Scott08

Great research Ben. I've been searching around TXDOT and City of Houston websites and coming up empty handed, also glossed over the fact that this is in Piney Point Village. I have to wonder how the guard shack got there in the first place if it shouldn't have been as the mayor pointed out. Sounds like some previous mayor or council overlooked it, possibly even paid for it through city coffers.

Here's a couple of pics taken from HAR. These homes are located in the near Northwest area. They are characterized by angular walls and rooflines on the outside, and soaring ceilings and lots of glass for the era on the inside.

All still conjecture. Is there some way, some public record available, that shows the status of the street? The idea of a guard shack on a road I help pay to maintain rubs me the wrong way. If the homeowners are paying upkeep on the street, more power to them.

I'd like to know more than conjecture what the status of this street is. If it is a public (as in taxpayer maintained) street, how do they get off having a gate? My understanding of a "gated community" is that the homeowners association assumes control and maintenance of the roads within. There was similar controversy about the gating of ex-President Bush's street off of Post Oak.

That sales price (however recent) is actually kind of a bargain for that area. Looks like the second owner "granitized" the house a bit, but just keeping it standing says a lot.

What's the general feeling here of 70's and 80's vintage "contemporary" houses. You know the type, they're all over in neighborhoods of that age, much like moderns in 50's and 60's areas. The pro's are there are lots of them in many areas all over town; they have some of the likeable features of mod like lots of glass, interesting interior spaces, and quite affordable at this point. Negatives I see are no real "pedigree," kind of the bastard stepchild of MCM; dated and possibly shoddy building materials/methods of the era. Not really looking at that angle right now, at this point my preferred choices are building a new modern or finding a MCM I can afford, but I just wondered if this style of house is universally abhorred here or grudgingly loved.

That corner has various restaurants/businesses on all four corners, what were you looking for in particular?

This latest listing makes me sad though. Memorial Bend still seemed reachable to me, I've been patiently watching the last year or so for a house to become available in a condition and a price that I could afford. The two latest mods have been for $435K and over $500K, I guess I was mistakenly hopeful that I might find something liveable for under $300K still. I suspect the influx of McMansions has increased the value of the area and driven the land value up accordingly. I could afford the Memorial house, but I think the cost of repairs would kill me.

I went to see the house today. As SpaceAge noted, it is a very cool design and I could even live with the busy street. That said, it is in deplorable condition. Evidence of roof leaks is everywhere, I would think the only way to do it right would be to strip off all the old sheetrock and paneling, fix any current leaks, then fix the damage from the previous ones. The tile flooring also needs replacing, and what I could see of the wood floors MIGHT be fixable, but lots of other foibles such as rotting window casements around the rear atrium. Frankly, it's just out of my price range. I have limited experience with remodeling, but I'm guessing you could easily spend $100K to restore the house to its former glory. At or near its asking price, that would put it around the price of other similar houses in the interior of the subdivision. If the price was closer to $150K or less, I'd be all over it and take my chances that the structure is still good, but at $245K, I'm afraid it will go the way of the McMansion.

I've got a couple of friends who live in Smithville. One of them is a potter by trade who lives in an awesome turn of the century home right off of Old 71 that is the main drag through town. His studio is in the back yard and he travels around the country to art shows making a decent living. He and I co-promote a mountainbike race every fall at the nearby Rocky Hill Ranch. Another secret surprise downtown is the Back Door Cafe. It's run by a cyclist friend of ours who spends the summers as a chef at Lake Tahoe and then runs this little gourmet restaurant the rest of the year. Service can be a bit slow when it's crowded as it's just him, his wife, and daughter running things, but amazing food for such an out of the way spot.

The bundle included random lengths from about a foot to about 3 feet in length.

I've got some friends I've known for almost 20 years who've lived in Garden Villas longer than I've known them. They raised three kids (all gone now) in what started as a 2 bedroom/1 bath. They added on a two story addition later with an extra bedroom/bath and office. They've got a huge garage/workshop and pool and still have lots of greenspace left over. They've never had any problems with crime that I know of, their kids attended local HISD elementary schools, then went on to magnet middle schools and HSVPA for high school. I think it's a wonderful area but too far from my work to seriously consider.

I just recently patched in a section of floor in my house that was previously covered by built-in bookcases. Got the 2 1/4" X 3/4" oak strips at the North Loop Home Depot. A bundle was around $46 for about 16 sq ft. I was amazed how close I was able to match the stain of my almost 60 year old floors.

I added a shower to my bathroom last year and went with the acrylic prefab type. May not look as fancy as tile, but it came with a built in pan, etc. It's in a corner of my bathroom with a "pony wall" that doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling so it looks pretty open in there.

Always perusing HAR.com...I noticed the Riverside Terrace listing on South McGregor and Scott has been drastically reduced from $260K to $160K. It would still take a very brave soul to undertake restoration but it's much more in reach now. It's kind of out of my way to go look inside but I would love to hear first hand how good/bad it is, I know the exterior is pretty worn.

