OkieEric

haha...glad to see you mention those. Are those really that bad, though? Ugly as he$$, but there are some other smaller complexes (near Woodhead and W Main) that are absolutely terrible I'd personally like to see something done with Wilshire Village and the center across the street - together, they make up a pretty good chunk of land. I know a lot of us (including myself) would like to see the apartments saved, but I really can't see that happening. At this rate it will be years before anything happens there, though I'd also like to see that strip center at Westheimer/Montrose saved and restored to its former glory - as in the original look. Improved streets and sidewalks throughout the area would also be nice, but that's not necessarily a Montrose-only issue - some parts are in decent condition, while others (like mine!) are terrible. Is there a way to track where the city plans to resurface, etc?

Does that Wikipedia entry on earwax really need that first photo? Heck, any photos...but hey, at least now I can visually distinguish between wet and dry earwax. Who knows when that might come in handy?

OK, yeah, so 10K may have been an excessive estimate, lol. Out of curiosity, whatever happened to that utility bank? Was it permanent?

What has all of this squeaking gotten you? I doubt an incorrectly tiled bathroom in a new home will make people avoid Lovett And come on...we know you're responsible for at least half of those views Edit: This thread has been going on for nearly 3 years? Dead horse seems pretty accurate

I'm personally an every day with a q-tip kinda guy, preferably after a shower. However, a friend of my girlfriend's was apparently walking around and using one at the same time - not sure of the details, but a car door was somehow involved and the guy wound up deaf in an ear! I also have a random story from college involving ear wax - I'm sure everyone is dying to hear. I got hit in the ear during an intramural football game, which I later found out slightly punctured my ear drum. Well I first went to the on-campus little clinic there and they cleaned my ear with a gush of water - the next thing I know, they had multiple physicians coming in to look at what was going in on my ear. There was apparently some sort of "growth" that they actually wound up sketching out for me on a piece of paper. Needless to say, I was flippin' out and in pain the next week or so until I could get into an actual ENT specialist. The growth?? Ear wax those dumba$$es had flushed onto my ear drum

I actually do some work with them here - it's just nice to see an energy company maintain it's HQ there. I haven't spent much time in OKC since I was a kid but was there back in May for a wedding and was in downtown for several days. I think Bricktown is overrated...however, they're definitely doing something right in the downtown area. It'll be interesting to see the "core to shore" deal come to life

I chose to ignore that fact, lol The bigger question is whether this thing will actually get built - hopefully oil will stay up for a while. Nice to see an OK company actually staying there instead of moving down here for once

You gotta be kidding me... LOL, didn't go for the tallest building in the state__________ Should be a great addition, but man will it stick out! 20th tallest building in the U.S. in OKC?? The next tallest building there is 36 stories. Anyway, I wonder when groundbreaking will be

Yeah, they were tied in late July for a couple of days before Obama resumed his usual 2-3 pt lead. With a 2% margin of error, I wouldn't take much out of this tie unless we see some sort of trend. FWIW, electoral-vote.com also shows a slight tightening of the race at 275-250.

Since we haven't gotten our daily Gallup poll update, I thought I would point out that McCain and Obama are now tied...and no, I don't place a lot of confidence in these daily polls, but it would be pretty interesting if McCain were to actually take a slight edge at some point

I only heard back from my i-file in mid-July, and just had my informal hearing. If I were you I would either email them or call them to check. The guy at my informal did mention that they were having a lot of problems this year, which often (as in my case) resulted in the inability to even give an initial offer through i-file Interesting to hear about the issues with going through a formal meeting. In my own case, after meeting with a somewhat reasonable guy in my informal - lowered from $282K to $267K - I opted to skip the formal since you more or less start over on the process and it would require another trip and lost work. I'm hurt by few townhouse comps in my neighborhood of a similar size and vintage... What annoys me is that they seem to be somewhat arbitrary about data they allow into their analysis - he seemed more than willing to accept a sale from 5/08 since at first glance it seemed to support his position, then backed down and said it was too recent once he discovered that particular townhouse had an "extensive" remodel and would likely support my cause. We also disagreed about a sale he claimed was a foreclosure, since he said the distress of the seller meant it wasn't a true market transaction - I consider that BS when anyone can now actively search foreclosures on har. Is there a way to check to see if a recent sale was a foreclosure or not? He also ignored my purchase of the home in late August 2006, since he claimed it was prior to Jan 1, 2008 - is this a steadfast rule they use? I think it was also a little iffy, since it is pretty common knowledge the real estate market has not exactly been solid the last couple of years

It was mentioned on swamplot last week, which stated it would more or less be gone by mid-August

I'm not sure where you connection to Bricktown is coming in - I don't see them being similar at all, quite honestly. I wasn't really all that impressed with Bricktown when I was in OKC back in May...a step in the right direction, but I don't necessarily find it anything to aspire to, anyway. That said, I was pretty impressed with the happy hour crowds on Washington yesterday. I wonder how long this bar/club boom will last?

