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Always Wondered/Now You Know Home Listings


s3mh

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There are so many odd places in the Heights you pass every day and wonder what in the world is going on inside.  Then, you see them listed for sale and finally get to see inside.  Not sure whether this will catch on, but here are two recent listings of homes that I have always wondered about:

 

http://search.har.com/engine/519-Heights-Blvd-Houston-TX-77007_HAR70909969.htm

 

I always thought the rear building was an additional residence.  I never imagined it being quite this ostentatious.

 

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=51045446&v=s

 

I thought this one would just be some burnt out office space inside with maybe a dinghy residence upstairs.  It is an odd mix of residential upgrades with some space for what must have been a business.  Always wanted to know what was in there.  And now I do.

 

Post your favorites and we will have a running archive of Heights real estate "believe it or not".

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There are so many odd places in the Heights you pass every day and wonder what in the world is going on inside.  Then, you see them listed for sale and finally get to see inside.  Not sure whether this will catch on, but here are two recent listings of homes that I have always wondered about:

 

http://search.har.com/engine/519-Heights-Blvd-Houston-TX-77007_HAR70909969.htm

 

I always thought the rear building was an additional residence.  I never imagined it being quite this ostentatious.

 

 

 

Wow.  For some reason I never thought the 4-story house and the bungalow were the same property.  It's like a 6000 s.f. garage apartment.

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According to HCAD, the property is owned by Curry Glasell, but also lists Glasell's address as being off Chatsworth near Memorial Dr.  Curry Glassell is the daughter of the late Alfred Glassell Jr., the guy who has his name on everything in town.  Curry Glassel also looks to have some sort of motivational speaking/self help thing with some pod casts and other media.  Hopefully, the studio looking room was where they did production on podcasts and videos for the self help company and not a place for the production of NSFW items.

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  • 1 month later...

http://search.har.com/engine/1529-Allston-St-Houston-TX-77008_HAR70383966.htm

 

I walked by this house and watched them take it apart and put it back together again.  Very long process.  I always wondered what the interior looked like.  Very nice redo.  

 

Those protruding brick columns bother me. That wasn't original, was it? I like to see the Peanut Brittle bungalow exteriors. California has quite a few.

 

I favor a bungalow restoration that is more on line with the original details. I'm not a fan of the violet blue exterior, either. 

Or the marble. I would have used subway tiles and rustic features in the kitchen. But the floor, staircase and other interior details are beautiful. I guess they are catering to a certain clientele. 

 

I love HAR for exploring properties, especially the interiors.  

Edited by NenaE
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Those protruding brick columns bother me. That wasn't original, was it? I like to see the Peanut Brittle bungalow exteriors. California has quite a few.

 

I favor a bungalow restoration that is more on line with the original details. I'm not a fan of the violet blue exterior, either. 

Or the marble. I would have used subway tiles and rustic features in the kitchen. But the floor, staircase and other interior details are beautiful. I guess they are catering to a certain clientele. 

 

I love HAR for exploring properties, especially the interiors.  

 

I generally agree, but I am so beaten down with the terrible work builders and flippers have done in the Heights that I get all giddy when I see a house that doesn't have dark Kona kitchen cabinets and travertine stone all over the bathroom. 

 

The brick columns were not original.  I do not know what the original columns were.  The porch just had plain square 4" beams before the redo.  The house was just about falling over before they put it back together. 

 

The color is a bit odd, but better than so many of the drab grays and other "earth tones" many are using. 

 

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I generally agree, but I am so beaten down with the terrible work builders and flippers have done in the Heights that I get all giddy when I see a house that doesn't have dark Kona kitchen cabinets and travertine stone all over the bathroom. 

 

The brick columns were not original.  I do not know what the original columns were.  The porch just had plain square 4" beams before the redo.  The house was just about falling over before they put it back together. 

 

The color is a bit odd, but better than so many of the drab grays and other "earth tones" many are using. 

 

I see very little difference between this house and any of the 2000-2007 Tricon standalone houses (before they started building the garage to the street town home style stand alones)....The built in's, the floor plan, the finishes, it all looks nearly identical.  The only real differences that I can see are the exterior materials...real wood siding instead of hardi plank....and the marble b/c marble was not really in style during that time....Oh, ya and the price.  The Tricon ones are about $300K less expensive....well they were...Now I  think they are getting close to $700K for the 4400sq ft lots, and in excess of $850K on the 6600sqft lots.

 

I guess in hind sight Tricon was not too bad huh S3MH?

