05/23/13 1:00pm

Red-crested and around the block from the Heights Transit Center on North Main, an updated 1940 Stude cottage has been sticking to its initial $285,000 asking price. After a 3-month first attempt, ending in February 2013, the neatly trimmed property took a spring break (while the market heated up). Earlier this week, the same agent relisted the basic-but-boosted cottage at the same price. It last sold for $227,000 back in January 2010. That was after a 2009 remodeling project overhauled the interior but kept the old-timey ribbon driveway with hinged gate.

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05/22/13 2:00pm

This li’l Victorian on Kane St. dates to 1890 — that’s according to the plaque by the door. (You can’t miss it.) In the Old Sixth Ward south of Washington and east of Sawyer St., this lot at 2211 Kane actually has 2 houses — the historic one you see here front and slightly off-center and another at the back of the 5,000-sq.-ft. property. Each has 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, accented throughout by stained glass and staged for the listing with wine glasses. The price for the two of ’em? $319,000.

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05/22/13 10:00am

Norman and Contempo leanings are but the start of the stylin’ mashup incorporated into a large waterfront property in the Village of Panther Creek in The Woodlands. On and off the market since the summer of 2010, when its initial asking price was $3.2 million, the 1990 custom estate popped back up last month as a re-relisting seeking $2.5 million. Earlier this month, the ask dropped to $1.95 million. That’s a price point a previous relisting sought for nearly a year, ending in May 2012 at $1.85 million.

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05/21/13 12:05pm

It’s a bit of a nature walk to this hidden-from-view home’s front entry. But then, isn’t that the point of living in a property arranged like a treehouse? The woodsy spread in Piney Point Village’s Shady Point neighborhood is a 1972 design by an early advocate of “energy aware” homes, Roger Rasbach. (He also designed this home in Bellaire.) It’s built on a gated cul-de-sac located near one of the designer’s other projects, Vargo’s Restaurant (soon to be replaced by apartments) on Fondren. Listed last week — on the same day demo work began on Vargo’s — the home has an asking price of $1,995,000. That includes several levels of outdoor decks and a nifty open-air workout space in a treehouse of its own (above).

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05/20/13 10:00am

New construction has crept west across Chimney Rock Rd. and onto this Richmond Plaza street south of Bissonnet. Plans for this builder-owned ladder-to-little-loft property, however, may have changed recently. Last week it was relisted with an asking price of $299,000. That’s a big, big price reduction from the $799,000 sought in the previous 6-month listing — perhaps for something new built on the site? (Back in 2010, the 1950 home hit the market at $328,000.) Meanwhile, the lot remains listed by Blum Custom Builders as a potential new home site.

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05/17/13 12:00pm

PERUSING THE WOODLANDS This is the only one of the homes to be featured in this Saturday’s AIA walking tour in the Woodlands that’s active on the market. With a view of Lake Woodlands at 34 East Shore Dr., the 6-bedroom, 8,400-sq.-ft., never-lived-in house designed by Bobby McAlpine is going for $5.2 million. The listing indicates that 5 open houses are scheduled for May and June — with the first this Sunday. The place also features a staircase that might induce a feeling of déjà vu. [AIA Houston; HAR; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HAR

05/17/13 10:00am

Somewhere within this newly listed 1964 Hunters Creek home in the Tara Oaks neighborhood, a plain-old white ceiling or 2 has evaded upgrades. Most of the rooms, however, cap their decor with what the description dubs “carefully chosen finishes,” be they color, exposed beams, soaring vaults, more color, skylights, or some combo thereof. (No glass ceilings or debt ceiling, however — the Memorial Villages asking price hovers at $2,395,000.)

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05/16/13 10:00am

A sheered-up 1968 Modern home in Meyerland relies on its unadorned clerestory windows for natural light to play across the lighter shades of pale finishes found in many of the decoratively restrained rooms. The only-been-one-owner home, north of Brays Bayou near Hillcroft, listed this week with an asking price of $329,000.

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