WestburyMod

1974 Burdette Keeland designed townhome for sale:

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cfm?mlnum=1673315

Looks pretty cool!

The unit next door is with the white Audi will appeal more to mod lovers. It's all original with very mid century furniture. The owner is a friend of my wife, and we have been there a few times. Most of the furnishing came from the shop on Milan.

try design within reach for the nelson lamps.

dwr.com

Thanks. Theres a dwr on west gray i think.

I'm looking for an arch lamp, and been noticing the George Kovack line. I've seen some going for $200 online, so wondering if these are replicas. What are your thoughts on this line? Does anyone else carry arch lamps? Also, where is a good site to buy George Nelson lamps?

when the area was developing, did the residents fight at the time to keep out the overbuilding of apartments? I mean, if I was dropping a $150,000 house I don't want my hood surrounded by walls of apartments..

look at West Bellfort near Fondren.....they have some bad (the good bad) homes but they are surrounded by rows and rows of apartments.....ain't no way in hell the original owners will get the money they paid fomr some of those houses.

A buddy of mine bought a foreclosed home in the Fondren SWest area. He rehab'ed it very nice (all new tiles,carpet, granite, etc) and had a difficult time selling the home. And that area even sketchy in the daytime!!

I chose Pratt & Lambert's "Tampico".

Lowbrow and Texasdago-

I'll have to walk by and see the progress. And don't be surprised if the "little one" rings your doorbell. It's one of his favorite activities now!

What is the color code for your woodwork/trims? I like the greyish look. I'm in the process of repainting myself.

The previous door was hollow core, and with the beltway nearby there was a LOT of noise coming thru the door alone, besides the security issue one swift kick could cause. So now we have a very quiet (and safer) house. So it was well worth it.

Do MCM doors typically have glass inlays? Good job on the color!

There are several ways to go with remodelling an MCM kitchen, but most of them are not done by anyone but the purists. They involve formica which people tend to shun these days. If I ever redo my kitchen (which was torn out in the 90s), I'm thinking of IKEA if I can't afford to have it built from scratch with wood to the original specs... IKEA has some drawer pulls that look a lot like Knoll! If I could get those raised up off the floor with some little steel peg legs I think I'd be happy.

I would guess that most people on this board that lean toward appreciating MCM are just plain tired of seeing these houses insensitively torn up with the "flavor of the day" kitchen thrown in. No one is saying that a 80's contemporary owner can't put in whatever kitchen they want, but that when replacing a kitchen or bathroom, maybe think about replacing it with something that fits in with the house. In other words, it would look similar to what was there before.

The big deal is that there is a certain appeal in MCM to certain people. If you mess with the house enough to turn off your core audience then you are not going to sell your house to those people. If your house is a trad 50s ranch, there may be less of a niche factor (think how much more common those houses are in Houston), but I think it's still there to an extent. If it's a 1970's tract home in Sagemont like the one I grew up in, I doubt anyone will get upset if the kitchen needed to be replaced and was redone at Home Depot.

Maybe it's an acquired taste, but there's just a bad feeling I get when I see stuff like these 2 houses.

Jason, funny you mentioned growing up in a 1970's tract home in Sagement, I actually grew in there also. Went to Beverly Hills, and Dobie. Graduated in 1989, so there's a chance we went to same school. Small world..

Can anyone recommend a bricklayer? I would like to get a quote to do flagstone as my house wasbuilt in the 50's so matching brick may be out of the questiion. Do you guys know the going rate? Also, can anyone recommend someone to do bathroom remodel? Thanks.

Most of the pictures I have seen definitely had a desert minimalist look to them, probably due to the large number of mid-century homes out west. Since mid-century homes have an Asian sensibility to them, I would think that this type of landscaping would fit in just fine (and there are a ton of resources on Asian landscaping). Keep it simple, with large masses of the same type of planting, such as lilies, irises, jasmine, ornamental grasses, etc. Landscaping rocks/bounders would work as focal points, so you would want to use them sparingly. River rocks creating a dry stream bed that meanders through a mass of ground cover would be fantastic.

