- 2902 Morrison Ave. [HAR]
Talk about shotgun stylin’: The listing for this double-barreled 1885 cottage in the Old Sixth Ward winks at its straight-shot floor plan with a sure-fire choice of equivalent-vintage decor above a bedroom door (top). Posted Wednesday, the renovated property (with patriotic porch) has a $325K asking price. The last time the home changed hands was 2012, when it sold for $242,000.
As with the curving private lane it fronts, a 1939 home in understated, gated Shadyside splays slightly on a pie-shaped lot (top). The stately front screens the grounds on the back side, a deliberate design by Houston architect John Staub for original clients A.J. Wray and wife Margaret, daughter of J.S. Cullinan — founder of the company that became Texaco. Writing about the property in his monograph on the architect’s “country houses,” Rice architectural historian Stephen Fox notes how the home’s pivot-point entry bay is light on windows and flanked by 2 wings with far more iron grill and veranda flourishes out back — for a focused view of private grounds with reflecting pond (above). Is the home’s styling “Regency-inspired,” Louisiana-Creole-derived, or an example of Latin Colonial Regionalism? Feel free to mull it over as you survey the property on 1.3 acres across from Rice University’s Main St. main gate, just south of the Museum District. Home to oil heirs and a former Texas governor, the well-groomed and rather proper property made its market debut Monday, asking $6.9 million.
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair North Norhill, where we lay our scene . . .
Just add performer (or pastor) and this former church building with studio-friendly sound and light system will be ready to roll. Or rock. The 1985 property on a residential street is set within Depenbrook Allen, a Near Northside neighborhood located off Quitman St. near I-45. Re-listed last week, the former home of Ministerio Zoe Vida now has a new asking price of $169,900. Previous price points ranged from $245,000 (at its initial listing in May 2013) to the $175K it had reached by December, when it went on a quick winter break.
No, the lawn-parked Chevrolet Corvette in the sepia-filtered listing pic at the top of this post isn’t the result of a clumsy home-staging effort — it’s the prize that comes with your Woodforest Estates homebuying Happy Meal. Simply purchase this 2,488-sq.-ft. yellow-brick 2-story for the low low price of $138,500 (marked down from $142,500 earlier this month) and you’ll find this “awesome” Corvette in unidentified condition absolutely free in the box! Er, garage. Useful for shuttling family members, one at a time, to and from the home’s 7 bedrooms.
If this kind of Chevy-chasing carrot throw-in sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it is: A similar deal for a Corvette Stingray with brick suburban home combo in Richmond at more than 3 times the price (pictured at left) was featured on Swamplot last month — and is still available. (No, it’s not the same car; that one was an older model convertible, though it appears to be a similar color.)
Open water is one lot away from this 1996 resort-style contemporary home on one of Tiki Island’s knuckle-ended land nubs that protect the tiny coastal community’s interior canals. That gives the peninsula property a vista beyond (and at) neighbors across the pond. The home has double-decker vantage points and 170 ft. of waterfront. But boats aren’t the only amenity floating around the property.
The 1998 transformation of a former auto shop on Washington Ave to the 9-unit Lopresti Lofts was a bit of a quirky redo. McGregor Real Estate Group gave the building a mash-up of infill materials, various porch-balcony-terrace views of downtown, and a piggyback stucco-faced addition topped by roof flaps saluting crisply above each unit (top). The amalgamation sits right across across the street from the gated entry of peaceful, park-like Glenwood Cemetery. A corner unit (in the building, not the graveyard) listed last week but quickly dropped its asking price by $20K to $370,000. Inside (above), lots of tubing ties together 4 levels of wide, somewhat open, sometimes high gallery space . . .