strangelight

So all in all, it seems from the history of the commuter tollways as you guys are saying, that South Post Oak or the Northwest Corridor as a tollway won't be that bad after they build it. That is reassuring in some way and from driving around with my windows open the last few days, I've realized that the noise is not bad from 100 ft from the 610 freeway in Bellaire when there are good sound walls, especially if the road is elevated. Can we count on Bellaire quality sound walls? I hope so. It almost seems like it could possibly be quieter than the way the road is now... But the point is that HCTRA seems to be able to do whatever it wants wherever it wants. They don't have to hold public meetings. Here is what CTC wants to accomplish: The Citizens' Transportation Coalition advocates changes in state law that would ensure the following:

If they still have the power to do it and it would be the last thing they do, then they certainly will do it. The impact it's having on me right now is that I'm in the option period of buying a house that backs up to South Post Oak. Would you try to get out of the deal? The noise of South Post Oak now doesn't bother me and it's not on the side (north side) that will have the most building of the tollway going on. I'm guessing my side of South Post Oak will be the feeder, and the house is a one of a kind house built by a major Houston architect... It also has a huge backyard, so I won't be so close. I want the house more than anything, but I'm having second thoughts because of the possibility of the tollroad. I'm mostly worried about the inconvienence of the construction period and that it may be harder to sell my home with that close by. Still aside from the NIMBY factor, I just don't think the HCTRA has to go through enough channels to get their deals done. I think of the hoops I have to go through in everyday life, and it seems like they have no hoops... Thanks for the forum, Jason

It was a good meeting. They were impressed with all the new people there. Informing the public of HCTRA's power and abuse of it will be an uphill climb, but if it's not done the entire state may be full of tollways, whether people drive on them or not. Within 10 years the entire west side will be full of them. A tollway WILL go parallel to 610 West Loop through Memorial Park. Another one WILL be just north of 290 called "The Northwest Corridor". South Post Oak WILL be a tollway, right through the middle of Westbury and Willowbend. Don't just think that common sense will prevail. Get the info out to your friends and neighbors and tell them that HCTRA doesn't have to answer to anyone. Stop driving tollroads until they have to answer to the city of Houston. Jason

Country Clutter is a decorating style with lots of valentine hearts, knicknacks, red white and blue, stars, flowers, stenciling, watering cans, americana, quilts, birdhouses... Jason

This ad comes from the latest Dwell magazine. For all I know it may be old, but I hadn't seen it before. It made my day... "my mom did a fancy finger painting on the wall in orange and yellow. then she got a bunch of paint and made a swirly painting. that was hot stuff then. that was before she went country clutter." - Paul Frank So, my mom wasn't the only one who went country clutter! Jason

I ordered these today. I'll let everyone know what I think when I've had a chance to dig into them. The B&N and Borders I went to didn't have that great a selection of these types of books, so I don't really have anything to go on but reviews on amazon. "Mid-Century Modern : Furniture of the 1950s" CARA GREENBERG "Modern Retro: Living With Mid-Century Modern Style" Neil R. Bingham "Case Study Houses" (decided to go for the big one) Elizabeth Smith Jason PS - My band, Strangelight, is playing at Forgettaboutit Too Saturday night if any of you like modern rock (ie somewhere between U2 and Led Zep's progressive stuff) 2/19/05 Show starts at 9 We play @ midnight 5920 Hwy 6 South of W.Little York, Houston Tsunami Relief Benefit $7

Has anyone heard the status of this house lately? The barrel roof, the architect, and the neighborhood alone are reason enough for people to be up in arms about it being advertised as the biggest lot in the area (hint hint). The realtor might consider this her last commission in Memorial Bend if it goes down. I would think it would tarnish her rep pretty bad. Robert and I were talking and it seems like from him that a realtor's reputation is golden and not to be toyed with. Too bad it's so expensive though... That's what kept us from seeing it. Well, that and the fact that we're in love with another property... More news on that later. Jason

Does anyone here have this book? Case Study Houses by Elizabeth Smith and Peter Goessel http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...ce&s=books&st=* It's over $100. Is it worth it? It sounds awesome to have all the case study homes in one volume. Jason

I know it's kinda cheesy to do, but Houstonmod.org might ought to adopt that list and put it on the links page. Maybe it could generate a little extra income a deal was made for H-Mod to make a little money when people used the links to buy the books. Great list. It'll take me a couple hours just to browse all those books. Jason

It was a good day to do it. Most people were inside at Super Bowl parties so traffic was not too bad. It was close to raining, but we only got a few sprinkles, so it was very nice. We'll definitely hit another area of town next weekend, between home shopping in our area... Does anyone have a website dedicated to the various Houston architects of that era? I found the Memorial Bend site, which is what made me go over there in the first place, but that doesn't cover everyone does it? Thanks for the info! Jason

Hello everyone, I found this forum because my wife and I are finally going to buy our first house. When I described what I wanted in a house I said "an older house that looks futuristic". I've been looking on HAR.com and we've gone around to see some places nearby, mostly townhomes (Bering, Westhaven, Hammersmith), to mixed results, just seeing what's out there in our price range and area. Anyway, after a little research we decided to take a tour of a bit of Houston today and it was a blast! We live in the Galleria area (Chateaux Dijon apts, for those in the know) so we started out down Rice and went to find some mods in Bellaire South/Westbury, using the HoustonMod.org "mods available" as our guide, finishing up at 10920 Willowisp. What a house that would be to buy, but it looked pretty run down from what we could see. However, the house across the street was a work of art (10911?? Willowisp) and really made my day. From one angle you could see all the way through the house. If that house belongs to one of you, thanks for keeping it up and for making my day! Hope we weren't prying... From there we took a little drive out I-10 to Memorial Bend. We crept around and around the neighborhood in our car just oohing and ahhing at all the modern houses/works of art. What a brilliant little neighborhood. Too bad all the trads are mixed in there! Ha ha... Anyway, then we made our way up to Tall Oaks road to see the Wright House, but it was tough to see from the road and we didn't want to pry. The house across the street is for sale, for $2.5 Mil... Then we drove through Rivercrest just for a little flair. It's fascinating how huge those lots are there, right off Westheimer. It's fascinating how many amazingly rich Houstonians there are around, especially since we didn't even go to River Oaks today. After that we drove around Briargrove and saw the few mods that are in there. I think that would be our location if we found the right place. Noticed one of the places mentioned (not pictured) in the Ag Guide was gone for a new house. Thanks for the forum. I'll email everyone again when we get our house, and we'll plan on getting out to the upcoming events, esp. the house tour. Jason Smith