Tasteful Friends, take a look at this Houston midcentury marvel

Not my personal style but it seems meticulously restored. and seems like a great space.. leading to the question of why it is only $700K.

I imagine the renovations were quite costly.

Is it in a bad area?

It reminded me of the "Brady Bunch" set before noticing the comment under one of the pictures.

[quote]Reminiscent of the famous "Brady Bunch" staircase, this was original to the home. Some of the wrought iron had to be perfectly re-created because of previous damage.

A lot of talk about how they restored the place, but it often sounds like they took what original features had been left and changed them rather than restoring them. Using the original top of the bar but putting it on legs on top of a new kitchen island? And once you look down into the living room and see the flagstone hearth they added, you can tell it doesn't match at all.

They also took out all the best midcentury touches, like the indoor fountain and the two or three steps up or down into a room.

A vast majority of these rooms boast "original brick walls!" and nothing else. Such a shame the previous owners destroyed so much of it, but this restoration falls short, unfortunately.

It's beautifully done - personally, I don't like a lot of 3D white brick walls. No art can be hung on them and it's not a visually appealing detail.

The problem I have with these mid-century remodels is that you feel pressured to exclusively furnish the place in mid-century furniture and objects, which can be expensive and not necessarily really practical. Even so, there will always be some asshole who will point out what you got wrong.

Many purists will dismiss this place because they really just gutted the kitchen and bathrooms with modern looks and not really mid-century.

The railing over the creek must go. The house was never a true gem. There are so many better examples out there in almost any major city.

[quote] Many purists will dismiss this place because they really just gutted the kitchen and bathrooms with modern looks and not really mid-century.

Yup. They should be put to a firing squad.

Houston!!!!? Houston!!!????

The balcony makes no sense at all - There is no view. It’s a Lutheran-style gymnasium living room.

Look at how inward looking everything became. Bomb shelter chic.

I like it. The area is located fairly central to getting around and near lots of sopping g and dining. Walnut Bend is an older, respectable neighborhood

Pay attention R7. There have been numerous discussions of Houston lately.

They bought it for $280K in June 2018. The homes in that area are nowhere near those prices.

Greedy flippers - 150% sale increase? I don't think so - particularly when it was NOT renovated to full mid-century features.

Most other houses in that area are 350-400K. Nobody is going to pay a $300K bonus for that.

Now I'm just pissed off.

It's a whole lot of yes but without a pool, a lot of no too.

The outside of the house is boring. Some of those mid-century moderns back up to bayous with beautiful trees.

When I was kid my parents had friends who lived in a house very similar on the bayou and every night the raccoons came up to the glass and watched the humans inside. Their little paws and noses right up on the wall of glass were so funny.

R12 - sounds like a mosquito and bug-infested nightmare. I would never want to live on a bayou - or any water other than maybe a small stream in the backyard.

Particularly in the South.

I think it's very appealing, and I'm not an MCM fan. The thing that bothers me the most is that the kitchen and dining area have no natural light source.

How many little psychos pretended they were snipers on that balcony.

This is “the hours” mixed with some “Pulp Fiction” with some Peter Straub musings thrown in for good measure.

Purely from the outside, it looks like a church....very unappealing.

I like it, not crazy about Houston though.

I like what survived. The marble floors in the bathroom are the worst of the changes.

I think the Realtor posted the listing on here to get feedback on the price. I would say this house is nice, but not 700k nice. Although it is MCM ish, It's not an authentic reproduction of the genre one would see say in Palm Springs, Phoenix or LA. No pool is a no go for hot and humid as hell Texas. I think they are trying to lure some unsuspecting transplants from San Francisco who may have substantial means due to the capital gain on the sale of their property. I think 500k would be a good listing price given the current market and niche appeal of the style.

DiscoEldergayat60 may be one of my favorite DL handles.

I really like the house. It seems pricey . I was under the impression that Houston was more affordable.

I love this house. Don’t like the black railing things on the stairs and balcony, but otherwise, I love it.

I will also admit I am a complete and total sucker for MCM.

From the photos, it looks in great shape. Definite Brady Bunch feel.

Don't like it at all - seems a big mess.

Exquisite.

A house in Houston will need central AC - and this place does not. Pass.

I thought that the house got a new HVAC system during the remodel.

