rps324

The people that own it originally bought it with the intent of tearing it down. So I would really like to see it get sold. The photos really don't capture it, it is a lot better in person. The owners have recently been using it for storage, so I am still pressing them to get it cleaned out before this weekend, otherwise I may be slingin' stuff into the garage myself later this week.

It is not a "mod" house but the Ben F. Greenwood designed Tudor (He designed that mod church right on Broadway at Sims I think), is also going to be open as well. It is an interesting house too, on a nice lot backing up to Sims Bayou. 7707 Lakewind That will make a total of 6 houses open next Sunday in the area.

A Chronicle article by Lisa Gray on the latest great mod we stand to lose: A Home and the Dome

My photographic skills are very limited, but I took these shots of an old Spanish style building at the site of the old country club. It looks like it was probably something nice in its day. I'm guessing this had to have been the old clubhouse. Of course you have to look past the abuse and insensitive alterations, etc.,

It was rough then. A lot of stores closed down. I remember whole shopping centers being pretty much empty. The big apartment districts like Fondren SW, Broadway and Greenspoint all really took a hard hit and never did recover. Inner city areas like the Heights and Montrose that had started gentrifying just sort of stopped. Subdivisions out in suburbia had blocks and blocks of streets with no houses. In some of the tract home subdivisions you can still see the jump where all of the sudden you go from 70's style tract homes to 90's era red brick, (when building started to resume) right in the same subdivision. Rents were unbelievably cheap. You could get a decent one bedroom apartment in the suburbs for $175 a month.

On Sunday the 13th there will be a mod of the month open house in Glenbrook Valley at 8015 Arletta. The motm choice is a roman brick mod with vaulted ceilings in all the rooms. It features formals with clerestory windows, large kitchen, den with fireplace, cedar closets, vintage tile baths, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths in the main house and a half bath in the garage. It is located on a great cul de sac street. Houston Mod At the same time a number of other homes will be held open, so it creates an opportunity to see a lot of different Glenbrook Valley home styles. There is a large Tudor style home backing up to Sims at 7707 Lakewind that was designed by Ben F. Greenwood that may be open, I still need to confirm with the agent. It is priced at $325,000. Others that will be open in addition to the Arletta house include: 7831 Santa Elena at Broadway - A one-owner very original colonial with extensive poured terrazzo flooring, formals, den, triple masters, and a detached 2 room home office suite, second mini-kitchen off the breakfast room. $239,900 8119 Stony Dell - boom a rang shaped roman brick ranch on a very hilly lot. Formals, den, open kitchen concept, 2 full baths. $199,900 8206 Glencrest - corner lot ranch over 3,300 sq ft per appraisal. Formals, den, bonus room, 3 br/2.5 baths. $245,000 8211 Colgate - Clean lined mid-century ranch with 20' square main living area, beautiful sunroom, 3 br/3 ba. $239,900 If you like older houses and neighborhoods, this is a good chance to get out and tour this area.

Very good, one simply doesn't buy Vodka in a plastic jug. It just isn't.....proper!

Oh no you di-undt. McCormick?...the Vodka? Oh hell no! That is fine if you need to strip a piece of furniture but not for drinking! It may be okay for some youngins like yourself, but old folks like me with our delicate systems can't take that crap. One of my rules. If you can't afford call liquor you can't afford to drink!

The police station is a couple of miles south of the loop. Where exactly is this complex? The character of neighborhoods in Houston can change from one block to the next. It would help to have a more definite locale.

This one is actually in Barkerwood. The street is a mix of Barkerwood and Pecan Villas.

Well, this is all very unofficial, but I was showing the house at one time last year. When we were in there we heard the garage door go up. There was a very young lady parked in the driveway and she had used a code on some keypad to the garage door to open it. She told us her family had lived in the house, (that is how she knew the garage door code) how much she liked it, etc., and just wanted to stop and look at it. We asked her about flooding in Allison. She told us yes, the house got a little bit of water that came in, then flowed back out quickly. It did not stay in the house long but they got a "few inches." So according to her, yes, the house did get some water in Allison. How much weight you want to put behind that exchange is up to you. I do believe there is some warping on some of the formica panels down low that indicate the house had water.

I had lasik done. The biggest draw back for me was my very near vision got worse as a result. I did not need reading glasses before, but afterwards I have trouble with small print. That has been a little disconcerting. Of course at some point before too long I expected the near vision to fade some with age anyway. The concept of no glasses afterwards though isn't entirely true. You may need them for reading, or heaven help you get a little splinter in your finger or something like that. You won't be able to see up close like you used to. That part of it is what tempers my satisfaction with it. I don't have the issues with contacts anymore, it is a relief not to have to go through all that drill every morning and night. Its great for the beach or around the pool. Overall I am satisfied with it. It did take a while for the results to "settle in" and at first my near vision was REAL bad. That freaked me out because I thought I would need glasses more than before. I was just swapping nearsighted for far sighted. But it got better after awhile, which is what they told me.

It's not what I would generally describe as a sought after location. I knew of one person that lived in Pine Valley near there, but generally it is somewhat run down around there.

I'm not a big fan much anymore. The margarita are good, but the food is more the variety that is covered in glowing orange velveeta. A number of us had gone in there a few times, but the owner is kind of rude and acts like everyone is putting him out just to be there. There are too many other Mexican restaurants in town with much better food to be bothered with the attitude and hit or miss service.

North Oaks center, (it was actually a small mall back then), at the corner of 1960 and Veteran's Memorial used to be a HUGE cruising spot back in the 80's. People would drive back and forth showing off their cars, their stereos, etc. Why and how on earth that spot developed into that I will never know.

