Flashman

This would be great if the organizers would pick up the garbage left behind by the participants. I live in The Montrose and you can gauge the quality of a festival by the trash left over the next day. The Pride Parade and Griff's St Patrick's Day parties are no problem. They must have a bunch of folks picking up garbage after they close down at night. No more trash than after a normal Friday or Saturday night, But the Greek Fest and the Westheimner Block Festival? Garbage everywhere. This is not one of those, "You knew what you were getting yourselve into" deals either. I don't mind the noise or the cars - that comes with the territory. But from now on I will be going to city council to fight to get these people to clean up after themselves.

Out of curiosity, have you settle on a neighborhood yet?

I bought my first house in Houston in 1982. Things were still going pretty well - so well in fact that I had to buy a negative amortization loan with increasing interest rates. (Who said that all these creative mortgages are new?) It was in Concord Bridge - the SW corner of Eldridge and Little York. I think we paid about $69k for a Gemcraft home, and the interest rates went from 11% to maybe 13% (I cannot recall exactly) and the equity amount increased for the first four years. In other words, we weren't even paying all the interest we owed! By the fourth year the house was worth much less than we paid for it, and the interest rate was 13%! About 1/3 of the houses in the neighborhood were abandoned. All the surviving neighbors got together to mow the lawns of the empty houses. It was a stinking mess. I bought a house in The Heights (420 West 23rd - you can look it up) for $112,000 in 1988. (the house is now appraised for $402k. Not really such a big deal - that is only about 6.5% annual increases). We rented out the Concord Bridge house (on Lyndonville) for what we were paying on the mortgage. We finally sold it in 1990 for what we owed. I felt extremely lucky to get that much. I keep telling people that we have seen this movie before. I just hope it has the same ending.

Yes, Westridge. You are right, it is inside the loop. It is an interesting area, though. And may meet the OP's requirements...

Any opinion on the multifamily complex called Mainridge Apartments located at 2600 Westridge Street? Looking to move to the area. Thanks in advance. https://www.liveatmainridge.com/

I would like to see the link as well. I have always heard that HCAD employees are like vampires, you have to invite them into your home or they can't come in. But the idea of them measuring from OUTSIDE the house, and OUTSIDE the property could not be stopped. I am just not sure about them measuring from INSIDE your property line.

The improvements must be approved. But you can get retroactive credits if you did work that would have been approved. The city has a pretty good site: http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/historic...s/landmarks.htm

We put our house on the Protected Landmark list when it was first possible. (that is the house as my avatar). If you make capital improvments, you can reduce your appraised value by that amount (We have not done that) However, since it is a Protected Landmark, I was able to lower my appraised value, as the land is worth LESS than comprable property in my neighborhood (The Montrose). There are not many Protected Landmarks (I think there are still fewer than 100) so I do not think there will be much history about tax benefits.

Let me make sure I understand your question: You are asking which company to APPLY to? Or have you received offers from these four companies and want to know which offer to accept? If it is the first, I would recommend all of them (and every other one you can imagine) If it is the latter, you are a very lucky man. I worked for Exxon right out of school (many years ago) and would agree with the assessments above. They are a great company. But so are Devon and Shell. Th CEO of El Paso is a great guy, and those things tend to flow downward.

I have tried those candles and they don't work (for me anyway) and this is not favorable: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelate...s/candling.html I use the ear syringes about once a quarter. It is a drag when you have ear wax plugging up your ears. what? WHAT???

Not bad, but it misses most of the Designated Landmarks (houses, other buildings) that the City has on the list.

It is no trick to be smarter than I am, of course. But it would be really cool if someone could take all the Houston Landmarks (and Protected Landmarks) on this PDF file from the city of Houston, and put them on this WikiMapa map of Houston. I have put one or two on, but I will bet there is a programatic way to handle this. Sorry I am not any better at mapping!

I think that it is the Weingartens saying "This is what you get for sending Leah to jail"

Well, OK then. I use the Transtar system but am still not happy about them collecting the data. But as I said above, I use the EZ Tags, too. But I don't have to like it. Percy Foreman your own bad self.

The point is that they know your car. They know your speed (I am sure you are aware of the Mean Value Theorem, the basis of all Calculus) and if they want, they could ticket you for exceeding the speed limit on any given section base on the EZ Tag. I am not worried about "them" tracking me, I am worried about getting a ticket without due process.

If you really want a reason NOT to have an EZ Tag (I have one, by the way) here it is: They track your car. That is how the TransStar website gives current speed for any given segment of a car. Since we have red light cameras, how long will it be before you get tickets via EZ Tag readers? Think about it...

I am glad to see Monica kept the Beaver name. Louis Beaver opened that new location for his Ice House, and then, sadly, died. He used to run Beaver's Ice House over on Shepard around 26th street. I think it is called Buffalo Fred's now. Louis was often seen hanging around (drinking at) The Shiloh. He was a nice guy.

The apartments don't get torn down as much as the bungalows. My theory about that is the apartments are usually cash flow positive, there is no cost to the owner (they seldom perform any maintenance) and until the taxes make it prohibitive they will just sit there polluting the neighborhoods. But once they move, expensive new development moves in. I don't recognize the that house (why don't they have a photo of the outside?) but you will have more foot traffic on that side of Westheimer than we do on the south side. I would personally be hesitant to buy a house in a neighborhood that I was hoping would change. Sort of like marrying someone whom you hope to "make better" Good luck. Low ball an offer on the house. In this market they may bite.

I live in Audubon Place, west of Westmoreland. Yes, "cracky" is a pretty good description. Especially of the apartments at the corner of Garrott and Alabama. Cars get broken into if you leave them on the street. Sort of a fact of life. But we have pretty good police response. Oddly enough, a byproduct of this vigilance is parking tickets for people parking on the wrong side of the street (who knew?) Check http://www.ericcarlson.net/crimestats/1A20.html for a crime map. I very seldom feel unsafe.

One doesn

I talked with one of the real estate people representing the group. It is dead. I am not sure what they have to do to pull the listings from HAR, but I would bet that is not top of their list.

It seems like The Riparian high rise condos on Montrose is now a dead deal. I don't know much more than that, but I trust that is enough.

And if you check out the latest Houston Press, she is sending her minions on to kill the No Smoking in Bars ordinance. "Razor thin margin" indeed! http://www.houstonpress.com/Issues/2006-09...sic/racket.html

This was on the new Houston Press blog about the mural. So I guess there is a new one coming. No pun intended.

I have used Pfister on three different pier & beam houses. He is a prince of a man. (His son, too) I cannot recommend him highly enough (He has told me I don't need any work more than once. And when he does the work it is always at a fair price)