Tag: Neighborhood Guessing Game

Home Decor
05/08/08 4:35pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Lake Escape

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Pearland, The Lakes of Highland Glen
6 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 6: Built-in Shelving

Is there a limit to the kinds of neighborhoods that work in this game? Again, we had great guesses — and a winner — but some readers expressed frustration that the home we pictured might have been . . . anywhere.

That kinda comes with our territory, doesn’t it?

Here’s where y’all guessed the house was: Katy (2 votes), Pearland, Sugar Land, Missouri City, Spring, The Woodlands, Hyde Park, Camp Logan, Galleria “west of Chimney Rock”(!), the West End, Rice Military, First Colony, and Bellaire.

This week’s winner is HoustonAreaGuy, whose scattershot list of possible locations managed to include . . . Pearland! He also got a few details right (well . . . close enough):

I’m guessing it’s $400k or more (MAYBE $300k+, but I doubt it), easily over 3,000 s.f. and built in the last 4 years.

It’s his second win!

The actual subdivision of the home is The Lakes of Highland Glen. And the house is next to one of those lakes! Could anyone have guessed that subdivision? What do you say, Pearland readers?

The honorable mention this week goes to the eagle-eyed ERM — not for this comment:

I don’t know who to trust anymore. Are HAG and Joni trying to throw me off the scent? Can any of my fellow game players even trust me for that matter? I haven’t a clue as to where it is although Katy would be my guess.

. . . but for some sharp observations that helped pin down an evasive Master Bedroom:

I do believe this home is more of your basic burbs house but it does have some interesting appointments, slate tiles, granite counters, a butler’s pantry, your basic Evita balcony, Grecian type columns, etc. The small LR and DR say 90s although I can’t say I can give up on this century just yet. I do think, though, the master is on the first floor because if you look at the great room pic you see a door and two small pictures on a wall. The same two pictures show up in the master shot. So, that would suggest to me a single family home and not a townhouse since you don’t find too many first floor masters in those.

After the jump: Escape . . . to the Lakes!

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Interiors
05/06/08 9:30am

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Escape

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
10 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 6: Built-in Shelving

Today is Tuesday, which means it’s time to play Swamplot’s weekly Neighborhood Guessing Game! Our last two contests were kinda tough. Are you ready for this week’s match?

The rules of the game are extremely simple, but this time we’re adding a small twist. As usual, you play the game by looking at the photos of the home in this post, then guessing what neighborhood it’s in, by adding a comment below. Whoever names the exact neighborhood first wins! Again, we encourage comments that explain why you guessed what you guessed — by giving special recognition to guesses that are especially perceptive or otherwise entertaining.

But what happens if you’ve seen this house before, or have come across the HAR listing and know exactly where it is? Here’s our new twist, prompted by a comment from Joni Webb last week: If you know this exact house, you can still add your “guess” to the comments (making sure not to tip anyone off that you’ve actually seen it). Or . . . you can cause a little mischief — by adding an incorrect guess to the comments, but backing it up with some really clever (though flawed) reasoning! If you do this well, and maybe manage to throw other players off the scent with your decoy, you’ll win special recognition when we announce the winner.

How will we know if any of you are playing this nastier version of the game (and aren’t just really bad at playing it)? If you’re trying something tricky, email us a link to the actual HAR listing when you add your comment, so we know that you’re just trying to fool our other readers with your guess!

Enough with the rules — on to the photos!

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Glendower Court
05/01/08 11:57pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Poof!

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Townhomes
3 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 5: Kitchen

There were some terrific responses to our Neighborhood Guessing Game this week. Nobody was able to name the exact neighborhood of our mystery home . . . but we do have a winner!

This week’s guesses didn’t pile onto a few favorite neighborhoods, but they were somewhat concentrated. Four of you guessed the Galleria or areas to the east or west; three guessed West U. There were two votes for Rice Military or WOW near the roundabout; one for River Oaks and one for east River Oaks — “more of the Upper Kirby District almost.” Woodlake, Tanglewood, Montrose, Raintree Place, Wilchester, Crestwood, Med Center-Inner Braeswood, “one of the older neighborhoods north of Rice,” and Westhaven Estates got one guess each.

