Over in the gated community of Indian Trail, this townhome-like pad has patios-a-plenty. Builder Ed McMahon constructed the property for his mama back in 1974, or so the listing posted last week notes. Renovated in 2007, the home with recessed entry now sports a $1.75 million asking price. Its flat-topped front-loader garage ivies up a garden-lined walkway to form the first of several outdoor vignettes.
Yet another re-listing of a 1949 home built by architect Hamilton Brown for his own family on the sloped loop of Tiel Way in River Oaks has freshened up the property’s market presence once more. But the price point is the same — it’s been hovering for a year at $2.825 million, having debuted at $3.75 million in 2010. Asking prices in the interim bounced down in listings by various agencies, hitting $3.25 million, then $2.95 million in 2011, and $2.875 million in the early part of last year, after a 3-month dalliance with $3.2 million in the fall of 2012. Like the wedge lot it occupies, the well-screened home is broader toward the few-frills front. Structural elements remain a focus inside (above) and out.
Despite the pedigree of an extensive renovation by architect Howard Barnstone (he did work on the property for LeRoy and Lucile Melcher, its later owners), there’s not a massive amount of Modern left to the house — at least if the interior decor has anything to say about it. The property was further altered in 2001 or 2002. Is that when all the beams attached themselves to the ceilings?
The rooftop terrace of this 2008 City View Courtyard townhome ought to be a decent spot for watching tomorrow’s Freedom Over Texas fireworks show. The Fourth Ward location between W. Dallas St. and the back of Allen Parkway Village falls in Freedmen’s Town — though not the portion designated and nationally registered as Freedmen’s Town Historic District. The townhome property’s name is only semi-apt; while “city view” (top) is a sure thing, the “courtyard” reference is less clear. Perhaps it refers to the narrow strip of fenced pens between the 2 back-to-back 3-packs? Even without the seasonal pyrotechnics of Houston’s Official July 4th Celebration to view, the end-cap’s perspective peeks at office peaks, . . .
The deep porch comes to a point and repeats it in wrapping around taller portions of a stuccoed 1920 cottage in Woodland Heights. Its listing mid-June, which comes with a $589,900 asking price attached, also makes a point: The previously renovated property, which still has many period details intact, might be ready for another round of redo . . . CONTINUE READING THIS STORY
Developers of a 7-townhome development on Wrightwood St. just east of Houston Ave. in Woodland Heights paid a $300,000 settlement to the city last year for clear-cutting about an acre of neighboring Woodland Park. Neighbors claimed the extensive cutting and uprooting was done expressly to give future residents of the townhomes a better view, but one of the developers, Bill Workman, went on a hardhat-in-hand apology tour trying to explain that the brush-and-tree-and-grass removal spree was only the result of a communication error with a subcontractor. Now, more than a year after the land-grading-gone-awry incident, the website and marketing materials for the 2 four-story townhomes currently available in the development have been adjusted a bit — to highlight their expansive views of Woodland Park.
A new listing features a new set of decorative delights gleaned from the interior of a Swamplot-reader Memorial Plaza favorite. Put on sale for a spell in 2011 at $1.5 million (without success), the big-windowed stucco home just outside the Beltway at 12930 Memorial Dr. returned to the market over this past weekend at a more au courant price of $2.25 million, accompanied by a set of what appear to be hastily snapped cameraphone photos — which, for the most part, do little justice to the many splendors of its occasionally indescribable furnishings. To appreciate the interior tableau in all its rococo, you’d likely have to tour this spread yourself. Imagine that all the luscious decor featured in the previous listing is still intact, though, and that this new set of snaps merely adds depth to your sense of discovery — maybe that’ll help you get the full picture?
One of the largest lots in Lakeside Place sprouts a 1975 contemporary with courtyard entry — and courtyard views from within the interior’s open floor plan (top). Furnishings in punchy shades of citrus currently pop against the neutral finishes found in most of the rooms. When listed Friday, the updated property’s asking price was $410,000. It last sold in 1998, for $196,500.
At just shy of an acre, a Westmoreland Farms property in Bellaire packs in an updated 1955 home, garden, pool, tennis court, and one mighty rocky fireplace in the vaulted great room. Other megalots on the block, which runs from the West Loop’s feeder road toward S.Rice Ave. (at Bellaire High School), have mansionized with more recent construction. Is this home, listed at $2.25 million earlier this month, similarly fated?
The biggest windows in this renovated 1975 townhome in the heart of the Museum District appear to be the glass-panel garage doors, which split their at-the-sidewalk orientation between both streets forming the corner property near Bell Park. But there’s more glass to see inside. A week ago, the asking price on this property dropped to $620,000 from a May listing kickoff at $640,000.
Is it any wonder that this custom studio-home of a fine arts photography gallery owner is camera ready? From curbside, it comes with a limelight finish. Rice architecture prof Carlos Jiménez, who’s designed art museums, homes, and warehouses alike, incorporated ingredients of each in this 2011 project. A week ago, the Riverside Terrace property went up for sale with a $650,000 asking price.
The sloping roof accommodates a partial second story, as well as lofty living and a large, column-free exhibition space at ground level:
Could the crop of buildings forming downtown Houston’s skyline viewed from a rooftop terrace north of Avondale be the “garden” reference in a contemporary townhome 3-pack dubbed “El Jardin Moderno?” Or maybe it’s the wispy palm trees that sharply mark the 2004 property’s portals? Or perhaps it’s the color use inside, where each level interprets a slice of the spectrum:
