elphaba

I will miss the Fiesta on Dunlavy terribly. (My guess is that it will be history shortly after the opening of the new HEB). The Fiesta store is the only grocery store I've shopped at or shop at currently where the manager actually knows me and greets me and on occasion we discuss food or wine or whatever. I like that even though I'm a bit of an introvert. I even have a connection with some of the checkers who have been there for a while. Though the main thing I like about the old Fiesta is the small footprint of the store. Aging boomer that I am with lots of chronic pain, I hate the thought of the increase in square footage I'm going to have to walk in the new store, let alone possible requirements to climb stairs. I wonder if they have considered that not all their customers are healthy? Though I won't miss the poor shelve inventory management at Fiesta that seems to have gotten worse in recent weeks. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might suspect that some buyer on the inside of Fiesta is getting a payoff from HEB to sabotage the inventory by changing the items and brands very often. Seems that once I develop a loyalty to a particular item, bingo - it no longer is on the shelf and they have changed to something else. This has actually driven me to shop at Whole Foods much more than I used to. As far as the quality of the HEB brand, I have found it to be extremely poor. My husband and I are mostly vegetarian and rarely buy "food in a box" so not sure about HEB brand meat products or processed food but things like soup or cheese or cereal or pasta or paper products or pharmaceuticals are things I don't buy if I can avoid given my experience. Their produce is pretty good though prices for produce such as jalapenos, bell peppers, lettuce is so much more than Fiesta (judging by prices on store on Buffalo Speedway), I'm definitely not looking forward to not having the option to shop at Fiesta. I doubt I will be shopping at the new HEB on Dunlavy except for a few items (which will primarily include the salad bar). The new huge store (with Fiesta going away) will probably drive me to shop more at Whole Foods (hoping their parking gets better once some customers change their shopping to the new store being built on Waugh).

We are widening an existing narrow driveway. Don't care if the part added on is of a different substance than the oriiginal concrete. I actually think this could be a good thing (plan to have an path extended beyond the new part of the driveway that would "wind around" front yard). To be environmentally friendly and also because something other than concrete would probably have better aesthetic appeal, would like semi-permeable, i.e something rain is going to go thru rather than run across and down into the gutter. Have done preliminary search on the web and found: turfstone envirostone netpave polypavement (not clear this is semi-permeable but very interesting). Anyone know a contractor in Houston on this stuff? I'm thinking if I go to just any landscape contractor, he will say yes he can do it but in fact will probably have no experience hence, our driveway would be his learning curve. Please share info about any experience you might have with semi-permeable (of any kind) driveways.

From my experience, I think taking a look at the attic is more important. Had I known then what I know now, I would never have bought this place. The attic had wire strewn (sp?) everywhere including burglar alarm wire and air conditioning ducts to the point it was difficult to navigate. The main conclusion I would have drawn (quickly without getting dirty) then had I known what I know now is that the house wasn't very well cared for. Lots of things remodeled very poorly just for it to look good, nothing new but I'm thinking now that the attic is a good place to get an "impression" of the quality of the work that went in. Also, part of the attic space was reclaimed as a loft/study area. No attention was focused on the need for additional reinforcement in the foundation because of the extra building materials brought in, something that could be a problem especially in older homes where construction "rules" were not decided upon as well as they are now. Oh yeah, and now that you mention it, the crawl space was filled with trash from the remodeling efforts (I guess). Anyway, when we tried to have termite treatment, they couldn't get to the dirt until we had it cleaned out (which we are in the process of trying to do now.) Miraculously, no termites. Guess those "shields" over the piers work (something to look for in answer to your specific question). Be sure they are there if you buy one of these old houses. My husband doesn't do work around the house. And I am also very inexperienced. We had the house inspected of course but I'm pretty sure the inspector was on the "dole" with the real estate salesman. We didn't look ourselves. Don't think we are the type of people who should buy these older homes but they do have wonderful "soul". (Don't think we should own a home, period but too late now.)

Since I couldn't get the quote option to work, I've cut and pasted from the nice info that Kinkaidalum reported and added a couple I think he/she missed: Nice places to walk in Houston and people watch... 1) Lower Westheimer Road starting near Dunlavy. Hit the antique shops. Grab a bite to eat at Brasil or Empire Cafe. Hit the vintage clothing shops and indie music stores. Stop into Sliders for pool and a frozen beverage. Go two blocks North of Westheimer when you hit Hugo's Restaurant to check out Cherryhurt Park and the great bungalows. 2) Rice Village. Walk the whole village and then hit the jogging path around the Rice campus (Rice Blvd, Main St, University Blvd, and Greenbriar). Great people watching, especially after work on a nice day 3) The Heights' old downtown area. It's been awhile since I've been there, but I think it's 19th St? Is Kaldi Cafe still open? 4) Memorial Park. Hit the jogging trail on a beautiful day. You'll see every type of person out, pass by the golf driving range, see families on picnics with pinatas, bikers, tennis center, etc... 5) Hermann Park on a weekend. People riding the train. Catch something at the Miller Outdoor Theater. Rent a paddle boat. Check out the Japanese Gardens. Walk the trail. All with great city views. 6) University of Houston campus. One of the best people watching scenes in the city. Very diverse. Once you deal with the cluster of surface parking, the inner campus is really quite attractive. Check out the UC Center and the Satellite Underground "hill". 7) Main St and Market Square areas on a weekend night, especially on special event weekends. 8) If you are gay or gay friendly, hit the Pacific St area just north of Westheimer and East of Montrose. A dense bar area and few with cover charges so lots of milling about. Nice front patio attached to Baba Yega's Restaurant to watch folks in the gayborhood. 9) Up and coming, the area around Post Midtown Square just South of downtown off of West Gray. Houston's best attempt at creating an urban friendly development. They are currently expanding the 4 block complex and a few more sites are going up near there (the Edge and CitiPlace) ---Two that I'm adding-- 10) River Oaks shopping center - Shepherd and West Gray - Better check this out soon since it may not be around for long if they tear down the old River Oaks Theatre 11) Downtown Houston tunnel system