And the winner of this week’s contest is . . . the altogether-too-modest K, who declares herself to be “terrible at these” — before nailing it with her observations:

Definitely an 80s home; no getting around that. The tacky tile on the floor in the study, the basketweave brickwork on the kitchen floor, the gaudy master bath, the white tile on the kitchen island — they all scream 80s.

That said, the place is huge and at least somewhat updated. I’m also guessing that it’s on three levels, but it looks River Oaks — not West U. The coffered ceiling in the living room and the tray ceiling in the dining rome are very River Oaks touches, as are most of the furnishings (the Oriental rugs, the overstated antiques, the vases and artwork, etc.).

I’m definitely going with River Oaks here, the old 019. But since it’s newer, I’m going with an area further to the east of the older, more established homes by the country club, more of the Upper Kirby district almost.

That last paragraph serves as a pretty good set of directions to Glendower Court, which is the actual subdivision of this week’s home.

An honorable mention goes to Joni Webb, for deducing that “it’s got atriums.” She and K are both bloggers!

After the jump: Those atriums! And more details on our Glendower Court . . . townhouse. Plus . . . it’s gone!

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Brookesmith
05/01/08 8:17am

The Neighborhood You Would Never Guess

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Interiors, Renovations
8 Comments

Interior of 701 A—– St., Houston

So you think this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game is tough? Sure it is. But it’s not impossible.

You want to see impossible? Try guessing the neighborhood of the home shown in these photos. This is a home we decided not to use for this week’s contest . . . for, uh, reasons that should become clear when you read all the way to the end of this post.

But don’t do that just yet!

Look at the photos of the interior below, after the jump . . . but stop scrolling before you get all the way to the bottom, so you can spend a minute or so testing yourself, to see if you’re the kind of Houston real-estate savant who really could figure out this home’s location, just by viewing images of the inside.

Swamplot readers are very sharp . . . but this has got to be impossible. Without seeing the pictures of the exterior (added at the very end), there’s no way you’d ever be able to identify the correct neighborhood. Well, okay — you might just get lucky. But there’s no way to figure it out, really.

Office Area, 701 A—– St., Houston

Ready to see more interior photos?

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Interiors
04/29/08 10:11am

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Chicken Island

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
13 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 5: Kitchen

Think you know Houston Real Estate? Here comes another round of the Neighborhood Guessing Game, where you can prove it . . . or have fun trying!

Rule recap: We show you pictures of a home listed on HAR — but just of the interior. You guess what subdivision it’s in, by adding a comment. If you’re the first to guess the correct neighborhood, you win!

Of course, it’s no fun if everyone is just wildly shouting out the names of neighborhoods . . . so to encourage intelligent discussion, we give special recognition to participants who point out the supporting evidence they see in the photos and otherwise entertain us with their comments.

If you know this home already, please don’t let us know that . . . it kinda spoils the game for everyone else.

Ready for more of this week’s photos? You’ll find them after the jump!

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Boulevard Oaks
04/24/08 11:57pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Remodeled and Remodeled

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, West Edgemont
1 Comment

Neighborhood Guessing Game 4: Media Room

Some pretty sharp photo-detective work — and plenty of good guesses — in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game. But . . . no winner. This was a tough one!

This week’s guesses were rather variously described . . . and one-of-a-kind: “near the Medical Center off McGregor;” 77024; Oak Ridge North; Northampton in Spring; Briar Forest; Memorial/Dairy Ashford area; River Oaks; Avalon Square; Yorkshire; Frostwood; West Memorial between Beltway 8 and Eldridge; Briar Forest; Bunker Hill; one of the Memorial Villages; Southgate-Rice Village area; Southmore/Riverside; Braeswood Place; Ayrshire; Braes Heights; Braes Manor; Braes Oaks; Braes Terrace; Emerald Forest; Southern Oaks; Conroe; Afton Oaks.

That’s quite a tour of the Houston area!

The closest guess came from karen, who failed to tease out the memory of a similar property she once looked at “on Lexington, between Greenbriar and Kirby.” Think of a more upscale version of that house — where would that be?

How about . . . on North or South Blvd.? The exact neighborhood of this week’s home was Edgemont. But a guess of West Edgemont . . . or Broadacres . . . or Boulevard Oaks would have won it. Southampton might even have been good enough.

Possibly, some of you were thrown off by the order of the photos. If the first photo had been of the Living Room, followed by the Dining Room . . . and the paneled and partially sunken Media Room had not been shown until later, would the apparent pattern of remodeling and addition have been more obvious?