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No, Tricon did the same junk that I complained about in my post (travertine, granite everywhere, cheap cabinets, finishes etc.):

 

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/713-cortlandt/

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/1511-1513-harvard/

 

And the built-ins, cabinets and finishes are very different.  Tricon fills everything with stock, pre-fab stuff.  The Allston house has a lot of unique custom elements.  The kitchen island has tapered columns on each corner to match the tapered columns in the main room.  The fridge has cabinet doors that match the rest of the kitchen.  There are wide drawers in the kitchen made to look like a stand alone dresser.  There is a farmhouse sink.  The banister for the interior stairs also has a tapered column.  Black and white tiles in the bathroom instead of travertine.  Second floor landing, with a reading nook.  Sun room off the back of the house.  

 

 

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No, Tricon did the same junk that I complained about in my post (travertine, granite everywhere, cheap cabinets, finishes etc.):

 

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/713-cortlandt/

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/1511-1513-harvard/

 

And the built-ins, cabinets and finishes are very different.  Tricon fills everything with stock, pre-fab stuff.  The Allston house has a lot of unique custom elements.  The kitchen island has tapered columns on each corner to match the tapered columns in the main room.  The fridge has cabinet doors that match the rest of the kitchen.  There are wide drawers in the kitchen made to look like a stand alone dresser.  There is a farmhouse sink.  The banister for the interior stairs also has a tapered column.  Black and white tiles in the bathroom instead of travertine.  Second floor landing, with a reading nook.  Sun room off the back of the house.  

 

So the finishes are stock, but the price is 300k less?  Is that bad?

 

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So the finishes are stock, but the price is 300k less?  Is that bad?

 

 

If you value design, yes.  If you do not care about aesthetics, no.

 

Also, I do not think that even a Tricon with 3100 sq ft on a 6600 would get a 300k discount in this market for having lousy stock finishes.  Maybe 50-100k at best.  So, why not just pay a few extra bucks and get something nice?

 

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If you value design, yes.  If you do not care about aesthetics, no.

 

Also, I do not think that even a Tricon with 3100 sq ft on a 6600 would get a 300k discount in this market for having lousy stock finishes.  Maybe 50-100k at best.  So, why not just pay a few extra bucks and get something nice?

 

 

What makes your design sense superior to that of the folks who buy these houses? Perhaps it's just a matter of different tastes. As long as the owner is happy, why would the rest of us care?

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No, Tricon did the same junk that I complained about in my post (travertine, granite everywhere, cheap cabinets, finishes etc.):

 

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/713-cortlandt/

http://www.triconhomes.com/2014/01/17/1511-1513-harvard/

 

And the built-ins, cabinets and finishes are very different.  Tricon fills everything with stock, pre-fab stuff.  The Allston house has a lot of unique custom elements.  The kitchen island has tapered columns on each corner to match the tapered columns in the main room.  The fridge has cabinet doors that match the rest of the kitchen.  There are wide drawers in the kitchen made to look like a stand alone dresser.  There is a farmhouse sink.  The banister for the interior stairs also has a tapered column.  Black and white tiles in the bathroom instead of travertine.  Second floor landing, with a reading nook.  Sun room off the back of the house.  

 

It may shock  you, but in 2006, 2007 Tricon did not have any pre-fab cabinets in their stand alone units....They were all site built from oak or poplar, and they all had a good deal of detailed molding work in them.  I looked at several and all were being built on site with lots of milled features.   Also in 2006, 2007 when they were really building the stand alone homes (non-garage front facing), everything was granite & travertine in all builds, half the models had a small sunroom off the breakfast room...nobody was using marble or white subway tiles...marble & subway tiles did not get popular again until about 2011 or so, when the kitchen trends all switched from stained or painted wood back to white & marble, etc...

 

In fact, with the exception of the farmhouse sink - everything that Tricon did that you say sucks, is EXACTLY  what was popular in 2006/2007....I dont know what they are building now, but they built exactly what everyone (even full blown custom homes) were building at the time.  I think you are just so biased against builders as you can not acknowledge what they were really doing.

 

My point is, everything you call "Faux" or "Mc" (fill in derogatory word) is what they were building...The floor plans, the outside look (minus real wood siding) all were nearly identical.  Just shows that you really cant pleased with anything new, unless it has a name that you dont associate with mass production.

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What makes your design sense superior to that of the folks who buy these houses? Perhaps it's just a matter of different tastes. As long as the owner is happy, why would the rest of us care?

 

I never said my design sense was superior to anyone.  This is an open forum.  People can express their opinions about design, architecture and development and should not be attacked just because they do so.  If you have a different opinion about design than I do, please share.  I am happy to discuss.  But to attack people just because they share an opinion or debate their opinion with someone else is just bullying.

