Tag: Interiors

Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Skyscraper Shadows

7 Comments

No one guessed the actual neighborhood for this week’s guessing game. But . . . we do have a winner for that Hotel Sorella stay!

There were 2 guesses each for Riverside Terrace, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, Sharpstown, and Woodside. The rest: “Off Broadway and Bellfort near Hobby Airport,” the Med Center, Sagemont near Beltway 8 and I-45 South, Brookesmith, “around 249 and I-45,” Spring, Glenbrook Valley, Timbergrove Manor, Westbury, Lindale Park, “the neighborhood south of Shaver in Pasadena from Rayburn High School,” Montrose, Webster, Katy, Greenspoint, Eastwood, Garden Villas, Santa Rosa, 77035, 77096, Willowbend, “Winkler/Almeda/South Houston,” Deer Park, Gulfgate, “Lawndale/Wayside,” Westwood, “the area north of 610 between Ella and Shepherd but south of Garden Oaks,” “in the vicinity of Hardy Toll Road and Aldine Mail Route,” Shady Acres, “east of Stella Link, south of the bayou, west of Main,” and Candlelight Oaks.

Alas, none of you mentioned Skyscraper Shadows, directly to the south of Hobby Airport. But Swamplot’s panel of judges — skilled in the art of extracting unintentional meanings from the words of others — was able to twist one of the entries into . . . a prize winner! Of the players who mentioned nearby communities, only one of them included the phrase “near Hobby Airport” in the guess . . . and that was deemed good enough.

Congratulations, Brad! You’ve won an overnight stay for two at the new Hotel Sorella in CityCentre (the new mixed-use development on the site of the former Town & Country Mall at I-10 and the Beltway). And you’ll have a couple of cocktails waiting for you at the hotel’s bar, monnalisa. Thanks to the hotel for sponsoring the prize!

Honorable mentions go to all the runners-up who hung out nearby: Chris, KimmerTX, Lauren, and Miz Brooke Smith.

Wanna take a closer look?

77075, Home Decor, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Skyscraper Shadows

Uncategorized

04/21/09 11:46am

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Dishwasher Island

36 Comments

Wondering what the prize is for the Neighborhood Guessing Game this week? It’s an overnight stay for two at the Hotel Sorella!

The Hotel Sorella is a brand-new 244-room luxury hotel from Houston’s Valencia Group, set to open in July in the new mixed-use CityCentre development at I-10 and Beltway 8 — on the former site of the Town & Country Mall. The winner of this week’s game will receive overnight accommodations at the Hotel Sorella and two welcome cocktails at monnalisa, the property’s European-style bar and lounge.

Does that sound like something you’d like to win? Here’s how you do it: Study the photos in this post. Then guess what neighborhood the pictured home is in. If you guess correctly, you get the prize! If more than one person guesses the right neighborhood, the player who gives the best explanation for the guess wins.

Except: If you already know this property, or if you come across it while we’re playing, don’t just post the answer — you’ll disqualify yourself, and make a lot of other players very upset. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, so we know what you’re doing. Then post an incorrect guess, but make a case for it — to try to throw the other players off track. If you do this well, you’ll win special recognition when we post the answer. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, you could win the prize!

More photos, please . . .

04/16/09 11:27pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Olde Bright Wood

Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Olde Oaks

2 Comments

Great guesses, everyone! We have a winner for this week’s game — and a prize sponsored by the Rice Design Alliance.

Many of you favored Forest neighborhoods. There were 3 votes each for Greenwood Forest and Champion Forest, 2 each for Prestonwood Forest and Lakewood Forest, and singles for Ponderosa Forest, Nottingham Forest, Briar Forest, Briar Forest at Kirkwood, Oak Forest, Ella Lee Forest, and Huntwick Forest The rest: Spring Shadows (2 guesses), off Mason Rd. south of I-10 near Kingsland and Highland Knolls in Katy, Nottingham Country (2 guesses), Humble, Inwood North, the northern part of Alief “bounded by HW6, Westheimer, Old Westheimer, and the Westpark Tollroad,” Fountainhead Village, Pasadena (2), Clear Lake, League City, Ashford Hollow, Ashford Village, “Ashford-ish,” Kingwood, Dairy Ashford and Memorial, Quail Valley (2), Richmond, Rosenberg, Williamsburg Settlement, Wilchester (2), Northampton in the Spring/Klein area, Lakewood Glen, Seabrook, Kemah, “right off of Memorial, just past Kirkwood,” Sugar Creek, Memorial, Friendswood, “one of the Fleetwood neighborhoods (Highway 6 and Memorial),” Grogan’s Mill, Olde Oaks, Copperfield, and the Galleria.