I like the house a lot. But the white framed widows kind of ruin it. And the doors, inside and out are a horror for this house. The cheap lighting is obvious, but easily fixed. And no pool, like said above, is a tragedy. Otherwise, I love it!

I like it, but am not gobsmacked by it. The one thing I really hate is that tacky bridge over the water. That pool looks very misplaced and I would rip it and the bridge out.

I didn't realize my life was lacking a foot bridge.

What is the kitchen faucet thingy?

Well, when you're from Houston you have to do something.

R27 I thought i spied an in-wall AC unit in one of the upstairs rooms

"[R12] - sounds like a mosquito and bug-infested nightmare. I would never want to live on a bayou - or any water other than maybe a small stream in the backyard."

Well Darling, Nobody really gives a rat's ass what you consider to be a nightmare. I would imagine any outdoor excursion with you that did not incude beverage service and indoor plumbing would be a bit of a Gehenna for the rest of the group.

It's a story of a lovely lady... Does the backyard have AstroTurf?

It’s in a zip code that was HEAVILY flooded in Hurricane Harvey. Otherwise, the price would be higher.

The house is 20-25 miles inland, west of the nearest large body of water (Trinity Bay/Galveston Bay).

That's because they didn't match the original very well, R29. From what I could tell in the magazine photos, it used to look a lot more aesthetically pleasing, probably because of the tree and what looks to have been some sidewalk right next to it to balance it out. The remodel has a 90-degree concrete sidewalk that looks clunky and the pond is just a weird water-filled eggplant in the middle of nothing.

I like a brick focus wall in a house, but this is just overkill. I would have to have a lot of that brick covered in some way. The brick inside the closets would be immediately covered with cedar paneling. The brick wall in the dining area would be covered with something with more elegance, possibly marble. And dear God that chandelier in the dining room! Did they buy that trash from a circus? And the brick walls in the bedrooms would be covered with more the the beautiful black walnut paneling.

I hope they did something about that run down driveway since this Google Map photo was taken.

Nope. It's strangely configured. Hard to furnish and decorate. Fish Pond, good lord.

NOPE

It looks like a Huf Haus from the 1960's, they should have torn it down and replaced it with one of the more modern designs.

There is a lot of dead space and more awkward space in this dump.

It's beautiful but imagine the water feature is due to natural swampiness and I'd be looking for signs of flood damage.

No one in Houston should want to have a mosquito breeding ground next to their house.

Hi Robert Griffith!

If I were rich and took up the drums...

[quote]I think the Realtor posted the listing on here to get feedback on the price.

The listing sure reads like it could have been written by a datalounger.

I like the floor plan, but the more I look the more I see details I don't like. Especially the oppressive beige bricks everywhere.

I know that area and I'm surprised the other houses in that neighborhood are so cheap. I bet it's in the flood plain. The house lacks natural light on the inside. If I lived on a lot like that, I'd want to look out on it.

r32, that A/C unit is in the "bonus room" off the carport that they say could be a home gym or home office/studio??

The railings are all wrong... they are, like many of the features of the remodel, more craftsman than mid-century.

There is absolutely no backyard... look on google satellite map... they opted to set it back as far from the street as possible in front, leaving no room in the back.

All in all it is a nice house, if you have to live in Houston...

I like it, save for the awful carpet.

Doesn’t Houston smell like an oil rag?

Get Chip and Joanna in there to work their magic. This place needs some shiplap.

No R51. Pasadena and Deer Park, however, do stink. Pasadena is nicknamed Stinkadena for a reason.

Hideous.

[quote] I think the Realtor posted the listing on here to get feedback on the price. I would say this house is nice, but not 700k nice. Although it is MCM ish, It's not an authentic reproduction of the genre one would see say in Palm Springs, Phoenix or LA. No pool is a no go for hot and humid as hell Texas. I think they are trying to lure some unsuspecting transplants from San Francisco who may have substantial means due to the capital gain on the sale of their property. I think 500k would be a good listing price given the current market and niche appeal of the style.

No competent or even sane person comes to Datalounge for information or to seek out some level of expertise. And these “Taste Friends” threads produce very few responses.

It seems to be one OCD coot opening all these threads about uninteresting houses.

