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rps324

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Posts posted by rps324

  1. After getting kicked out of their old spot where HEB Central Market is, Surprises just could not keep up with the Walmarts and Targets for gift ideas in their trendy custom built store. :mellow:

    I saw a "Going out of Business" sign with a starting discount of 20%, which I am sure will excalate as we get closer to Christmas.

    If you plan and returning anything, now is the time, but you may already have a difficult time since the store already announced it's closing. :ph34r:

    storepic.jpg

    The main website page is down, but you can cheat with the cache and then search the site from there.

    Does anybody know why they are closing? Buy out of the land? Not enough business?

  2. It goes to show you that one must be careful about buying in that neighborhood. Apparently the home owners associated does not have the wherewithal to enforce the deed restrictions or they do not have the restrictions to begin with.

    versus other neighborhoods that are comprised almost entirely of houses like that... :blink:

  3. I finally saw this picture in my iphoto archive. I knew I had a picture of it.

    3. 3403 N. Parkwood Dr - Willard & Hood (Lars Bang?)

    DSC02115.jpg

    I believe that one is a Lucian T. Hood design, but I don't have access to my Architectural Guide. I think it is in there. I believe it was on an RDA home tour several years ago called Ranchero Deluxe. I remember this house sat vacant for several years during the early 80's.

  4. My biggest concern not knowing the area would be too much traffic noise. I have lived in major cities and like some noise. As for the property itself, the landscaping and renovations are not an issue. I would rather start with a worn down original than a re-muddled one. It looks like it may be 25ft or greater setback from the road. The agent also missed that it has a wood burning fireplace.

    I believe the house next door is 12915 which looks pretty cool.

    Hey RPS our house is still for sale, but we intend on running you ragged once we come down to buy.

    These days I'm pretty ragged to begin with!

  5. I have been in this house before I think. It was still pretty original, which is good. The yard needed a ton of work which isn't that big a deal. There was traffic noise from Memorial, but I think replacing the windows would eliminate most of that. When I sold Shin'enkan's house in Briarmeadow, it faced Richmond which is at least as busy. They had replaced the windows with insulated ones and it was quiet as a tomb in there.

  6. I can't speak for the whole real estate market, but I know I have been busy, especially in our little corner of the East end. My listing on Fair Oaks in Houston Country Club came back on the market, the seller has turned down a recent offer and there is still a ton of activity. I just showed it tonight to someone from Duke Energy. There is pretty much nil to show people in Eastwood since Niche is buying the last good deal left! I recently sold a lot in Eastwood for about $100k to someone moving out of a 430k house. They are planning on building. Some pretty expensive properties in Idylwood have been getting contracts, I saw that southern colonial on Fairfield that was over $300k got a contract on it. I have three deals of my own I am trying to herd to the closing table in Glenbrook for next week. One buyer is a Director of a non-profit, another is an Attorney & his wife, and the third is a Division Manager for an Engineering firm moving from Sabine St. Lofts.

    I hope this sort of thing keeps up so we have an audience for places like Cafe Flores and hopefully more retail/restaurant options to follow.

  7. too bad i'm not a coffee drinker.......been hooked too long on dinner bell's bake shop myself.

    Not the bake shop! Enough temptation to ruin any attempts at a good Adkins diet. I am boycotting the Dinner Bell though. I used my debit card in there the other day, someone there padded my bill by 20% for a tip. It was only a couple of bucks, but the principle of the thing really pissed me off. I won't go back. :angry:

  8. We had Del Taco?? The same ones that are in California? I didn't know that.

    Is Del Taco alive & kicking still in California? There used to be Del Tacos all over here. One was across from Klein more moons ago than I care to admit. You still see the old Del Taco buildings scattered around town converted to different uses. I think there is a Shipley's in one on Richmond between Sears and the spur, Frank's grill is in one over on Magnum behind NW mall.

    As for Tinsley's, I remember them in Huntsville. I thought they were bought out by Hartz or something. I'm not sure.