The prize this week is a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance. And the winner is . . . Harold Mandell, for this maybe-spot-on entry:

You guys,that parquet EVERYWHERE is a major clue. This is a late 70â€™s house from the floody part of Olde Oaks.

A hard working family, not born here, but grabbing the dream real fast, bought this big house to live in. But the schools were a disapointment, so they moved to a better school district for their 3 kids (2 spelling bee champs and a valedictorian). Now they are renting the house to newly arrived members of their large family, helpfully furnishing it with leftovers from the couple of budget motels they operate out on 290.

Several other players were very close!

This week’s honorable mentions go to a few players who veered off course, but offered entertaining fiction and commentary: biggerintexas for the compelling if unflattering Pasadena ballad of Stanley and Linda Morris, aurelia_eyre for a sharp account of “the worst house party I was ever forced to attend,” and movocelot, for this contribution:

I think this home DOES, in fact, show how the rich folks lived back in the day (@ jgclark), but why knock it? Todayâ€™s French-mediterranean manses will seem ridiculous pretty soon, with their giant cooking hoods & pot-fillers, media rooms nobody uses, and dust-collecting plaster-effects on the walls.

This homeâ€™s got a bunch of upgradesâ€¦ I think the parquet is lovely, the cabinets usefulâ€¦ is that travertine tiles in the Master Bath? And the window in the water-closet is very posh!
Thereâ€™s a lot of potential here, though still 8â€™ ceilingsâ€¦
HO did a tasteful, if DULL, update to their â€œbuilt-to-survive-WW3â€ ash-plywood, built-on-site kitchen-cabinets. Personally, I hate granite for c-tops, but I think the color scheme is everything their Realtor told them to shoot for: Blend, baby, blend.

For these reasons Iâ€™m supporting this house and vote it should continue on into the Elimination Round!

Okay, show us the house!

77068, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Olde Oaks

04/14/09 1:58pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Panel Discussion

47 Comments

The Neighborhood Guessing Game is ready to roll: The winner this week receives a one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance!

The rules, again: You are trying to guess what neighborhood the pictured home is in. If you get it right, you win that RDA membership (you can give it to a friend if you’re already a member). If more than one player gets the neighborhood right, the player who gives the best explanation for the guess wins.

If you know this home already, or if you come across it while the game is being played, don’t spoil the fun for everyone else by posting the answer. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing. Then make a guess, but make it a wrong one, to help confuse the other players. Give a convincing explanation for your wrong guess. If you do it well, you’ll win special recognition for your efforts — and if no other player guesses the actual neighborhood, you could win the prize!

More photos below:

04/09/09 7:18pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: The Houston Highlands

Interiors, Inverness Forest, Neighborhood Guessing Game

3 Comments

Which one of you just won a night at La Torretta Del Lago?

We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, a recap of your guesses for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. The most popular locations were Nottingham Forest (6 guesses), the Energy Corridor (4), and Spring Shadows (3). Thornwood, Kingwood, Nottingham Country, Lakeside Forest, and Barker’s Landing got two guesses each. The rest: Crestwood, Rice Military, Camp Logan, off Dairy Ashford, near Terry Hershey Park, Wilchester, Westchester, “Dairy Ashford/Wilcrest area,” “the Ponderosa Forest area (1960/Kuykendahl),” Ponderosa Forest, Newport subdivision in Crosby, Briargrove, Tanglewood, Memorial, Spring Branch, Shadow Oaks, Sherwood Oaks, “Braeswood/Bellefontaine area, sorta south West-U-ish,” “north of Memorial, south of I-10 . . . between Gessner and Kirkwood,” Montrose, “one of those out-there, almost Energy Corridor, Memorial Villages,” Nottingham Forest 8, Clear Lake, “the Spring Branch/Shadows area between the Beltway and Gessner in the vicinity of Hammerly Blvd.,” Memorial Meadows, Shepherd Park Plaza, “around the Bear Creek Park area,” Ashford Forest, Olde Oaks, Baytown, Memorial Villages, Hedwig Village, “that bit of Houston proper between Bunker Hill & Gessner above Memorial,” Lakeside Estates, Lakeside Place, Briargrove Park, Walnut Bend, Nottingham, Nottingham West, Memorial Northwest, “somewhere between Gessner, Memorial and I-10,” Champions, Greenwood Forest, College Station, “older Champions, south of 1960, Greenwood Forest, Theall Rd. runs through the area,” “somewhere off Memorial View Drive, just west of Eldridge and Memorial,” “that little old neighborhood . . . tucked in between Memorial Oaks Cemetery and Hershey Park . . . could be a little further west off Barker’s Landing (closer to Hwy 6),” “in the middle of the 1960/Champions/249 asteroid belt . . . a block or two from Champions Forest Shopping Center,” “I45 and Cypresswood, near Spring High School,” “the neighborhood bordered by Kempwood and Hammerly and Campbell and Gessner in Spring Branch,” Memorial and Dairy Ashford, Sharpstown, and Bellaire.

