictured home is. If more than one of you guesses the correct location, we’ll reflect the glory onto the player who provided the best explanation with the guess.
Do you know this home already? If you do, or if you come across it while we’re playing the game, please don’t mess with everyone by blurting out the answer. Instead, you can mess with everyone a better way: First, send us a link to the listing, so we know what you’re up to. Then make an incorrect guess, but make it good. If your guess and explanation are good enough to fool a few other hapless players, we’ll award your efforts a special commendation when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be . . . you!
Shall we poke around a little? This way, please:
A reader declares that this home “has got to be the largest original home in Lazybrook/Timbergrove.” And:
This is the highest quality of wood paneling I’ve seen in a home in Timbergrove/Lazybrook, and I’ve never seen the wood beams. Too bad the house is so disorganized inside, I’d love to see it fully furnished and cleaned up. An nice little step back into time.
How far back? This 5-bedroom home — on almost half an acre in the upper left armpit of the 610 Loop — was built in 1968.
Congratulations to the winner of this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game: Helen. And what did she win? Just a one-year membership in the Rice Design Alliance! Our thanks to the RDA, for providing the prize!
Great guesses, everyone. Where is this place?
Tuesday is Neighborhood Guessing Game day! And the winner this week gets a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance!
All you need to do is guess where this home is. If more than one of you guesses correctly, the prize will go to the player who provided the best explanation for the guess.
If you already know this home, or if you come across its listing while we’re playing the game, please don’t blurt out the answer and ruin the game for all the other hapless guessers. Instead, shoot Swamplot an email with a link to the listing — so we know what you’re up to. Then mess with everyone else by posting an incorrect guess that sounds plausible! If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!
Here’s the rest of the house:
Here we go with our new faster format Neighborhood Guessing Game results post: The winner of this week’s prize — free enrollment in the “Houston’s History Told Through Its Architecture” course at the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies at Rice University — is katie. Congratulations — and many thanks to the Glasscock School for sponsoring the prize!
This week’s guesses were full of brilliant and entertaining observations. And we give special mention to Porchman and AKane, both of whom ran interference with well-constructed fake guesses they concocted after writing in with the actual listing.
So much fun! Where is this week’s swingin’ pad?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE ISLAND HOME “. . . In my home we use the island for kids art and crafts, having guests for drinks and or dinner, homework and home working, watching tv, etc. All this on top of the normal eating and food prep duties. In this way the island and the kitchen in general are taking the place of rooms such as a dining room, office, library etc that might have been included in an older home. In that case I think a good argument can be made that the room and the island can be expanded to fill some of the space that would have been taken up by those now obsolete rooms.” [Jimbo, commenting on Island Living: Inside the West U Cottage That Didn’t Get Away]
