rapturematt

Prospect is between Southmore and MacGregor way and also between Scott and 288. You ought to stop by and check out our progress on our house.

I'm within walking distance of Riverside Terrace...just a couple miles down Scott Street, in South Union.

...and the guys don't even mind picking up White Trash (me being the only Anglo for many blocks around).

I'm surprised at your bad luck with the trash pick-up. Also sounds like you've got a crappy neighbor. I say kill her with kindness...or a pillow (leaves no marks).

Were you contacting COH through 311? I've had very good luck with 311...I've always recieved the service on the first call, with the exception of Animal Control and some stray pit bulls last year.

I called 311 like 6 times. It sucked. They said they were sending someone out and never did.

I live on Prospect Street. Where do you live? Wow, I found another white neighbor?

Is being a mason a dying fad or do you think they are still going on strong?

I have always wanted to find out about the freemasons too, but all I can find out about is the little they put on the internet.

Larry Craig is a memeber of a secret society.

Now that's pretty funny!

Secret society and cults are completely different. Let's not get confused.

I am pretty sure none of the "Scull & Bones" members ever regret being a member.

I think mostly in my eyes it is a fellowship of common minds who have commitment toward each other meet with and help each other out in certain trades and stuff, but secretive on the membership process and/or meetings and events. Here is what wikipedia says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_society

For years I have been facinated with secret societies like skull & bones and what used to be the masons, but you don't hear about special secret (brotherhood looking after brotherhood) societies anymore. Why is that?

What does it take to start one?

I would love to have a business networking secret society that works together. How about you? Give me your thoughts.

Bring it to our neighborhood...we've never had a problem getting anything picked up here.

While we were renovating our house, they would regularly pick up piles of construction debris 5' tall and 15' wide from our yard. It was obvious construction debris, with our house sitting there gutted to the studs.

We've got a vacant lot at the end of the street that makes a nice depository for everyone on our block. The pile can get pretty big at certain times of the year with tree branches and stuff. There's a couch and coffee table out there right now, and I guarantee it'll be picked up by COH on heavy trash day.

I haven't had the need to call 311 too often, but they've always been responsive. I forgot to put my trash can out one day, called 311, and they had it picked up the next morning, within 12 hours of my call.

What neighborhood do you live in? Apparently nowhere near me.

Why is it that Houston does not have colors on our building like this?

Most of the floors that were install in yesteryear was installed on top of 1X6 Pine Planks and then covered with felt paper. If you have loose and squeaking floors could mean that sub-floor has either rotted or the nails have rusted out. A lot of times you have to replace all of the sub-floor with plywood to prevent the squeaking and loose floor. That can be a big project and sometimes costly because you have to remove the existing floor and re-install the floor after you replace the sub-floor.

My recommendation if you want to fix it at minimal cost is to crawl under the house and look at the sub-flooring where it is squeaking and seek if the sub-floor is giving and why. You may find other problems as well like termite damage and wood rot since we live in a humid climate. If you see give in the floors and non active termite damage, you might be able to reinforce the sub-floor by attaching pressure treated 2X6 or 2x8 to the rotted or termite damage wood and that would reduce the movement of the floor, but not completely get rid of it.

Also keep in mind, it is an old house and old house have squeaks and drafts and that just is the character of the house until you decide to completely gut the house and start from scratch.

Good Luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

depending on conditions, sometimes they do random sweeps. you just never know

I am sure that is it

I used to pick up a station in Baton Rouge at night only that would broadcast the LSU games.

I am in Riverside Terrace on the north side of brays bayou. I would not doubt that a hateful neighbor said something since I am the only white person to own property on my street and nearly the whole neighborhood.

I was also very concerned that some young pyromaniacs might light it all on fire; fortunately that didn't come to be.

I wish someone would come over and set my pile on fire, that way I would not have to pay to have it hauled off. >

I am completely fed up with the city and how they handle their bulk trash.

Over a month ago, I had cleaned off my house of some old ivy and an old chain link fence from the back yard to make room for our home to be repainted and a new wood fence up. I put out all the trash the Saturday before the bulk trash was supposed to be picked up and they did not pick it up.