Did you leave anything out?

The winner of an overnight stay with breakfast for two in a Tower suite at the La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe is . . . Rachel, who sprung this wandering guess on us:

I grew up in a house similar to this style too of Wilcrest and Memorial. How I loved going to the neighborhood pool during the summer. Many have already guessed that area so I am going to guess elsewhereâ€¦Hmmm the multiple locks on the front door does translate to either a nervous home owner or an area of town which isnâ€™t the safest. I think my Mom has those exact same chairs in the pictured in the livingroom, she has had herâ€™s reapolsteredâ€¦All along I45 there are some smaller older neighborhoods closer to the freeway. I would say the Huntsville area, but there arenâ€™t enough pine trees in the backyardâ€¦I will go with I45 and Cypresswood, near Spring High School.

Congratulations — and enjoy your stay! Also very close, with guesses of Ponderosa Forest, were Jeff and David. David takes special honors this week for this compelling walkthroughand guess:

I can see why so many are drawn to Kickerillo and the Energy Corridor. I feel like I know this house. Come in the front door, wainscoting in the foyer, formal living on the left, formal dining on the right with a bay window. Continue through to the paneled den with corner fireplace to the left and further to the left the downstairs master on the front and master bath toward the back past all the built-ins. Kitchen and breakfast on the right in the back. Period porcelain pulls on the dark stained kitchen cabinets. Walk through a utility room to the detached garage connected by a breezeway. Office is an upstairs bedroom on the right side front of the house with a door out to the upstairs balcony with a wrought iron railing. Probably four bedrooms up with hollywood baths. I bet there is a pocket door between the dining room and the kitchen.

I donâ€™t think it is in the Energy Corridor, though. Some details are Kickerillo but some donâ€™t seem right like the bay window around the tub. It is the right aluminum framed variety from that era but I donâ€™t remember any houses like that. Kickerillo did some other developments – I am going with Ponderosa Forest due to the lack of recent updates and a feeling in my gut.

Very nice. But probably better to go with this gut feeling:

77073, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Inverness Forest, Neighborhood Guessing Game

Comments

04/09/09 7:12pm

Comment of the Day: Kitchen Counterpoint

Interiors, Quicklink

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: KITCHEN COUNTERPOINT “By the way I meant formica counters, not linoleum. Just wanted to clear that up. Donâ€™t want to be disqualified on a technicality.” [Jessica, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game: Fine Dining]

Comments, Interiors, Kitchens, Neighborhood Guessing Game

04/07/09 12:47pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Fine Dining

55 Comments

This will be the 50th Neighborhood Guessing Game Swamplot has hosted. And we’ve got a great prize to give away to the winner!

If you win this week, you’ll receive an overnight stay and breakfast for two in a Tower suite at the La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe. You’ll also have access to the $130-million waterfront destination’s 3.5-acre Aqua Park, with six swimming and activity pools, including a sandy beach and Lay-Z River Rapids. All courtesy of the resort.

Interested? Ya gotta play to win! As usual: Whoever guesses the location of the home pictured here wins the prize. If more than one player guesses the right neighborhood, the player who provided the best explanation for the guess wins. Simple!

But: Don’t mess with it. If you know this property already, or if you come across it while we’re playing, don’t ruin the game by posting the answer. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, so we know what you’re trying to do. Then post an incorrect guess, but explain it well enough to throw others off the track. If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when we reveal the answer. And if no one guesses the actual neighborhood, you could win the prize!