  9. A similiar thing happened to me about 2 months ago on Taft. I was driving to meet someone at a restaurant and witnessed a car pull up & a guy pop out and push a woman on her bike to the ground. He snatched her purse and she was screaming her head off. I pulled up and tried to block him in with my car and was screaming at the guy and calling him everything but something good to eat. I thought I got his license number but apparently in the rush I got a digit off or something. I don't know if they ever were able to match it up off a partial plate or if anyone even tried. Probably not.

    Of course afterwards I was thinking how easy he could have pulled a gun out and shot the whole lot of us.

  10. I hope that Greenspoint can have a renaissance, as it is one of the first things people often see flying into IAH, or driving in on I-45.

    I continue to be the resident skeptic on Greenspoint. If they couldn't significantly reposition it, (heavy emphasis on significantly), with the recent whole "Cityview" deal, then what would create a renaissance? You can't say they haven't tried. They've had the Management District, the gutting and rehabbing of almost the entire apartment district complete with elaborate marketing campaigns to attract more upscale clientele, landscaping, parks & other upgrades. They've done about everything you could do. Yet still it is what it is. Woodlands, Willowbrook & Deerbrook have taken much of the original clientele base going north, and once Northline gets a Gulfgate style rehab, it will probably have at least some level of drawing power against GP, certainly more than it has now anyway. That will create a new competitor, albeit a small one, that hasn't been in the equation before.

    There was talk at one point of Greenspoint becoming some sort of convention type facility. I have no idea how viable that would be. I will not be surprised to see it reinvented into some other use, possibly like they did with Westwood. I could easily turn out to be wrong on this one, but I bet I'm not.

  11. It has a lot of things going for it, tunnel access, right on the rail, great pool deck, some great views etc. There is also some historic tax credit deal that helps, but I can't remember the details. One floor has units with the higher (more 2 story high type) ceilings that you normally associate with a loft-type set up. Most have ceilings that are more standard height, probably 9' maybe but they seem low. I think that limits their appeal a little bit. The only real problem with them is price. The owner in New York won't drop them. Apparently the market has spoken and at the current price point, they are not moving very fast.

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  12. I represented a buyer on a sale in there a couple of months ago. He bought in the Timbercrest section off of North MacGregor, which is absolutely beautiful. So many of the homes built in there were designed by the who's who of architects and the quality is evident, even though many suffer from bad alterations and/or neglect. Well priced homes move quick in there though. So when you find one you like, jump on it!

  13. I ate there tonight, there was only 1 other person in there.

    It was kind of......different.

    I decided against ordering anything that might challenge their kitchen, or be straight from the Sysco supplier. There was a lot of Greek or Turkish(?) influenced items on the menu so I ordered a gyro with fries thinking that might be something they would be better at preparing. My friend ordered something which apparently was their version of chicken fried steak, although I think it was lamb or something like that.

    The fries were okay, slightly undercooked but still okay. His portions were good, but not somewhere I would go for anything resembling chicken fried steak. My gyro was good. The chicken was well seasoned and tender.

    The service was good, although they were hardly challenged at that point. However, I will say they went above and beyond. They brought us complimentary Turkish hot tea and sugar cubes during our meal. They carried it on this hanging Turkish brass tray affair. After the meal they gave us an order of baklava (spelling?) that was really good, especially with the Turkish hot tea.

    I have to say it was not the experience I was expecting in a diner.

    They have a fairly extensive breakfast menu, & I don't know how any of that is, but for lunch or dinner I think it will depend upon what you order.

  14. They pulled the stones off of it before demolishing it. I don't have high hopes though, it seems like too many of the renovations or new construction in the general area are monstrocitys. Someone turned a John Staub design on South McGregor into a poorly proportioned nightmare recently for one example.

    I have heard an Attorney owns the property, but I don't know anything more. I was in the house behind it today and saw the bulldozers. It is a shame they couldn't or wouldn't save the general structure. It looked like it could have been saved had the motivation been there, but I am not sure about that.

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