When I called the city they said they were going to send someone out to take care of it. A week later I called and got the same response. During that time all of the neighbors decided to start piling up their bulk trash on mine and it got bigger and bigger. I kept calling the city and they would never come out and do anything.

Last week I got a ticket for puting out bulk trash to early. I was so fed up. I don't know what to do. I called and asked for a supervisor to pick our stuff up and he never called me back. Now a month has gone by and the bulk trash manager stopped by today to say that he was not going to pick it up because there is to much. I tried to explain to him that all of the neighbors kept piling up their trash on mine and all I had was some ivy and old chain link fence, but he interupted me and said, "Not my problem, you are going to have to get rid of this yourself."

What do I do, now I have a big pile of trash on my front lawn that has been there for over a month and a ticket that I would have never received if the bulk trash would have been picked up on time the first month?

Any have any suggestions?

I love a good garage apartment. You see them everywhere in Riverside Terrace where we are. It really does not cost that much if you decide to make a really high pitch roof with dormers. I can built one from scratch for about 30K.

My wife and I lived in Jacksonville, FL and it is completely a misnomer about how big the city is. My wife and I moved from Dallas to there and had a huge culture shock because it felt so small. There is so much vacancy and land in the city that is not even developed. It is still a very small city and should never be considered as a large city. We could not wait to get back to a big city and glad we are in Houston.

I found this little tidbit about Riverside Terrace that you all might be interested in. I also know there was a documentary about Riverside Terrace called, "This is my home. It is not for sale." I would love to see it. Does anyone know how I can get a copy of it?

www.oscarmail.net/houstonfreeways/ebook/South_Freeway_72ppi.pdf

I love pier and beam houses. They are so much easier to work on when it comes to anything.

The cost of leveling a foundation that is pier and beam is about 1/10th the amount it would take to level a concrete foundation. I have a 2 story 2000sq/ft pier and beam house that was built in 1938 that I just had leveled. The replaced all the beams with pressure treated wood, which prevents the termites from entering the house and they also put a termite and rat guard on all of the piers while shimming. All of that cost me about $2500. It it was concrete, it would have cost me over 10K to do the job. Actually concrete is worse in our weather, but pier and beam is so expensive to build from scratch because of labor cost.

The other reason that I love pier and beam is because you can move walls, plumbing, and electrical a lot easier in these houses because you have a crawl space that gives you an opportunity to get to the pipes and wires under the house.

Pier and Beam all the way for me.

I have gone through Bridge Investments and I have had nothing but good luck with them.

www.sealhomeloans.com

Listen, I don't want this tread to start racial tension. As I said, I think that it is stupid for anyone to be racist regardless of what color they are. We are not White Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, etc. We are all Americans. This country was built on being a melting pot and sometimes the cultures clash, but once they educate themselves they get of rid of the ignorance and racism.

When I moved into this neighborhood, I knew that I was going to have certain people look at me in a discriminatory way, but since I am not racist, or at least I hope I am not, I knew it would be okay and I would eventually win their trust with my kindness and authenticity. The only one that has not gained trust in me is the one that keeps closed up in her house and never talks to anyone, therefore she is ignorant of the true me and what I am doing for the neighborhood. She does not realize that by me coming in and fixing up the house, I am not only improving my property value, but hers as well. She also does not realize that if she ever needs anything she is alienating herself by acting the way she does to me. She may never ask me for help, and that is her loss, because I would always give it. I am very nice to my neighbors and have a tendency to do several handyman things for them that I could charge them for, but don't because they are my neighbors and I want to take care of them.

By saying that I can now be more sympathetic with how other races are treated because of how I was treated is really, my eyes, the wrong way to approach it. I mean after all, you would assume by how I am, how I treat my neighbors and friends regardless of race, and what neighborhood I moved in that I am pretty sympathetic already. I am probably not the one that needs to learn the lesson. Of course you don't know me, but decided to chime in and said that I could learn a lesson from this experience.