That’s all. Now the rest of the photos:

Comments

04/06/09 5:34pm

Comment of the Day: Guessing Game Markdown

Homes for Sale, Interiors, Quicklink, Sienna Plantation, Sienna Point

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GUESSING GAME MARKDOWN “This home was custom built as wheelchair accessible. The features noted are the obvious accessibility features. What makes this home a great example of universal design are the lack of thresholds and the curved radius walls which lessen the chance of crashes, but they also look great! The owners are not handicapped at all and are relocating. They now cannot imagine having shower doors and thresholds to trip over in their next home. The price has been reduced to $555,000.” [Thomas A B Johnson, commenting on Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: First Chair]

77459, Accessibility, Comments, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Sienna Point, Sienna-Plantation

04/03/09 7:43pm

Inside That Track-side Townhouse

Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes, Washington Corridor

11 Comments

Thanks to some helpful Swamplot commenters, we have more of the scoop on that railroad-track-side townhome featured on this site yesterday. The project, developed by Northgate Custom Homes, is called Villas at the Heights. And yes, units are still available!

114-M Heights Blvd., which has the front-row seat on the railroad track just north of Center St., is in fact listed at the same price it started at when it first hit the market, a week and a year ago. However, it’s been marked down three times and up twice since then, reaching a low of $296,900 last May and a high of $324,900 last August. Today, you could snap this place up for a mere $299,900!

If you like the track frontage but feel a bit nervous about owning a townhome that directly faces busy Heights Blvd., you might prefer Unit A in back, available for the same price. It’s the same model, which Northgate calls “The Blue Violet.”

A peek at the interiors of the development’s model home:

77007, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Real Estate Marketing, Townhomes, Washington Corridor

04/02/09 5:08pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Sunshine Ranch

Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Spring Branch, Sunshine Ranch Estates

5 Comments

We have a winner . . . and a new member of the Rice Design Alliance!

Here were your guesses for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game: “Spring Branch south of Long Point, around Antoine, Wirt and Pech,” Spring Branch, Oak Forest (2 guesses), Mangum Manor, Timbergrove Manor, Lazybrook, Garden Oaks, Afton Oaks, “Braeburn/Meyerlandish,” Meyerland, Meyer Park, “Westbury, around Chimney Rock/Willowbend/West Bellfort,” Willowbend (2), Glenbrook Valley, Braeburn Valley West, Westwood, Tanglewilde, Westbury (2), Maplewood, “Spring Valley or above – near Hollister,” Pasadena, “between Willowbend and Bellfort, east of Post Oak, within a half-mile of Willow Park in Willow Meadows,” Tanglewood, Braes Heights, Braes Oaks, “somewhere south of Bellaire Blvd., near Stella Link/Buffalo Speedway,” Braes Terrace, Channelview, Jacinto City, Montgomery near Little York, and “the Woodlake/Briar Meadow area off Richmond inside the Beltway.”

Right off the bat, Brad and CK win a couple of honorable mentions for mentioning Spring Branch. This week’s winner didn’t name that neighborhood explicitly, but came closer to the actual location and gave a better explanation:

I think Brad sorta nailed it but Iâ€™m going to move a little to the west & say Spring Valley or above – near Hollister. A cul-de-sac lot – that big bathroom window is looking out on their own garage, so no need for, um, cover. Maybe if you buy the house theyâ€™ll throw the RV in as well. Possibly a ravine lot – thatâ€™s why the new bathroom, because of flooding in the 90â€™s?

Congratulations, flake: You just won a one-year membership in the RDA!

A third honorable mention goes to biggerintexas, for this entertaining and entirely plausible (if geographically challenged) commentary:

My favorite part is how the dining room floor magically grew onto the kitchen walls. The bathroom was a project done very recently (hence no window coverings) to help sell this houseâ€¦if only you could see the before photos of the bathroom when it had gold, textured wallpaper and a red carpet to go with the pistachio colored porcelain. In their defense – the visible â€œneighborâ€ is actually the detached garage so unless they have squatters living in their garage they donâ€™t have worry about peeping toms from that particular directions. The house is owned by a couple that is reaching retirement age and they plan to sell their house and dump their furniture so they can take their RV (you can see it from the kitchen window) on a tour of Americaâ€™s finest petting zoos. Once the furniture gets cleared out this house isnâ€™t so bad but the new owner will have lots of fun removing wallpaper and paneling. Oh, and the house was built around 1960-ish in the Oak Forest neighborhood.