Finally, don't forget landscape lighting. I had 'moonlighting' installed in my old oak trees and the effect was fantastic with a minimum of fuss.

Thanks for the tip. Since my house has floor to ceiling window in the front, I was thinking of planting horsetail bamboo within a bed of rocks... Well, at least I have this winter to decide..

Are there such thing as mid century landscaping trends? Were lndscaping rocks used frequently, and were sago palms a hit? In looking at Atomic Ranch mags, I've noticed rocks were frequently used, but I believe the homes portrayed are from Phoenix/ Palm Springs...

Good point as these will be winter projects. Definitely do insulation and fans. You're right about the return air. I need to make another vent as my house came with a 5 ton unit, Its so loud when the air kicks on.

Who do you recommend for insulation? Thanks for the input

well...the soffit vents should be free of debris for proper attic ventilation.

you have a big problem with heat if your insulation is nonexistent in attic. most likely your walls don't have any either if it is a westbury house. to insulate properly in attic you MUST remove flooring so that ceiling can be accessed and insulated. if you are going to replace wood back. just use r19. i would use r19 until you get entire attic done, then run another layer perpendicular to that, covering the joists.

you say you don't have any attic ventilation but you do mention turbines and grates. at one point, the house obviously did have ventilation. it may have originally had a wood shingled roof as well which allowed heat to escape easily due to its nature.

the electric turbines do wonders, but you must have enough soffit vents to allow the outside air to come in.

When i purchased my 1939 home, it had soffit vents but nothing at the peak of the roof. temps were getting to 150ish per my thermometer i had in my attic wired to downstairs. I ended up initially installing 2 turbines instead of ridge vents because my ridges weren't adequate to allow for proper cooling (probably the case for your house if it has a low pitched roof). The temps dropped 15-20 degrees in the attic. remember your central a/c is probably up there as well so it has to over come these high temps. well...i still wasn't satisfied so i installed a duct fan under one turbine which turned on when attic temp got to 110. I noticed that temp dropped immediately in the attic when the fan came on. about a month later i decided the experiment with the duct fan was successful that it warranted a 2nd duct fan for the other turbine. I will say that that duct fans are about 60 or 70 a piece but they have been successful. another plus of this system is that when they are off, the turbines are still spinning as long as there is wind. this isn't the case for the standard electric roof turbine. Efficiency-wise, I could set the fan to come on at a lower hi temperature but then it would be using more energy.

i think the last time i checked the attic temp was about 120 which is probably fairly average for peak times.

one other cheap project that you can do is build a cover for your attic door out of sheets of styrofoam. just go in the attic and have someone close the door on you. you can take measurements of how far the door protrudes into the attic when closed. then construct a box that is slightly larger that the dimensions. mine is triple layered. before i did this, i could feel the heat radiating thru the door. after installation i don't feel the heat.

Also since you have an older house, you may be lucky enough to have a GOOD return air setup where air is routed through a special cavity framed in when the house was built. very few new homes, if any have this. This allows you add another air return higher up the wall, ideally near ceiling. this pulls the warmer air near ceiling into the a/c system. We did that at my parents and they said it definitely helped.

Of course, all these attic projects are winter projects unless you want to pay high prices now.

As for installers and prices...my dad always finds the deals. i think he found a guy who installed both turbines for $20. i felt guilty so i bought the guy lunch too.

I would defintely start with installing a cheap wired thermometer in the attic near your attic door (put display somewhere downstairs) so you can estimate your attic temperature. then as you do each project, hopefully you'll see temperatures drop.

I have an 1800 sq ft ranch with very low pitchedalmost flat roof. I went up the attic to look @ insulation and its non-existent. Most of the attic is boarded up, so dunno how to insulate it. Also, there's barely enough space to crawl!!! I dont wanna tear out sheetrock to insulate either.. What do you recommend?

Since I dont have any attic ventilation, there are grates alongside the house. I looked but did not see how fresh air can come up through the grates into the attic.. Also, what are your recommendations for changing out the roof turbine to an electric one? Is it worth the $$? Any recommended installers? Thanks.