It is going to take the white scolding the white and the black scolding the black for racism. Just like the old saying, "It takes a whold villiage to raise a child," it will take a whole village working together to end the racial discrimination and tension we have towards each other. How do I plan to start? Well, the first way is to stop pointing the finger. Second is by forgiving and forgetting what my neigbor said to me and being there to help her with anything that may come up in the future and continuing to do so until the tension is gone. How do you plan to start?

While I certainly don't condone the mistreatment you are receiving at the hands of some African Americans who believe you don't belong in their neighborhood, experiencing this treatment solely on the basis of race gives you an idea of what some African Americans have had to endure for many years as they sought entry into previously all white neighborhoods. As an African American who has moved into two previously all-white neighborhoods, I experienced much worse treatment that required intervention by law officials than you describe in one of the neighborhoods I desegregated. Hopefully, this experience as negative as it might be will help you empathize with those African Americans who for many years have been on the receiving of being mistreated when they tried to move into a neighborhood where they weren't wanted.

I am sorry but there is no excuse for racism regardless of what side it comes from. If you never let old grudges die, then we will never get past the idiot decison making of yesteryear.

I am definately not trying make a big deal about what type of neighborhood it is. I love this neighborhood just for the archeticture alone, and I really don't care what color my neighbor is, I just see them as my neighbor and I need to look after them. I think you are right on when it comes to the residents will eventually be taxed out of thier properties and better people will move in. Most of the neighbors that I have are widows in their 80s now. They all are nice except for the one accross the street. Their houses will eventually come up for sale, but I would hate to see a reverse "White Flight" instead of creating a great diverse neighborhood.

If I am not mystaken, we live in the 21st century. WE ALL JUST NEED TO GET ALONG!

I have just got two other offers accepted for properties in Riverside Terrace and we plan to renovate the community one project at a time. I also plan on getting involved in the politics of the neighborhoods that we are purchasing home in and focus on organization and unity instead of division.

I am uploading some pictures of the home I purchased for all to view and some artist renderings of what it will look like afterward.

Hey everyone, I just noticed your comments and it immediately wanted me to sign up and talk about Riverside Terrace and Riverside. My wife and I moved here in June and we purchased a 2100 sq/ft home to renovate in Riverside Terrace. We are about 50% done right now.

I have a love/hate relationship with this neighborhood and a lot of it has to do with certain neighbors and not all. My wife and I are white we are the only people on the block that are, so everytime I am over there working with subs I "stick out like a sore thumb" and usually get involved in great conversations with my neighbors. Most of them are very receptive about us coming in an fixing everything up, but there are a few bad eggs who show reverse discrimination towards us. One of the neighbors came by the other day and asked if I was moving into the house when I was done, and when I told her I was she said, "Oh No! We can't have white people moving in! This is a black neighborhood!" Since then, I have been called on all the time about noise or trash around the house she does not like to see.

I hate it comes down to the color of my skin that slows down productivity in what I consider a great neighborhood with amazing potential.

If you drive through this neighborhood you will realize why I love it. The architecture is amazing, the lots are huge, the location is the best in the city giving you access to 4 major cooridors within minutes of accessing (Spur 5, 288, South Loop, and 45), and the parks and recreation is an open canvas for creative neighbors to come in and turn into one of the nicest areas to hang out in the city.

I know a lot about this area because I am constantly researching it, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I think it really takes a investor or a developer who is willing to come in and comingle with the neigbors and assure them that you are not going to tear down a house and build a house or group of townhomes that are going to be an eye sore. I also think for this area to turn there needs to be a flood. No, I am not talking about a flood from a hurricane or tropical storm, but a flood of renovators, investors, and developers to come in at the same time and start to change the opinions that the neighbors have and get rid of the bad eggs that are slowing down production.

We slowed down production because we are still feeling our way out when it comes to electrical and plumbing contractors. There is not consistancy in the market when it comes to bidding. I have one who bids out $8000 for an electrical rewire and another who bids the same work for $3500. Both are licensed but I can't decide if the high bid is trying to get to me or the low bid does not know the scope of work enough and will come back to me later for more money. If you guys have suggestions let me know.

Sorry for the long response, but I just felt I had to get it all out.