Have you ever been to Houston and driven around any of these areas? You might want to try an apartment your first 6 months or year to give you time to really figure out where you want to live - har.com is good for finding houses once you know the areas you like, not for finding areas you might like. Many places within the loop can give you a pretty short commute to downtown. Does it have to be a new townhouse? What size home are you looking for?

Though I think south of 59 is likely a little of your price range, you can likely find some things in the western areas of Montrose that are just north of 59, yet have that same big live oak feel. you may consider searching by zip code - 77006 will be montrose and into midtown, and 77098 is western montrose/upper kirby, but mainly north of 59. You'll likely be able to find at least a couple of single family homes in your price range, though they may need some updating. You definitely have more options if you're not considering a family soon. You can most definitely find some decent sized townhomes (though older for your range, which was similar to mine) in that area I'm of the same opinion of the Heights and the Sawyer Heights area - I can see the attraction for some, but neither is my kind of place...and for that same fact, you probably wouldn't like some of the other neighborhoods off of 610 north - good places to live, but a little far from the action IMO. I also really dislike that cookie cutter 10-plex townhome trend you find in rice military and some areas of midtown, as I find it sort of cheap feeling. I'd recommend either looking for a slightly older townhome or a single family home in need of some updating in the areas you like BTW, I'm from Tulsa. I'm guessing you work in oil as well?

I just put in 5000 Westheimer and got in the low 70's, then 6000 Westheimer and got a 94?! I really wouldn't consider that area very pedestrian friendly, though I guess there are a lot businesses fairly close together. With all of the misclassifications, it seems it's more of a measure of how many businesses are located within a certain distance - that's part of "walkability", sure, but as others have pointed out there are many other factors that can't be automatically estimated. The results on mine were pretty accurate...well, except that it counted the Alabama Theatre as an actual movie theatre. Maybe someday...

I got a 91 in Montrose as well...from previous posts, I think we must live pretty close to one another. I'm also never in my car more than 15 minutes, though quick access to 59 definitely helps with that

You'd think such a history would have a tangible effect on the sales price...it seems like a lot of the more recent serial killer-related housing - think BTK, Dahmer, several others - have been torn down or are planned to be torn down. This house has somehow slipped through the cracks, and I think it'd be difficult to find a place that has witnessed more murders...at least in this part of the country

I did some digging into this on my own as well, and read that the shed was indeed on Silver Bell St - it's only a small stretch of road in SW Houston, which seems consistent with the descriptions I've read. There are several shed-looking structures in that stretch, which can easily be seen on maps.live.com (maybe even in streetview on google?). I couldn't find anything in my digging on hcad.org in terms of when these structures were built, though, or at least nothing to make me think they existed back in the 70's Stories like this are obviously disturbing, but for some reason I want to see where it all happened...as is obviously the case with some others here. It was surprising to see that Corll's house in Pasadena still stands, and that we can now see it on something like streetview. I can't imagine living in that place...reminds me of the Amityville horror house - not physically, but talk about a terrible history

Isn't Gables involved with the possible development at Shepherd and W Alabama as well? Seems strange, considering the old Little Woodrows site is so close... Haven't heard much on that deal since the land was sold

You can check the planning commission online at this link - it allows you to download the meeting agendas and see info regarding each variance request. Someone posted the link a few months back, and I've been checking it weekly since edit: you have to click on the calendar and then a specific date, then scroll to the bottom to download the agenda for that particular meeting

Good post - thanks for the tips. Sounds as if I might have a decent basis for protest, since the value of my structure went up 40% over the year before (no improvements, either), while there was virtually no change to land value.

I made it around 5:30, and there were actually some spots on the top floor...gasp! Same when I left around 6:30... I think the morale of the story is to work out on "off" days like Tuesday/Thursday, as it didn't seem as bad as it did yesterday. Hopefully the weekends will be light

The question is - do you want to live in the middle of everything, or do you want to live close to everything? The good thing about the Heights is that you've got a good neighborhood feel that's still very close to a lot of important areas in Houston, and there are still some decent bargains to be had. I'd classify Midtown/Montrose/Upper Kirby as more "urban" and perhaps more exciting to the younger crowd, but if I were interested in a reasonably affordable house with a yard I'd go for the Heights. With the Heights you'll also have good access to Washington Ave, which is quickly becoming a pretty interesting strip

I've already been in the new place, so apparently mine works there. From her description, I can get into any club in the country with the exception of one super-duper sport in California. I signed up at the one off of Post Oak back in January, and got the same deal for a friend a week later. Maybe certain times of the year are better for deals? You think it would be the summer, though, since people are falling off of their resolutions by this point. Whatever the case, I think I'd sign up at a different 24 hour, but one that gives you the same level of access A few years ago I had a month-to-month with 24, and it was like $20/month but only let me work out 4 days of the week. Not sure if they still have that option, but it worked out fairly well if you had a pretty set work-out routine