SIX tons? good lord how big is the house?

I can vouch for the radiant barrier roof (the kind applied to OSB plywood anyway). Although my house has a true attic (5/1 roof pitch) with good insulation and ridge venting, I chose to use 'Koolply' OSB when I had my roof done over 5 years ago.

Since then, my 1833 sq. foot 1 story ranch, the bulk of which is in the direct sun most of the day, has rarely gone over 80 degrees inside after sitting all day with the a/c turned completely OFF, even on a 100+ degree day.

It's 74-75 degrees inside when I turn off the air and leave before 7:00am each day, and is usually sitting right on 80 on the thermostat (which is in the hottest place in the house) when I return home at 5:00pm. Then I fire up the a/c and let it cycle at 74 til bedtime, and cut it off again until I wake up. Overnite it usually goes up just 2-3 degrees. I do have tile floors throughout the house which I think also helps, but also have a completely attached garage with an uninsulated common attic. But the garage doesn't get too hot, further convincing me of the radiants' worth.

Not to rub it in, but my June bill just came in (5/30 - 6/27) and it was 592 kWh - just $95.17 with Reliants' std. plan. This is with a 3.5 ton 16 year old (Rheem?) condenser, 4 ton evap coil in the attic, with insulated but exposed ductwork, thermo set at 74 degrees. I also still have original 1960 windows and doors that leak plenty of air.

A couple of suggestions:

1) years ago I saw the outside coils of a commercial apartment unit being misted with water spray to improve the efficiency. If your condenser is in the direct sun, this might help.

2) It's a drastic step, but in some critically hot rooms you could consider adding a dropped ceiling under the rafter area to create insulated 'attic' space. And I'll bet there is little or no insulation in the sheetrock on beams area.

3) I've heard for years that 3 phase electrical service for an A/C unit is super efficient and, theoretically cheaper to run. Your area has to have it available to add, but many older parts of Houston do have it (Meyerland and Spring Branch do). It might require different A/C equipment though.

4) Find a way to insulate your a/c ductwork, even if it's in furdowns. This will help reduce heat gain as the air travels through the ducts.

Good luck !

I may be in need of a landscaper so Leo may prove to be helpful. Recently, my dad and I pulled about 100 pavers in the backyard, tilled/laid topsoil and laid down 3 pallets of sod.. It was painful, but well worth the effort. I should have gotten a sprinkler system installed also, but funds were running low... Anyways, todays rain should help the grass.

While having Champion Contractors work on my garage/laundry room rebuild I used Land Resource Management (Leo Hernandez) for the landscape work 713-541-3544. He was recommended by Champion and his firm relocated the infamous sprinkler controls that the PO mounted on the FRONT ELEVATION of our house! I was going to have a covered patio built in our backyard but our budget ran out before we could consider it. That might explain why DH and I were digging out dirt and laying sod ourselves last weekend . Leo doesn't specialize in mid-century modern but he's enthusiastic about doing work that isn't the "norm". Of course you don't necessarily need a landscape contractor to rebuild a porch so I apologize in advance if this is not what you're looking for.

Allison

Shin'enKan - "home of the faraway heart"

I'm in need of renovations myself. The wood in my porch is rotted and needs replacing. Currently its overlapping planks, and I want to use materials yielding a smoother look. I want to keep with the mod look, so hardie planks is not an option. What do you guys recommend? Also, is this a job for Champion Contractors or do you guys have other contractors? Thanks.

They didn't do anything having to do with knocking walls down in my house, so I have no direct experience, but they did seem to have a good person for every job.

They are at least worth a call. They will be honest if it's something they can't/won't do.

That's neat to know you hired them as well! I still have to get out to Allison's place to see what they have done there. They are making quite a name for themselves, it seems. Had I known all this would happen for them, I'd have asked for a finder's fee, ha ha!

Jason

Congats on the house... Very impressive..

Hi all,

I was waiting until the magazine was actually published to tell everyone because I didn

Thanks for the input, and I agree on your thoughts.

What are your styles of rehab? Depending on the condition of the home, do you guys do the basic or extreme rehabs? I'm just trying to learn so sorry for the questions...