A few key clues were unearthed in the comments. An honorable mention goes to last week’s winner, HoustonAreaGuy, who was first to identify the critical bathroom-door handle clue, and who made no mistakes in his description:

It’s a large house, easily 4000+ square feet. I could go with 60’s construction as well, except one small detail stands out to me…and it might not mean anything. The hardware on the bathroom door in the last photo appears to be OLD. Not sure if it’s original to the house or something bought at an antique emporium. It really throws me because if the house is as old as the hardware indicates, then it likely isn’t in my first-guess area zip code 77024.

After the jump: the big reveal!

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Interiors
04/22/08 8:39pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: The Well-Paneled Room

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
14 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 4: Media Room

Again with the Neighborhood Guessing Game: Help our lost home find its subdivision!

Remember the game’s 3 simple rules? We show you interior photos of a house on HAR. You guess what neighborhood it’s in, by adding your comment below. If you identify it correctly, you win!

Of course, the game is a whole lot more fun if you pepper your guess with explanations and comments. And we give special mention to commenters who are wrong about the neighborhood but spot-on with their observations.

If you know this home already, great! Go ahead and add your “guess.” Just don’t add any comments that ruin the game for everyone else.

More photos of today’s interior . . . after the jump!

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Braeburn Valley West
04/17/08 11:58pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: The Great Den

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
2 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 3: Living Room and Dining Room

There was no consensus in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game . . . and nobody guessed the exact neighborhood of our mystery house. But one person came close enough to win, and we generated a healthy number of well-informed guesses . . . along with enough references to less-frequently mentioned Houston neighborhoods to send local real-estate obsessives on wild new searches through HAR.com listings.

The guesses, this week: Braeburn Valley; Westbury; Cherryhurst; Braes Heights (2 votes!); Meyerland; Maplewood South; Ashford Forest; Walnut Bend; Jersey Village; Montrose; Inwood Forest; Spring Branch between I-10, Westview, Gessner, and Antoine; Linkwood Ayrshire; Meadows Place; Shepherd Park Plaza; Candlelight Plaza; and Timbergrove.

All smart guesses. But all of them wrong! Well . . . almost all of them. The house is in Braeburn Valley West, a slightly newer neighborhood than Braeburn Valley — the guess of this week’s winner, HoustonAreaGuy.

HoustonAreaGuy’s reasoning, of course, was flawless:

I had a house there several years ago and this reminds me of alot of my house, although the rooms appears to be smaller.

There were plenty of strong comments this week, but our honorable mention vote goes to Pat Ennis, who had some solid observations . . .

It looks like the ubiquitious mid-70’s ranch house with detached garage and brick fireplace that can be found in a huge swath of southwest and west Houston. Some one ponied up for substantial cosmetic improvements, so it must be in a good neighborhood.

. . . but like other commenters displayed more logic than the real estate market can bear, apparently:

All that black and white in the kitchen though means it was likely done at least decade ago. Lakeside Place, Breaburn Valley and Westbury are all too far out for a 10-year old re-do.

. . . oh, but not too far out for a more recent redo that simply looks out of date!

After the jump: What a 1970 model Braeburn Valley West home looks like . . . today!

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Interiors
04/15/08 3:52pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: The Red Dining Room

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
12 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 3: Living Room and Dining Room

Ready for another round of the Neighborhood Guessing Game? Here goes!

Today’s entry is . . . well, just look at it. And imagine what neighborhood it’s in. And add your guess to the comments section below. And while you’re at it, add to your comment a few of the reasons you think this house is in that neighborhood.

If you name the precise neighborhood before any other commenter, you win! And if you’re especially sharp with your commentary, you get special recognition.

And if you already know this particular house for some reason, please don’t tell us that you know it and how you know it and ruin the game for everyone else, ’kay?

The rest of our interiors-only pictures are below the fold:

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Homes for Sale
04/10/08 6:21pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Window Unit

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Interiors, Lindale Park, Neighborhood Guessing Game
2 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 2: View from Kitchen

Thanks to y’all for playing the Neighborhood Guessing Game! We had 19 guessers and 24 guesses for this week‘s contest. And they were all over the place . . . but all inside the Loop!