And the actual coordinates?

77080, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Spring-Branch, Sunshine Ranch Estates

03/31/09 4:41pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Animal House

24 Comments

The Neighborhood Guessing Game is back! You think it would just disappear?

Our sponsor this week: the Rice Design Alliance. The winner of this week’s game will receive an individual one-year membership to the RDA, which ordinarily costs $45. If you’re already a member and you win, you can give the membership to a friend.

The rules, of course: You are trying to guess the location of the home pictured here. Simple, huh? If you’re right, you win the prize! Unless, of course, someone else also guesses the correct location — in which case whichever player provided the best explanation for the guess wins it.

If you already know this home, or if you come across it while we’re playing the game, please don’t post the answer and ruin the fun for everyone. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing. Then, post an incorrect guess — but explain it in a way that makes it sound reasonable. Throw everybody off! If you do it well, you’ll get special recognition for your efforts. And if nobody guesses the right neighborhood, you could win the prize!

Ready to play? Here are just a few more clues:

Home Decor

03/26/09 3:43pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Sims City

Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Southwest Manor

No Comments

Today, a ~~lucky~~ smart Neighborhood Guessing Game player wins a Houston. It’s Worth It. gift box — containing a copy of the original Houston. It’s Worth It. photo book, a HIWI mug, a HIWI T-shirt, a HIWI baseball cap, several “afflictions” postcards, and of course HIWI bug repellent. Very appropriate prizes for this game, and all donated by . . . yes, Houston. It’s Worth It. (You can find more about the individual products at the HIWI store.)

Before we announce the prizewinner, there’s a long list of neighborhoods to call off — your guesses! Ready? Meyerland off South Post Oak near 610, “between Westwood CC and Beechnut,” the Heights, La Porte, Jersey Village, Willow Meadows, “near the bayou off Braeswood in a flood zone,” “between 610 and the beltway, near the Ship Channel,” Jacinto City, Denver Harbor, Pasadena (2 guesses), Galena Park, North Shore, Clover Leaf, Channelview (2 guesses), “near Antoine, south of Tidwell,” off Griggs or Scott, the East End (2 guesses), the Energy Corridor, “off Dairy Ashford close to Stratford High School,” “somewhere along the 225/Allen Genoa/Allendale area,” “north of Braes Bayou, west of Buffalo Speedway, east of Weslayan/Stella Link,” Forest West, Oak Forest, “south along the I-45 corridor,” South Houston, Harrisburg, Magnolia, Baytown, “around Irvington [or] continuing north to the Airline area,” Sagemont, “the Westbury/Willowbend area,” Briarmeadow, Sharpstown (2 guesses), “Sharpstown near Gessner/Bellaire,” the “Sharpstown/Chinatown area” (2 of you), “south of Braeswood near Buffalo Speedway,” near UH, “damn close to Southmore,” Lazybrook, Pearland, “off Navigation,” Meyerland, lower Westbury, the “southern part of Greater Westbury,” south of the Med Center, Southwest Houston, Alief (2 guesses), Bellaire between Wilcrest and Dairy Ashford, around Friendswood, “over by the Georgia addition in Eastwood (sort of near Evergreen Cemetery maybe),” “Larkwood, near Bissonnet and Fondren,” Spring Branch, Windsor Village, the Hiram Clarke area along Sims Bayou, Riviera East, along Normandy north of I-10 by Greens Bayou, near “perennial Channelview area flooder Sterling Green by Carpenters Bayou,” Maplewood between Braeswood and Beechnut, Glenbrook Valley, and Meadowcreek Village.

Phew! That’s quite a tour! And there are some great guesses in there.

Picking the winner was a little tough this week because nobody guessed the exact name of the subdivision — and because a few players came mighty close. The winner of the photo finish — and the prize — is subprimelandguy, who managed to name a couple of flanking neighborhoods and a nearby bayou . . . among others:

I agree that there is definitely some flooding bayou love going on here. But due to the decor and burglar bars, Iâ€™m not thinking Braes Bayou or White Oak, but instead prolly Sims or Greens. Maybe somewheres in Windsor Village or elsewhere in the Hiram Clarke area along Sims, or maybe out east in Riviera East or elsewhere along Normandy north of I-10 by Greens. Or, maybe even perennial Channelview area flooder Sterling Green by Carpenters Bayou. All feature 1960â€™s or 1970â€™s General Homes type tract specials.