I did a driveby yesterday...for some reason I had been thinking it was east of the Beltway instead of the small strip west. Whatever its condition, it's going to be a hardsell. In some areas, i.e. east of Voss, a Memorial Drive address would be pretty desirable, here it's just being on a busy, noisy street with minimal setback. I'm sure when the houses along this stretch were originally constructed, Memorial Drive was a lazy meandering path to the country, now it's a couple hundred yards from the intersection with Beltway 8. This falls into the category of very likely that it will linger on the market for a while, then someone will probably try building a McMansion with lots of brickwork on the front to insulate it from the road noise. I did notice that the mod next door to it is undergoing some sort of service with a dumpster in the driveway. There's also a couple of mods east of the Beltway that look vacant or in pretty poor shape. Along the same lines, I visited the Riverside Terrace house on MacGregor at Scott on my bicycle Saturday. It looks to be in horrible shape from the outside, even the wood siding looks warped. The listing realtor told me it had flooded at least twice, and with the seedy looking apartments right behind it, I see this one sitting for a long time too.

The favorite now extinct car dealer of my youth was Rudi's Automotive on W. 34th Street between Hempstead Highway and what would now be 290. They were the purveyor of all things Italian being a dealer for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Fiat. I would ride my bicycle, then later my motorcycle, over from Spring Branch to drool over their latest offerings. The employees were always nice to this kid, letting me sit in the cars, etc. Right out of high school, I owned my own little piece of Italiano, a Fiat X 1/9, and as I was learning how to work on it myself (a frequent occurence), one of the mechanics there was always giving me advice and letting me borrow some special tools from time to time. Today, I'd venture to say most exotic car owners are more into image than performance. Back then, only a true enthusiast was brave enough to face the sometimes ackward ownership and maintenance of such wonderful cars.

I talked to my realtor about it yesterday. He was over looking at the exterior of it a couple months ago when the listing agent called him and told him it was sold so neither he nor I ever went inside. We're planning on looking at it in the next few days. I want to see for myself what "lots of work needed" is.

Went to the Open House yesterday which was quite well attended, sorry I did not have a camera. It wasn't quite what I expected. Three large containers make up the perimeter of the main house, one the master bedroom/bath, one the kitchen, and the last one a small bedroom/bath/storage. The area in between them is enclosed as the main living space. Out back across a deck is another crate that will make up a studio/guest suite complete with its own full bath. My realtor and I talked with the Project Manager who said they were about 10 weeks into it, he hoped to have it completed in two more weeks, so about 90 days from start to finish. This was a spec house that was sold before construction commenced, I heard the price of $325K including the lot which in this area is probably worth at least $100K, square footage was around 1800 total. It is said to be very green and energy efficient. I liked it in general, it really helped motivate me to build my next house rather than buy something existing. The thing that polarizes me though is that for the concept to be worth doing, you must first like the look of it, which I do. Secondly, it needs to be cheaper and/or faster than conventional building to really shine and the jury's still out on that. From what the Project Manager told me, it will undoubtedly be faster, he estimates almost half the time of a conventional build. The price issue is kind of vague though, since this was their first residence, costs per square foot of structure only were kind of abstract. The company Numen Development says they will soon have some "stock" plans to give an idea of basic cost, then the sky's the limit on how you want it customized. Hopefully someone else who was there will have some photos to share.

The house being built in the 600 block of Cordell Street out of old shipping containers is having an "open house" kind of thing this afternoon at 4:00, the builder had an ad in last week's Chronicle Heights Neighborhood Edition. I haven't watched its progress closely but have ridden my bike by there a few times since it was started. I'm curious to what it looks like inside so plan on dropping by after work, be there around 4:45.

I'm pretty sure the foreclosed townhouse on Radcliffe I looked at was an FS Design product. I have never seen a house less than two years old in such sad shape. External and internal water leaks galore, the stench of mold, paint peeling, etc. The other three townhouses in the project also showed the same signs of water leakage from the outside. Easy to blame on the builder or subcontractors, but poor design and execution falls back directly on the designer.

Kind of sad to me. Once every couple of years I get an uncontrollable urge to pig out on Long John Silver's. After the requisite stomach ache, I'm good for a couple more years.

The one on Alexander is a steal in my book, the one on Waverly has the tracthouse makeover look of a flipper (okay if that's what appeals to you I guess.) Don't let a certain square footage totally throw you off, the "flow" of houses like these is sometimes just as important as the actual area.

Judys, circa late '70s, venue The Island on South Main. Never before or since have a seen a musician playing a vacuum cleaner on stage.

My late mother graduated from Reagan High in 1933. A few years before she passed away she took me on a driving tour of the Heights showing me all the houses she lived in at one time, all but one of them were still around. I think she would be pleased to know her alma mater is strong once again.