Three of you guessed Montrose and another 3 guessed the Houston Heights. There were 2 votes each for Brookesmith, Washington Terrace, Riverside Terrace, Lindale Park, and Idylwood or Eastwood. Other guesses were: Bellaire, Woodland Heights, the Reliant Park area, Midtown, Sunset Heights, Southgate, Winlow Place and environs, and “over by the Orange Show.”

The winner this week was missjanel, who was the first to mention Lindale Park . . . though she didn’t explain her guess.

Sure, there were plenty of neighborhoods a house like this could have been in. How were you supposed to figure out Lindale Park? No one nailed it precisely, but some commenters were pretty sharp at picking up the clues. jgbiggs noted

a brick house next door with a horribly inappropriate iron fence. Also, the painted over windows on the front door give evidence that it is in a high crime neighborhood.

Jeff was (probably) off about the vintage of the house next door, but pointed out:

Definitely a gentrifying area. New behemoth next to a bungalow with no central AC.

Commenter karen noted some of the contradictions:

The bricks next door are so close and the gold-tipped iron fence so ugly that it really could be West U, but then this would be a tear-down, so why show interior house images on HAR?

Lastly, Mike noted that the brick house next door was probably an older one. And one of his 3 guesses was Lindale Park!

Let’s add it all up: well-kept or recently redone hardwood floors? Check. New, reasonably sophisticated interior paint colors? Check. Security-conscious fencing nearby? Check. Toddler toys in bedroom? Check. Nearby property values probably not high enough to support yuppifying the kitchen or dealing with the window-unit AC? Check.

It wasn’t runaway obvious, but Lindale Park does fit those specs.

After the jump: The house! Where, what, and how much.

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Interiors
04/08/08 2:01pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: View to a Room

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
19 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 2: View from Kitchen

It’s time for our second round of the Neighborhood Guessing Game! A quick review of the rules: We show photos of the interior of a house on HAR. You guess what neighborhood it’s in, in the comments. Simple enough, huh?

If you already know this house, feel free to add your “guess” below — just don’t ruin it for everyone else by stating that you are correct and how you know it.

Ready for more pics of this week’s property? See below!

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Homes for Sale
04/03/08 3:51pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: We Have a Winner!

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Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game, West University
4 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 1: Stairs

Our first stab at the Neighborhood Guessing Game attracted a good number of smart observations from sleuthing readers . . . and a winner!

Thanks to all those who hazarded a guess! Five commenters thought the house we featured on Tuesday was in West U. There were single votes each for Sugar Lakes, the Eldridge & Memorial area, Montrose, the Heights, “near Meyerland,” and Southgate.

Ah, the wisdom of the crowds baker’s dozen! West U it was! The West University Place 1 subdivision, to be exact.

The winner of this first competition is the appropriately named Buildergeek, who named West U first. But enlightening — or entertainingly obfuscating — commentary wins points too! Honorable mentions go to Houstonist‘s Jim Parsons, who guessed the house was a rehab from the 1980s or before:

The staircase is a giveaway in my mind — no self-respecting faux-neo-Georgian would have a staircase that Rhoda might have walked down.

. . . and to commenter Drew, who sounds a little like what we might expect if Sherlock Holmes had his own show on HGTV:

One of the early West U replacements. Built in the early 80s, given the finishes and selections. Larger than the standard West U lot, despite the red brick boxes and colonial style windows being so close to the neighbors. (Evidenced by the trees and added green space for the typical 5,000 sq ft WU lot. Must be west of Buffalo Speedway.

After the jump: Actual details on the featured West U home, which is actually for sale — “Rhoda”-style staircase, colonial-style windows, west-of-Buffalo-Speedway location, and all!

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Interiors
04/01/08 4:09pm

Neighborhood Guessing Game: Florals and Formals

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Neighborhood Guessing Game
14 Comments

Neighborhood Guessing Game 1: Stairs

It’s time to try a new feature on Swamplot. We’re calling it the Neighborhood Guessing Game.

Here’s the idea: We show you photos of a property listed on HAR. You prove your Houston real-estate savvy by identifying what neighborhood the property is in . . . in the comment section below.

Is that so difficult?

Well, there’s a little more to it: You only get to see photos of the interior.

Are homes really so different from neighborhood to neighborhood in Houston? Guess we’ll find out!

For more pics of our first mystery interior, keep reading below!

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