That may very well be how one of the trends manifests itself. An area like Lazybrook and Timbergrove has far less or none of what I call the "transitional neighborhood ick factor" that people with a more suburban palette find objectionable. I would expect these areas to be appealing to people coming in from newer areas. It would be far less "jolting" a transition than say Eastwood or even Montrose. Some inner loop/edge of loop "second tier" choices may then gain from a trickle down effect more than people going directly in.

We have a number of things going on to try to address some problems and before the end of the year I expect the civic club will be filing some of its first lawsuits in years over lack of maintenance issues with some of the homes. I hate the burglar bar thing too, but to paint with a broad politically incorrect brush, they seem to be popular with little old white ladies and people from South American countries, and Glenbrook has its share of both. Many lenders will not lend on houses with bars, so as the homes are coming on the market, I am seeing some of the bars come off thankfully. Now Puma, I find it odd that I am defending the suburban position, (in light of the fact that I consider any neighborhood that won't horrify a suburban soccer mom as just no fun), but try to understand that while there are people who move to the suburbs strictly because of school issues and affordability, many move there because it is exactly what they want. There is nothing wrong with that. It is not something they regret because they do not want what you want. Let it go.

I hear the same thing from people in that area. Same song, second verse. Just another repeat, like living in town vs. living in suburbia debate.

It is a shame this thread went the way of "inner-loop vs. suburban" or whatever. That is a whole other topic that is easily understood when you grasp the fact that people have different needs, different priorities and different tastes when it comes to selecting a place to call home, (and when you respect those differences). Unfortunately that hasn't happened in this thread on both sides of the "610 fence." I think there are some valid points for discussion brought up in the article. Being in real estate I am certainly interested in how gas prices will affect growth and decline patterns in Houston, especially if gas really gets up there, which I expect it will. Up until now, about the time you think they have started a development too far out for it to be successful, it is successful, and a new development ends up leaping out further. Will that change with $5 gas? With $8 gas? On the flip side I hear people in various transitional east end nabes talk about high gas prices and how they expect (rather naively IMO) that people will suddenly flock in from the suburbs in massive numbers to get close to downtown, driving up home prices. I expect higher gas prices will be a boost for a lot of close in areas, but while someone, I'll pick on Crunchtastic as an example, would probably find a rough around the edges, older transitional neighborhood interesting and appealing, and a new meticulously maintained subdivision 45+ minutes out unappealing. A Mr. Football or CDeb would probably not find a transitional neighborhood appealing compared to newer better maintained developments in a quiet suburb. They are not going to suddenly pack up and leave Longwoods or Cinco Ranch for Broadmoor. Is one position better than the other? No. they are different, and I don't think $10 a gallon gas will change those preferences. Not to speak on behalf of our suburban posters, but I am betting a lot of them will make a lot of sacrifices, (driving less, buying a hybrid, clipping coupons, whatever), before they would give up the lifestyle they cherish in the suburbs. I am certainly sitting on the front row watching to see how/if the gas situation will positively impact the closer in areas I work, and of course my own hood. Speaking of.... Did you have to drag Glenbrook into you guy's fray? Geeez. Here is a good example of how tough it is to predict things. I too never expected Glenbrook to ever appeal to suburbanites moving closer in. When I started marketing homes in there I expected any "uptick" in the neighborhood to come pretty much exclusively from people wanting to live inside or right around the loop, but priced out of Heights, Garden Oaks, Timbergrove, Montrose, etc. I don't keep up as regularly with everything going on south of Bellfort, but as the Gladys Kravitz of all things north of Bellfort, I can tell you in the last year there have been 9 sales and there is one pending that should close in a few days. That one to a Physician's Assistant with M.D. Anderson moving from Fresno (between Pearland and Sugarland) Of the remaining 9, one was a more blue-collar buyer, 2 were cash transactions by a family that lives by Stolitx that bought the houses for their kids, 1 was a college Professor, don't know where they moved from, Rose Carrabba's old house sold to a cash buyer moving from Silverlake in Pearland, 1 sold to buyers that work at downtown law firms moving from Cole's Crossing in Cypress, one on Colgate I bought, another sold to a PhD that is President of San Jacinto College south, and another on Colgate sold to a couple, a computer programmer I think & a Psychotherapist, that moved from Clear Lake. I didn't think the suburbanites would pick it either, but at least 40% of the sales in my area last year have been exactly that, maybe more. For an area that is supposed to be sad, it is cheering up rapidly.

Okay, I am just b**chin' What is wrong with people? A friend of Murphygirl sent me a circa 1958 photo of his Grandmother's house in Glenbrook Valley. One of the 1954 Parade of Homes (not to be confused with the 1956 ones on Cayton). It used to be a great mod, but now....it has been adorned with a hip roof complete with dormers. The home was the "Fashion Time Show House" and furnished by Stower's for the show. Designed by Crochett & Carroll. It originally looked like this on the 7900 block of Glenview looking towards Glencrest. I can't believe how few trees there were back then. In later years it looked similar. I tried to get the owners to sell since it was obviously a very cool mod. But nooooo. They had other ideas.... Ewwwww!

This may be too far, but I go to muscle mechanics on Edloe. It is more of a personal training type place, but people do come in with their ankle-biters.

Fire from what I understand.

These two were lost. Some others were taken down but I don't think they were part of the Parade. One other one was lost to fire.

That's Ortiz middle school. The one facing Telephone?