Jump or Dive? Try both. A Hill Country-like retreat in Memorial’s Sandlewood neighborhood is perched on a spring-fed lake — and comes with a pool, among other chill-worthy amenities. The asking price was set at $4.2 million in the property’s early June listing. Built in 1997 for its current owners, Midway Companies’ Brad and Claudia Freels, the fan-filled home appears to have waltzed across Texas to find some of the older touchstones incorporated into its finishes.
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When the Texas State Capitol was remodeled, the listing notes, some of its old longleaf heart pine was brought over for use as flooring in the living (above) and dining rooms:
Another Texana touch is the rolling barn door, fashioned from an old barn located in Thrall, Texas:
A mine’s worth of Austin limestone clads columns and half-walls to further Texify the first floor, where several of the rooms open — or look — into each other. Most of the 6,930-sq.-ft. home’s rooms have views of Robin Lake, one of the community’s 3 private lakes.Â
Somehow, a bit of Washington State made the cut: The cupboards flanking the fireplace are milled from vertical-grain fir beams from a 1900 apple warehouse.
The bar rail, meanwhile, really is a rail:
Beneath another section of beadboard ceiling, the informal dining area looks toward the lake (and across the pool, patio, loggia, and fire pit):
Making use of wood milled from an old outhouse in Luling, Texas, the powder room downstairs either winks at its purpose or fully embraces it:
The master suite is on the first floor.
There’s also a guest suite downstairs:
One set of stairs leads to the current game room (above). The other lands at the media room:
In areas with trusses adding interest overhead, roof peaks add a design element to many of the rooms upstairs . . .
including another 3 secondary bedrooms. These 2 appear to be (near) mirror images . . .
and they share a zippy bathroom featuring back-to-back vanities:
Whether the lot is 20,150 sq. ft., as listed, or 33,400 sq. ft. (according to HCAD), the park-like setting could be kick-back central. The home gym? Not so much.
- 30 Robinlake Ln. [HAR]
Lake or no lake, for 4.2mln you’re supposed to get a full acre with brand new construction in that area, not half acre with an obsolete house from the 90’s.
Really nice house in a lot of ways but why did they do those stone pillars inside? Really out of place.
I have no idea of a proper price for this place, but I like the detail, find it well-done.
I don’t want the house – just the spring-fed lake.
WHA?? I didn’t know there were any springs in Harris Cty
Nice place! 4.2mm seems steepish, but who knows at that end of the market. Spend another 50 freshening up the bathrooms and you’re in business.
Lol at “obsolete house from the 90s”. I’m sure commonsense is an obsolete human from the 50s or so
@movocelot – The definition of a “spring” can vary a lot, and is used loosely here.
In Harris County, where the topography is relatively flat, most of our “ponds” and “lakes” are either borrow pits (excavated to raise the grade elsewhere) or dammed-up gullies/ravines along existing bayous. In this case, it is the latter – a gully of Buffalo Bayou that was dammed up, then developed into a neighborhood.
A “spring” is generally a point where the top groundwater table meets the surface. In our area, when we receive a lot of rain, the groundwater table can actually reach the surface. So a spring can range from a trickle of water to a puddle standing on the surface. When I dug the post holes in my backyard for my cedar fence, I hit groundwater at 2 feet deep because of recent heavy rain. In dryer periods, the water table drops, and springs continue to occur along steep cuts in the topography (either along a bayou that has eroded downward, or a man-made excavation). This is not what you find in the Hill Country, where large gaping holes in limestone spew thousands of gallons per hour, sometimes creating rivers out of nothing.
So effectively, any hole in Houston greater than 2 feet deep at some point will become “spring-fed.” During the bad drought of the past few years, most likely the groundwater table dropped and stopped feeding this former gully of the bayou, and the “lake” was most likely topped off by (1) automatic sprinkler runoff and (2) the small amount of storm water runoff they received, as the lake also serves as the neighborhood drainage ditch.
@Ian: Why the need to be ageist? I’m sure people of all ages are capable of offending your sensibilities.
That neighborhood is gorgeous. The lakes are nice. There is an awesome place to swim.
Thanks Superdave. If subsidence continues we’ll have salt water marshes in 77024. Ooh redfish and ‘gator farming in every backyard!