12/04/09 9:03pm

More great photos have come in for our next group photo feature. Earlier this week we extended the deadline until next Thursday at midnight. There’s still room for your contributions!

Whatcha doing this weekend? If your plans include a camera or a cameraphone, we hope you’ll stop by the corner of Bellaire Blvd. and Bissonnet St. Take photos of anything you want — as long as it’s within 500 ft. of the intersection. Then upload your photos to the Swamplot Flickr pool, and tag each of them “Bellaire and Bissonnet” (with the quotation marks). (Also, please make sure the galleries feature isn’t disabled on your account.)

We’ll select the photos that together best represent that little neck of the woods for next Friday’s feature, and we’ll include all the submitted photos in a slideshow. It’s a fun way to look around Houston, corner by corner. Wanna give it a try?

12/04/09 8:06pm

2009 may not have featured the outsize and grandiose visions, the stormy weather, or the hairpin turns of fortune that made the previous year so notable for Houston. But there’s still plenty to celebrate. For our second year, Swamplot will be calling out the best, most, and much too much of the local real estate world. And it all begins next week!

Starting on Monday, Swamplot will announce the categories for the second annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, rewarding the neighborhoods, developments, designs, personalities, and dreams that have helped make Houston real estate so entertaining.

We’ll announce the award categories one at a time. But we need your help to come up with the right slate of nominees for each. You be the judge: What was notable in 2009? What caught your eye and wouldn’t let go? What valiant efforts are deserving of recognition?

There will be a few minor changes to the voting rules this year. But all nominations and votes for these awards will come from Swamplot readers. We hope you’ll participate and join in the fun!

12/02/09 3:56pm

Bellaire, what up? Swamplot’s next group photo feature is set to document the intersection of Bellaire Blvd. and Bissonnet St. And yes, it looks like Thanksgiving and uh, Blackout Friday might have got in the way. We’ve already got a few great photos in, but some of you could likely use an extra week to get your photos in.

So take it! Here’s a new extended deadline to submit photos — of anything you want, as long as it’s within 500 ft. of the intersection shown above: midnight on December 10th, a week from tomorrow.

As always, the Swamplot Flickr pool is eager for your submissions — just make sure they’re tagged “Bellaire & Bissonnet” (you’ll need to include those quotation marks), and that you haven’t disabled the galleries feature on your account.

Show us what you find!

11/25/09 4:36pm

Swamplot is off until Monday? Whatever will you do with your real estate gawking time until then?

Well, first we suggest making sure you have a nice Thanksgiving. Once that’s settled, how about snapping some pix for our next group photo feature? Or dreaming up some dream categories for this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? Or finding a good candidate or two for Swamplot’s Price Adjuster feature? Or just submitting a tip or two about goings-on in your neighborhood? Swamplot is what you make of it. And it’ll be back next week with whatever you’ve sent in.

Photo: Flickr user mattgoldenphotos

11/24/09 4:42pm

Swamplot will be taking Thursday and Friday off this week for a long and well-deserved giblet bath. But guess what we’ve got coming up next week!

That’s right: It’s time for the second annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate! Last year, the first time around, Swamplot received nominations, counted votes, and parceled out awards in 10 categories, including Most Fattening Real Estate Development and Best Teardown. Who makes the nominations for the Swampies? Our readers. Who votes on the winners in each of those categories? Our readers do! And who writes all those clever comments that make the whole thing so much fun? You do!

We’ll likely make a few adjustments in the category mix for this round. This year there probably won’t be enough contenders for the Most Grandiose Development category, what with the downturn and all. And we’ll probably want to add a few categories that focus on the peculiar qualities of particular neighborhoods — those civic clubs can really turn out the votes! But to make the Swampies the best they can be, we need your help!

If you have any suggestions for how the awards should be handled this year, including ideas for new categories or nominating methods, send them in! If you’re a designer who can’t stand to see us use that blue-ribbon awards logo for another year, make us up a new one and send it!

If you don’t have any particular suggestions or designs to contribute, you might want to spend a little time warming up for the nominations with a little review. What were the notable events in Houston real estate this past year? Where were the standouts? The lockouts? We hope you’ll take time over the coming week to reflect on all this city has brought us. The Swampies belong to you!

11/20/09 11:52pm

Thanksgiving means you get an extra week to take photos for Swamplot’s next group photo feature. It’ll run on Friday, December 4th. Which means the deadline for getting your photos in will be 2 Thursdays from now: December 3rd at midnight.

What are we looking for? Your photos — of anything you like — snapped within 500 ft. of the intersection of Bellaire Blvd. and Bissonnet St. It doesn’t matter what kind of camera (or cameraphone) you use — just get out behind your lens and have some fun with it!

Upload your pix to the Swamplot Flickr pool when you’re done. Tag each photo with the phrase “Bellaire & Bissonnet” (you’ll need to use those quotation marks), and make sure you’ve got the galleries feature enabled on your Flickr account. We’ll feature the photos that together paint the strongest picture of the area, and we’ll include a slideshow of every image that’s submitted. What’s that little corner of Houston er, Bellaire really like?

