ajm5266

wowza.

is that painted white concrete on the floors or terrazzo?

ow. that just makes my eyes hurt.

our roof is flat - and before we had it fixed, it didn't leak. in fact, it survived ike. i think they're better than pitched ones, imho.

oh don't forget to mention that three lawn services have fallen through in two weeks.

i swear, nobody wants to cut the thicket that is the lawn!

haha. it seems that my ignorance is showing - i've actually quite honestly never mowed a lawn before in my life. i guess the romance of the push-reel mowers are kinda diminished now...

but, the good news is i got a referral for a lawn service from a neighbor..so that works out.

Ok.

After reading all the responses and the comments, I just have to put some things to rest. I'm the owner of the Cayton house and my partner is the one who may have been marked as being too "overly enthusiastic" about the Cayton project.

One. The lawnmower - after the two landscaping services we asked to come out fell through, we asked around. Because I am a particularly environmental guy and I don't believe in gas lawnmowers. Odd but true. Electric lawnmowers don't serve me well in a house without electric. My S.O. doesn't believe in using manual lawnmowers.

Two. The progress. We've interviewed contractors. Some of them have turned my stomach with words like "gut remodel" and "crown molding." We have narrowed it down to two. Financing is a bit problematic. We paid cash for the house. We intend to pay cash for the remodel - but weren't prepared for more than 10k (idealistic, I know, but hey, it's our first home) so we're scrambling to find financing..and in this economy, it isn't going too great. We've also changed a lot of preconceptions that we've had about the house to start with - namely what we should keep and what we should get rid of. The kitchen, while it may break my heart, may need to go, for instance. The pink bathroom is going to stay - that's a battle to the death for me. But the fact still stands - the original cost is a bit bigger than anticipated - which has slowed down things by months and has been exceedingly frustrating.

Three. We are moving in. In two months time, in fact. We will be setting up with a hot plate, a fridge and without the trappings of Bellaire and Whole Foods. That's just how it is. I admittedly got a bit discouraged after the bout of contractors and folks telling me that "y'know, this is pretty bad...." but I figure if we live it, we can fix it.

Oh, yeah, as for the trash. Some of the neighbors, God love them, keep putting trash in our trashcan while we're not there and filling it up. Sorry about that. I keep waiting for code enforcement to drop a notice in the mailbox.

Hi there - I've just registerd so that I can pass along some info to your group....I was researching "Parade of Homes" and discovered your site!

You all seem like a fun group!

The Scoop: There's about to be a Parade of Homes house on Olympia (1960) listed as a forclosure!

It's an amazing house - Kids in the neighborhood have called it "The Pointy House", and "The Lutheran Church" in the past....

The floorplan is very different! There are little courtyards off each bedroom, there's an indoor planter, a passthrough fireplace....it's just a "Mid Century" jewel.

(Sorry I put that last term in quotes - I find it a little comical....because, I suppose.....I'm mid century!)

I thought I should pass this along because you all may know of interested people - It would be a shame to see someone tear it down to build a McMansion! So pass along the info, watch har.com, and hopefully someone will want to put their sweat equity into a piece of Houston's history.

Thanks!

.

This one? http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

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Welcome to the neighborhood AJM ! I hope you'll like it as much as I do. There is a very nice signature Kroger on South BW8 and Gulf Freeway. It's about a 5-10 minute drive on the freeway. They should have anything you need. While you're there, killl 2 birds with one stone and hit 2 Brothers Pasta for lunch or dinner. Great little mom and pop Italian !

oh man, there's nothing better than mom & pop italian. thanks for the head's up on the kroger - will have to check it out.

hi all.

my SO and i will hopefully close on this property at the end of Oct/beginning of Nov. both of us have a love and a healthy respect for MCM and have already hopefully taken some steps towards seeing it restored/remodeled. we're both first home owners so this is a new and really exciting opportunity for us.

i've already scheduled a meeting with the houston historical commission for landmark status and hopefully that will go through. i would really like to thank user rps324 and his help with everything. if it wasn't for his patience and repeated showings of the house, we would have never gotten into it.

thanks.

aj & j.

i want to hear more about glenbrook too. i'm about to become a new homeowner (hopefully me and the SO will close on the 7510 Cayton property at the end of October/first week of Nov) and I know nothing about this area as well...

i do want to add - is there anything comparable to whole foods/organic food, et cetera in this area?

thnx.