Congratulations! And shouts-out to runners-up flake (for “lower Westbury”) and JT (for “the southern part of Greater Westbury”). A whole bunch more of you were pretty darn close, too.

This was your target:

77045, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Southwest Manor

03/24/09 1:12pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Lavender Twins

36 Comments

If you have even an inkling about the location of the home featured in today’s game, you’ll want to go ahead and take the time to make a guess. It’s worth it.

Why? Because the prize this time is being sponsored by “Houston. It’s Worth It.” And it is! This week’s winner will receive a gift box of Houston. It’s Worth It. merchandise worth $100. Namely: The HIWI book, a HIWI coffee mug, a HIWI T-shirt, a HIWI baseball cap, 10 or so â€œafflictionsâ€ postcards, and yes: HIWI bug repellent. You can see more details about many of these items (and shop for a few others) at the HIWI online store.

So, then: A quick review of the rules. Guess the neighborhood of the home pictured here, by adding a comment to this post. If you guess correctly, you win the prize! If more than one person guesses the location, the player who provided the best explanation wins.

But: If you already know this home — or if you come across it while we’re playing the game, don’t blurt out the answer and ruin it all for everyone else. Instead, send an email to Swamplot with a link to the actual listing (so we know what you’re doing). Then post an incorrect guess, but make it sound real smart — just to throw off the other players. If you do this well, you’ll earn special recognition for your efforts. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, you might win the prize!

On to more photos:

03/19/09 11:48pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: What Tangled Lives

Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Tanglewood

2 Comments

Hey, we have another Rice Design Alliance membership to give away!

Your guesses for this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game were: Rice Military, the East End of Galveston, Camp Logan, Oak Estates, The Woodlands, Avalon Place, “the area between Shepherd & Montrose and 59 to Milford or North,” Southampton, “west of Chimney Rock to around Voss, between Woodway and Westheimer,” West Lane Place, Nantucket, Southside Place, “Indian Trail/Indian Circle/Tecumseh off Chimney Rock btw Woodway and Memorial,” along the “divorcee belt” between Beltway 8 and 610 “crossed by the likes of Westheimer, Woodway, Richmond, Bissonnet et al.,” the divorcee belt north of Westheimer and east of Voss, “in the area of the Houstonian off of Memorial, closer to San Felipe-Sage/Post Oak,” Midlane at San Felipe, near Bering, “past the Galleria heading towards Voss,” and West University. Plus two each for the Heights, Afton Oaks, and Bellaire. All very sharp!

The winner of a one-year RDA individual membership — donated by the Rice Design Alliance — is Rachel, for this entry:

This home is in the area of the Houstonian off of Memorial, closer to San Felipe-Sage/Post Oak. The kitchen dates it to around 2001 and the small size makes me think the lot is not especially large. It looks to me like they had a decorator come in and all of the built in book shelves suggests a higher end builder.

Congratulations, Rachel! Deserving of an extremely honorable mention this week is Harold Mandell, who stepped out of a shadowy corner of Montrose to deliver two classic NGG entries — first, introducing the Great West Houston DivorcÃ©e Belt:

Long time lurker, 1st time playerâ€“impelled to jump in because I really want the prize. And because you guys are so off the mark on this one.
No man doth live in this houseâ€“ and the baby in the babyâ€™s room is a guest baby. This home is found in the great divorcee belt– one of those late â€™80â€™s or newer townhomes found west of Chimney Rock to around Voss, between Woodway and Westheimer. The stairwell and the upstairs ceiling tell all.

. . . and next, in response to a broader definition of the belt, tightening it in a wide-hipped circle around the target:

Bobby Hadley, you see the Great West Houston Divorcee Belt right onâ€“ but remember, thereâ€™s also the divorcee demographic that arrived from comfortable circumstances in say Briargrove, or even Memorial. Comfortable until there comes a time when â€œsheâ€™d rather be homeless than be at home with himâ€. Then she finds herself in downsized quartersâ€“ but at last she can decorate it just like she wants it. I say this place is definitely north of Westheimer, and except for Hammersmith I would say east of Voss.

So, what’s the real deal with this place?