No one's mentioned the magazine cover highlighting "the brightest, GAYEST kitchen ever published!"

It lacks the simplicity and economy of space that draws me to mid-century design.

Agreed with R3. They did a lot of renovation but with some shortcuts and poor decisions that detract. The main room with the carpeted center and and some areas of hardwood at the raised peripheral areas bothers me a lot. It's just incohesive and wrong; likewise the kitchen would doesn't fit the prominent corner position and, again some poor specs and design problems. The stair and, even more, the upper level balustrade is off; I suspect it may be modern code that requires a higher height railing than when it was first built. In any case the replacement looks out of scale . A shame be cause the stairs itself is very nice.

It's not my style but more than that it's a compromised renovation rather than a restoration and the quality and previous owners' decisions would weigh on me.

dengue is a terrible disease. Chronic and non curable.

It seems like the type of place where a swinging retired astronaut would live, next door to a sexually frustrated single mother and her fiesty teenage daughter.

I have a Love-Hate feeling with this house. There are so many reasons why I feel that way that it would be pointless to go into it.

R62 I agree.

The picture at R39 demonstrates why this house isn't worth renovating. The lot is small and overwhelmed by the neighbours.

The original house is crammed-in and lopsided. That indoor-outdoor pond is bizarre and must have been a security issue.

And the foolish renovators have used the currently-popular GREY PAINT which will immediately date this botched house even further.

i do not like this house. It is really dark for a MCM.

The little pond and bridge really does tacky the look of the place. The pond would be fine in the back yard in a garden setting. The bridge is simply an architectural affection. You build a bridge because there's no other choice. You don't put in a little pond just so you can build a silly little arched bridge over. It just screams "LOOK WE HAVE A POND AND A BRIDGE IN OUR FRONT YARD".

I beg your pardon?

Babs' massive stone bridge is an impressive construction, unlike the tacky little concrete thing over that concrete lined pond at the OP house.

Has Barbra’s farm/mall/pet cemetery ever been featured in Architectural Digest or similar? I’d love to see all of it.

R36 - was that meant in response to R35 (me)? This zip code was majorly flooded due to the release of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. It has nothing to do with their proximity to the Gulf.

You could stick a fountain in the pool to get rid of the skeeters.

700K is an enormous price for Houston where condos often go for under 100K

Also Houston is suffering from low oil prices.

You can do better in Houston for the price. For example, here's a spacious condo at 640K in River Oaks adjacent.

And it's not in a flood zone.

[quote] You can do better in Houston for the price. For example, here's a spacious condo at 640K in River Oaks adjacent. And it's not in a flood zone.

How is a 2400 sq ft 2bedroom/2 bath industrial building (with exposed heating/air ducts) condo better than a 3500 sq ft 4 bedroom/2 1/2 bath stand alone house?

Really ugly--they take simple classic lines and add stuff like stone accents that look almost like formstone. It was common to have a small area covered in stone in the late 50s---commercial buildings like Kroger super markets used it to break up facades. Tract houses often had too much like this one does. The space is poorly laid out and used--narrow bathrooms, big living areas with too much space. The house seems like a good example of ostentatious crap. The sunbelt seems like a magnet for this.

I love/hate this one too. I like the peaceful, neutral colors. Chartreuse accents anyone? I don't like the laminate floors, laminate walls, laminate stairs.

Next house...

Inspiration—

I love it, OP! right after I move in I'll throw a fabulous cocktail party.

On first sight, I thought it was a Mormon church.

They'll never sell this at anywhere near the price they're asking.

r74 location location location

R77 Looks like a waiting area at an airport.Lets increase the seating, while adding in large windows with a few airplanes outside.

I used to visit a family in a 1960s house. All the woodwork was varnished into a scary orange color which the wife set off with drapes in colors khaki and prune. The double height living room —no conversation pit— featured a wide wooden staircase with disconcertingly low-rising stairs splayed around two sides of it.

The father said it was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin houses in Arizona while mother insisted it was inspired by James Mason’s sprawling split-level house in ‘North by Northwest’.

There were a number of internal rockeries built into floating planter boxes raised on splayed legs. The smooth rocks were stolen from a river 62 miles away there and back. Over the years the smooth rocks became more exposed as the plants died off (I think they were Rubber Plants and Monstera Deliciosa.)