jgs1419

Here we are three years later and the carport is still there. I guess that old saw about asking forgiveness instead of permission works well. Great planning department we have, huh?!

Generally speaking and subject to much discussion, The Heights (excluding Stude, etc.): Shepherd to Oxford, I-10 to 20th & Ella to Yale, 20th to 610 - that second part is a bit nebulus since much of that land was originally industrial area and is now residential. Stude/Ralfallen, et al: Oxford to Studewood, 11th to 20th Sunset Heights: Yale to North Main, 20th to 610 Shady Acres: E TC Jester to Durham, 11th to 20th Norhill (including Proctor Plaza): Studewood to North Main, 11th to 20th Woodland Heights: Studewood to Houston Avenue, I-10 to Pecore Some of those are hard lines of demarcation, some are gross generalizations but that will get you in the ballpark.

The Heights is cool because we give free beer away some days. You just came on the wrong day. Otherwise, it's a run down dump. Everybody should stay away.

WV seems a bit of stretch as a 'southern state' but the majority of the state is below the Mason and Dixon line (Wheeling is in that little pointy part of WV). It was part of Virginia when the Mason/Dixon survey was carried out in 1767. I have a good deal of family in Maryland and I can attest, at least anecdotally, that if you don't respect the historic standard for 'north' and 'south', you should at least look at it from the anthropological point of view. My family in Maryland is about as redneck as they come. Western Maryland seems the perfect storm of southern laziness and an Appalachian sensibility for corn liquor.

ok....now that was funny!

You've piqued my curiosity so I looked on Houston Planning's website for the variance request. (it's file number 09023786 to the extent you're interested) It's generally as discussed previously, i.e. Hired a contractor to build or rebuild a carport, contractor didn't pull a permit, without a permit there was not a plan review and the owner was oblivious to the setback requirement, carport gets built/rebuilt in violation of the setback, building gets red tagged, owner gets in a tif with the inspectors, got some more red tags and is now trying to clear it up via variance. Apparently it's the city's fault (according to the variance request).

When those folks bought the house, they rebuilt the garage and added a carport that covers the driveway. The carport goes all the way to the sidewalk which violates the setback ordinance. They got redtagged by the city but the carport/garage remodel was pretty well complete. They have been steadily cleaning up the property since they bought it. Speculation is that they filed the variance in order to keep the carport.

There are probably tens of architects on this board better positioned to answer this question than me but that won't stop me. I think the Code of Ordinances favor suburban type development by dictating setbacks, street widths (ROW), and parking requirements. The setbacks force parking to the front of the building as it doesn't count as the 'building'. Street widts/ROW limit pedestrian traffic by codifying the distance between intersections, setback from major streets, etc. The parking requirements generally don't contemplate shared parking. A mixed use facility might need customer parking during the day and resident parking at night. The code of ordinances requires parking for each use based on sf or occupancy and many times you end up with more parking than practically required - that in turn limits land use, which in turn provides the strip center aesthetic that pervades the City. I'm sure there are more informed opinions on the topic but those are the three things that come to mind.

Seems they are moving toward the dirty, smelly, sticky floor, grocery garage store model that they have successfully established at the 20th St. Kroger.

I've got four kids. From the din that pervades our house from 5am to 8pm, I haven't heard the train in eight years. How can I get my house moved up to Tier II.

There is a porch that was enclosed some time back. HCAD would probably record it as enclosed as they typically 'tape' the exterior to establish square footage. It is conditioned but realistically it isn't 'conditioned space'. Jeff

For Sale: 1417 Oxford Street -50x132 lot -alley access -existing 900sf house will not be shown (believe me, it cannot be rehabilitated) Price: $245,000 Please PM me to discuss further.

Do you think there is a tradeoff looking at the older neighborhoods (e.g. Grogan's Mill). Things that come to mind would be number of kids on the block or schools. We have four young kids, oldest in 2nd grade. Thanks to all for the advice and help.

Once a year it seems, my wife and I discuss moving from our inner loop home to The Woodlands. We aren't dieing to leave the loop, we've been here a long time. With family, proximity to work (The Woodlands is actually closer to my work!), etc., it is time we make a careful evaluation of the pros and cons (I guess I've hit middle age) I'm not enthralled with anything I see on the new home market. We went and looked at homes a year or two ago and the realtor that showed us around drove us through some custom home neighborhoods from the 80s. They were brick exterior, good size lots, obviously custom homes from back in the day. We saw several that needed updating/remodeling - that's fine with me. I would prefer to put my touch on things, get the a/c, electrical, plumbing upgrades as possible, etc. I can't remember where the neighborhoods were or their names. I know there are many on these boards that can give me a couple of places to start. har.com isn't yielding fruit because I probably have constrained the search too much. For clarity, we are probably willing to spend $400-$500k. I saw a 1976 custom home in the paper that was pretty cool. It looks like it is in Grogan's Mill. It needed lots of work but was emblamatic of what I am looking for. 70s Woodlands Custom Home

Me and Mrs. 1419 are OINKS (One income, numerous kids)

The 'HHA, why don't you go f*** yourself' coalition formed a last minute caucus with the 'get along' block.