11/19/09 2:39pm

WHERE WE’RE HEADED FOR NEXT WEEK’S GROUP PHOTO FEATURE Got plans with your camera or cameraphone for the weekend? How about taking it out to the corner of Bellaire Blvd. and Bissonnet St. and using it to take some pix for next week’s group photo feature? That little corner of Bellaire is our next assignment. (The deadline for the current assignment is midnight tonight!) We’ll have a map of the area for you to look at and more details tomorrow, after this week’s photo feature runs.

11/18/09 2:54pm

Hey, all you East Enders: What kind of photos would you like to see in this Friday’s upcoming group feature? Our location this week is the intersection of Harrisburg Blvd. and Wayside Dr. And there’s still plenty of room for your contributions.

Even if you’re not from that part of town, it’s easy to participate: Just snap some pix of anything within 500 ft. of that intersection — with your cameraphone, even — and upload them to the Swamplot Flickr pool. (You can use the map above as a guide.) Tag your photos with “Harrisburg & Wayside,” and make sure your account doesn’t block other users from creating galleries. What you see is what we’ll get!

The deadline is Thursday at midnight. We’ll run with what’s come in on Friday.

11/13/09 11:54pm

Ready for a little east-side action? Find your way to the intersection of Harrisburg Blvd. and Wayside Dr. with a camera (or just a cameraphone!) and you can be a part of Swamplot’s next group photo feature! All you need to do is snap pix — of anything you want — within 500 ft. of that corner.

Upload your photos to the Swamplot Flickr pool, tag them with the magic phrase “Harrisburg & Wayside” (you’ll need to use those quotation marks to keep the tag in one piece), and make sure you haven’t disabled the galleries feature on your Flickr account. We’ll feature the group of photos that we figure best represents that little corner of Houston (and include a slide show of all the submitted pix) in a post next Friday — which means you have until next Thursday at midnight to get your photos in.

11/12/09 3:55pm

NEXT WEEK’S GROUP PHOTO FEATURE, BY SPECIAL REQUEST While some of you are still out at the corner of Hillcroft and Harwin, snapping a few last-minute pix for this week’s group photo feature (you’ll see those photos Friday), we’ll go ahead and announce the location for next week. A reader wrote in to request we send y’all to the intersection of Harrisburg and Wayside. So . . . Harrisburg and Wayside it is! We’ll have a few more details and a map to show you tomorrow, after this week’s feature runs.

11/11/09 11:09pm

How is Swamplot’s new group photo feature working out for you? We’ve had 3 of them to look at so far. Send a bunch of Swamplot readers to take any photos they want within 500 ft. of a Houston intersection and see what they come back with: Are the results what you expected?

We’ve already got a bunch of great images in for this week’s assignment — but there’s room for many more! How’s the corner of Hillcroft and Harwin looking? If it’s not shaping up the way you envisioned, you’ve still got time to add your pix to the mix! Or if you like some of what you see and that inspires you to push the project further in a similar direction, you can do it — by adding your own shots.

Just send your images to the Swamplot Flickr pool, and tag them with the phrase “Hillcroft & Harwin” (yes, you’ll need to include the quotation marks). Make sure you haven’t disabled Flickr’s gallery feature. Add descriptions if you like. The deadline is midnight this Thursday.

11/06/09 11:58pm

Swamplot’s next group photo feature should be a lot of fun! We’re headed to the intersection of Hillcroft Ave. and Harwin Dr., in Sharpstown. Your assignment: Take pictures of anything you like that’s within 500 ft. of that intersection. Are you up for it?

Be sure to tag your photos “Hillcroft & Harwin” (and include the quotation marks). Then submit them to the Swamplot Flickr photo pool. Make sure they’re in by midnight next Thursday, November 12th. And please enable adding to a Gallery on your Flickr account. We’ll see the results of your explorations in our photo feature next Friday!

11/05/09 11:55pm

WHERE ALL THE SWAMPLOT PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE HEADED NEXT What corner of the city should we document next week — for Swamplot’s new group photo feature? How about the intersection of Hillcroft and Harwin? Take pix of anything you find within 500 ft. of that corner, and send them in! We’ll have a few more details — plus photos from the past week’s project — on Friday.

11/04/09 6:19pm

Swamplot’s group photo assignment this week is covering the corner of West 43rd St. and Ella, in Garden Oaks. (Or is that Oak Forest? Shepherd Park Plaza?) Anyway, we want your photos — of anything you choose, as long as it’s within 500 ft. of that intersection.

If you haven’t participated in one of these assignments yet, it’s easy: Just add your photos to the Swamplot Flickr pool, and put “West 43rd & Ella” in the tag field (be sure to include the quotation marks!). The deadline for this round is midnight tomorrow night — still enough time to get your snaps in!

One more request: We’d like to try using Flickr’s gallery feature to organize the selected photos. If you’re submitting photos, could you make sure you don’t have that feature blocked? Otherwise, we won’t be able to include your pix. Thanks!

Graphic: Mr. Kimberly [license]

11/04/09 3:47pm

We have a new advertiser to welcome aboard:

Plus, our continuing advertisers all deserve shouts-out:

These businesses are helping themselves and Swamplot by reaching out to our readers. If you support Swamplot, please help us thank them and support them too!

And if you’ve been thinking about advertising your organization or business on Swamplot, why not give it a whirl? More information, including our latest rate sheet (PDF), is just a click away!