Tough question.

There's so many ways to "update" a house. Fixtures range from $20-$500. Tile Ranges from home depot ceramic to travertine, trim ranges from barely existant, to well done, shower doors range from $150-$1500 etc...

It's hard to say what it will sell for without actually "seeing" the updates.

I just bought a house on Benning on Friday. It's in section 5. I paid about 61 dollars a square foot. It is in pretty original condition. Carpet over hardwoods, original baths, wood panelling... the whole 9.

We plan to resell it for about 103 a square foot after rehab.

We sold one in section 1 of westbury last july for 106 a foot. We paid $58 a foot for it.

flipper

What is the price/sq ft in the Westbury 1 area, or is it the same throughout the other Westbury sections? I 'm a newbie to real estate properties, but I think Westbury 1 is more desireable.

Also, when I purchased my home on Torchlight, the foundation was done, along with updating the electrical system/recessed lighting. There's 2 boxes currently used, and the previous owner added GCFI's and 3 prong outlets throughout. However, he left the remaining 2 prongs outlets also, so theres quite a few outlets. The AC was changed a couple of years ago. I went in a repainted the entire home, tiled the "wet areas", tiled the countertops, and changed out the plumbing fixtures, water heater etc.. We resurfaced the woodfloors. Total move in condition... What is the difference in $$/sq ft for a ready move-in home and minor fixer upper in Westbury?

I totally agree on the need to beautifying S. Post Oak. When I tell people I live near S. Post Oak, they cringe.. Annie do make decent burgers...

135/foot for completely updated. Of course that is subjective. If a roof still has life in it (3+ years), a rehabber probably isn't going to change it. We put 200amp electrical services in our houses, but we leave the 2 prong outlets (we don't rewire the entire house). We typically gut both bathrooms and kitchen and rebuild. But yes, definetly, move in ready, modernized house.

I ate at annies hamburgers for lunch and was reminded of the crappy retail we have along S. Post Oak

Whats wrong with the neighborhood? Driving by, I thought it was peaceful, altho you're closer to the crime haven Fondren area..

i was wondering if anyone have seen 5802 warm spring house? i was outbid, i would have offered higher but didn't care too much for the neighborhood. that is my one regret that we didn't get that house. it had a japanese screen and everything was so nice, don't get me wrong it needed some work. the new owner changed some stuff and now it's more like eurway decor.

I recently moved into the Westbury 1 area and new to Mod homes. I'm curious to the different style of Mod homes in my area, as well as my home.

I'm hoping Westbury will be the next Meyerland (property value). But I've noticed there are many homes in Wetbury 1 that are in need of repair or TLC. I understand that renovations cost lots of money, but these homeowners should at least keep their property clean and presentable.

The Glen Willows apartments do look slummy, as well as the many retail shops on S. Post Oak. And the rush hour traffic on S. Post Oak?? Where are those people coming from?

I'm wondering if any of you guys live in my area, and can possibly educate me on Mod homes. Thanks.

I was thinking the same thing about Meyerland. I think Westbury is the next Meyerland. That means that eventually they will start tearing down Meyerland as they have Bellaire, and then they may start tearing down Westbury as they have Meyerland. Lot value in Meyerland is probably over $200K. The coolest mod (on Braeswood) hasn't sold. What was that $350K? and it's said to be a flood problem. Too bad, cause I love the look of that house.

I completely agree on the Glen Willow apartments. Man, those just ooze ugly. But I don't know that it's a crime haven or anything, it just looks like it would be. It just looks like a slum. A lot of that on S. Post Oak is not great to look at. I've grown tired of it. The empty Dairy Queen, the 3 convienent but ugly gas stations, the Popeye's chicken, the ghettofabulous soundwall that needs replacing, the hideous huge furniture sign that stays on all night, the car wash, discount grocery store... Those are the downsides of my neighborhood. But when you turn off of S. Post Oak and get into the neighborhood, it's much nicer.

Good luck with your search. We'll be with you all the way if you need an opinion. We've got plenty of those, eh?

Jason