EARLY RETURNS 37%: I got here before you so I get to make the rules 32%: Let's organize continued community improvements 17%: Now that I did what I want with my property, let me tell you what to do with yours 14%: Wow, I thought we could all get along?!

If there is showdown for control of the HHA, it's been going on at least for the 15 years I've lived here. This is just the latest shot in a long, long, gunbattle [and at times fought on one side by Festus and on the other Barney Fife] [deleted the balance of my original post.]

We are zoned to Field Elementary. We have two kids at Harvard (2nd G and K). I lost my wife to the PTA. If you would like the details of our decision making process, please PM me and I'll share with you our thinking on schools and why we selected Harvard. Old oldest has been there since K and we are very pleased with the school, staff and parent involvement.

I was standing out in front of the house today talking with a friend and two swells from a local news affiliate rolled up cameras blazing. They wanted to know how long it took the City or the debris contractors to clean up the limbs/debris on our street. They had that incredulous tone implying a pending scandal; I guess the hurricane hysteria is slow these days. On most heavy trash days, the City trucks show up on my block about 7am, I guess their daily route starts here. On the Monday after the hurricane, the City heavy trash crew showed up about an hour late. The driver commented that 'they had a meeting' so they were a little late. They got to work and had my block cleaned up by 8:15am. The only problem we had was that some of neighbors didn't finish cleaning their yards until Monday or Tuesday so we made one common pile on an empty lot on the street. The two dandys from the news crew were sorry to hear that we didn't have fodder for their scandal. I told them to go over to 11th and Arlington, I thought I saw a suspicious brushpile over there earlier in the week. They moped off in obvious discontent. Guess they'll just have to report on shingle prices tonight.

I'm pretty sure that they are rehabbing. Some of the shanty out buildings were demolished. There is a sign in front of the house for a local designer (APD). Looks like this one will be redone.

I'll throw in an endoresement of Burn's BBQ in Acres Homes (DePriest St.). Ribs are very good. Sausage is spicy. Sauce is rich and tangy. The Burns experience is worth the trip. Small counter for ordering, cash only, drinks available from only from the pop machine. Seating is at picnic tables outside. Mrs. Burns handles the counter and is fun to talk to if you get by there early or after the lunch rush. Sometimes you can styrofoam trays of meat that consist of single ribs and brisket ends. Look for a paper plate taped to the wall that says "we have 'regulars'". For $10, you get a huge tray of meat. Always fun to pick up when they are available.

The structural grass driveway/parking product that you show in your picture looks like grass crete, a product that is essentially HDPE rings about four inches high that are bonded into a mat. You prepare a gravel sub-base, roll out the structural mat, fill it with a prescribed soil mixture and then plant or plug grass. Reliant stadium has a good bit of it in one of their parking lots. It is one component in a site drainage system. We looked at it for a custom home in Bellaire and it was pretty expensive. At the end of the day, it was as expensive as concrete if installed per the instructions. The client opted for gravel. Beyond the cost, I always worried about the ability of the grass to survive the heat and daily car traffic.

We have had good luck with Discovery Gymnastics on Shepherd about 8th St. They have several classed geared toward little people. You can also rent the place for birthday parties. We did that for our 5 year old last year and it was a big hit. I hear they have a babysitting deal on weekend nights so you can drop the kids off, go to dinner and they have organized activities based on their ages. We haven't used them but have several friends that use them frequently.

I empathize with your situation having been there previously. There is an old saw in real estate that "if you are getting foot traffic at open houses and viewings but no offers, the price it too high". The health of the overall market, time the listing has been on the market, etc. certainly can influence the process but I think, as in many things, price dictates everything. A good realtor with Heights experience could give you advice on a good go forward strategy (e.g. take it off the market for a while then relist at a lower price so it doesn't show as a 'price reduction' in MLS) but it seems to me that if you want to sell without making any further improvements, you'll have to cut the price. Again, sorry your having to slug through this. I had a friend have a similar go round in Norhill about two years ago. It ain't fun.