11/13/12 1:45pm

Since its listing 3 weeks ago, a re-remodeled home in Briargrove Park has taken a couple of breaks (for a day or less) from the market. The status is now on again, however, for the overhauled gated-courtyard property, which is capped by an almost dainty topknot of a chimney cap. Windows in the front rooms face a gated courtyard instead of the street, and a pair of smaller windows lie behind brick columns on the recessed porch. Interior revisions moved, removed, or expanded archways, doors, and parts of walls to reposition how rooms function. A massive brick fireplace now covered in stone tiles (above) provides the main living space a punchy A-side hearth, B-side backdrop to the front entry hall. The home was built in 1974, remodeled in 2006. Other going-for-a-flip tweaks to the home since its purchase in late August for $275,000 freshened the finishes and replaced the deck, windows, and roof. Despite its on-and-off market behavior, the new asking price has stayed at $449,500.

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11/08/12 3:56pm

DEEP INSIDE MISSION CONTROL At last, that in-depth, exhaustive tour through the Johnson Space Center’s Building 30 that you’d been waiting for — coffee bars and tiny women’s rooms included: “The corridors look like they should exude the odor of decades of cigarette smoke,” space-travel fan Lee Hutchinson writes, “but the federal government’s ‘no smoking’ policy has been in place long enough that most smell faintly of stale coffee instead.” Bonus: Every console in Apollo-era Mission Control explained — or close enough. [Ars Technica] Photo: Steven Michael

11/08/12 1:16pm

Some design elements here — including the thin-look St. Joe brick, tubular pediments, and Morse-code glazed-brick accents — look an awful lot like a couple of buildings at Rice University that César Pelli designed in the 1980s. But according to the agent, this home is the work of local architect Richard Fitzgerald — from 1992. It’s in Colquitt Court. The niche neighborhood within Upper Kirby is tucked north of Richmond Ave. just west of Greenbriar Dr.; this slice of it has has unusually deep lots by Inner Loop standards. (This property goes back more than 220 ft.) With the garage in front, the mid-sized home leaves plenty of backyard scenery — plus a somewhat secret garden.

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11/01/12 11:24am

From the street, this lightly landscaped property in Antoine Forest Estates appears a bit stark. The 1983 home’s greenery is out back, however, where a screen of trees at the lot line throws shade on a yard-sized pool and patio. The outback scenery’s all within view of the main living area’s floor-to-cathedral ceiling windows fireside. There’s another unobstructed view over in the master bathroom (at left), where the soaker tub’s picture window also shows off nature. In both directions. For even more natural surroundings, head to the westside trail of nearby White Oak Bayou.

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10/25/12 12:38pm

A midcentury non-mod, this rambling Riverside Terrace property has added on a few times over the years, expanding its footprint on a street of mostly brick, mostly two-story homes dating back five or six decades. Its lawn-eating circular driveway serves an attached front-loader garage and sits behind a sculpted berm off the sidewalk. Brays Bayou is a block north and Parkwood Park is down the slightly curving street. Inside, the time-altered floor plan’s formal spaces have informal counterparts. There’s a media room, miscellaneous “extra” rooms, and a bar (at right above) big enough to entertain the neighbors — possibly all of them at once. Listed mid-month, the 1950 home (remodeled in 1998) is asking $555,000.

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10/24/12 1:31pm

Wraparound porches on two levels add a little more living space to this by-the-park, by-the freeway 1920 home in Woodland Heights, outside the Houston Ave. boundary of that vintage neighborhood’s historic district. The garage-free property relisted with a new agency yesterday at $325,000 — after 4-months of  toe-testing at $345,000. Its crisply painted exterior trim gives way to the interior’s stained wood, one of a few elements retained or accented in a 2005 remodeling by one of several previous owners this millennium.

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10/22/12 1:22pm

There’s a crack team of construction professionals readying this brand-new single-story on Prince St. in Timbergrove Manor for some lucky new owner. And looky here, out of the closet: Workers are bending over . . . uh, forwards to make sure the hardwood floorboards are aligned perfectly, deep in a pantry corner recess. It’s a view of the “Open Entertainers Floor Plan” touted in the listing. Maybe this space has been transformed into a kitchen by now, but isn’t it a whole lot more fun to see an action shot of the transformation in process?

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10/18/12 4:43pm

Arquitectonica’s row of contemporary townhomes has punched up a mixed-residential block in the Museum District since 1986. Remodeled in 2004, this tower-tipped end unit’s natural lighting gets a boost from a tented skylight in the roofline ridge (at right), framed-in-color glass brick accents, and expanded east-facing windows on two levels.

The property popped onto the market Tuesday, priced at $446,000. It’s been for sale before, with no luck — most recently a little more than a year ago. Back in February 2010, under a different broker from the same agency, it sported an asking price of $650,000; several reductions and 18 months later, the listing expired last September at $495,000.

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