 

Setting aside the cheap personal attack, the idea that design is just in the eye of the beholder and is not worthy of any discussion outside of the individual buyer/builder/seller is both sad and a bad business practice for anyone in the industry.  It is sad because it is basically an argument that design and architecture are arbitrary and have no universal intrinsic value.  But the idea that design and architecture have no intrinsic value that transcends the individual tastes of each consumer is so obviously wrong to anyone who has ever spent more than a few minutes in the industry.  Talk with any real estate agent about various houses that have come on the market and you will find that the ones that really get the bidding wars going versus the ones that have comparatively little interest are the ones with really great design elements.  A beautiful kitchen can sell a home better than just about anything.  But the fun thing is that design is not simply a function of money in/money out.  Design that is too innovative or individual can be as bad as design that is totally cookie cutter and full of stock pre-fab junk.  Thus, anyone with an interest in real estate, whether being in the industry or just looking to buy or sell their own home, should be very interested in design and should be very interested in anyone's opinion on design.  Finding a design that is both on par with the particular price point and has a broad appeal is very tricky.  Too much cookie cutter minimizes appeal.  Too much innovation/individualism alienates.  Even mass producers like Tricon are very aware of the current design trends and are constantly looking to see how they can balance the costs and rewards of the quality of design.  Anyone who ignores design as the passing fancy of busybodies on the internet does so at their own peril. 

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If you value design, yes.  If you do not care about aesthetics, no.

 

Also, I do not think that even a Tricon with 3100 sq ft on a 6600 would get a 300k discount in this market for having lousy stock finishes.  Maybe 50-100k at best.  So, why not just pay a few extra bucks and get something nice?

 

 

I guess I'm a glutton for punishment, but in a case like that I'd probably take the 300k discount and then apply some of the savings to customize it to my taste afterwards, pocketing the rest.

 

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As a former owner of a Tricon home, I can assure you, this statement is full of $h1t.

 

s3mh repeats things she hears over and over again until she believes them herself...is astounding.  I watched several Tricon homes being built in 06/07 and none had a single pre-fab cabinet in them.   They may have prefab now, I don't know - but none did then.

 

Also, some of the absolute best, most expensive cabinets you can buy are pre-fabricated...or at least fabricated off site.  There are multiple cabinet companies just here in Houston that do precise measurements of the home, then build the cabinets off site with CNC machines, that are orders of magnitude nicer than any carpenter could ever build on site.

 

I've seen $10,000,000 custom homes with these off site built cabinets in them...heck, I bought some after seeing how much nicer they are.  You can get them built off site, to precise dimensions, with oven cured paint that is 25x  more durable than anything that could ever be done on site.  With the oven cured paint, you can scrub it, knick it, wash it, basically anything short of abuse it, and it wont come off, unlike site painted cabinets, that will get knicks just from your fingernails missing a pull. 

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  • 4 months later...

http://search.har.com/engine/1525-Cortlandt-Houston-TX-77008_HAR14562934.htm

 

Not an odd ball, but definitely a house I always wondered what it looked like inside.  Jaw droppingly gorgeous original trim and builtins on the original part of the home.  

 

Wow. I've walked past that house many times in the past and likewise was curious as to what the interior looked like. Never imagined it would be that nice. 

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http://search.har.com/engine/530-Yale-St.-Houston-TX-77007_HAR66499049.htm

 

 

I remember seeing one of these for sale before when eating at Dry Creek, and thought it odd they said 4 car garage.  Although I hate shared walls... this is definitely one of the more interesting townhomes in the area (especially at this price point).  

 

 

 

 

*don't get me wrong... it is still a bland townhome, but the 4 car garage and fair lot size are very intriguing to me*

Edited by SilverJK
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These are unusually thoughtfully designed for a 3/2.5 townhouse. It's rare to see one of these with all three BR's on the top floor, and the back yard is bigger than most single-family homes in the Heights. 

 

Also, for six townhouses, there are only two curb cuts, so most of the street parking is maintained, while still providing off-street guest parking. And the landscaping shields the front-facing garages from street view.

 

If this plot were developed today, it would be 10-12 townhouses, not six, on two central driveways, w/o back yards. 

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  • 5 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

http://www.har.com/945-waverly/sale_15775890

 

I never wondered about this house even though I have probably passed it a zillion times on walks and running.  But there is definitely a "now you know" with this one.  The second to last page of the photos is the best of all.  Land must have been crazy cheap when this was built, but I have to wonder how much the owners will clear if they sell for 1.3 mil.  Possibly one of the most over built houses in the Heights.

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