The Leader • Saturday, January 27, 2018 • Page 1B
Small-ish and Stylish the
By Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader While the house in Garden Oaks was the right era for mid-century status, nothing about it was Modern – until its renovation. At 1,000 square feet or so, the wooden-sided 1940 domicile sat on a uncharacteristically small lot for the neighborhood, its pie wedge property formed by the curving streetscape often found in pre-war subdivision platting. Even in its early years, the small (not-tiny) home was likely a bit unusual in its design and layout compared to nearby traditional two-story residences, explains Greg Ryden of Ryden Architects. For this project, he teamed up with remodeler Paul Richardson, both of Oak Forest and both advocates for right-sized residences. FITTING THE FOOTPRINT Originally, the “front” door was halfway down the side of the home. The front elevation shared the one-car garage and galley kitchen. Inside, a short hallway off the living room at the center of the floor plan separated the home’s two bedrooms and led to the lone bathroom. Having been a rental house before its recent renovation, the home was especially ripe for attention, says Ryden, diplomatically. Its condition exhibited not just deferred maintenance, he says, but “extreme deferred maintenance.” Initially, the first-time home flippers were planning to “just clean it up to rent or sell,” Richardson recalls. They ended up adding about 400 square feet, enough to accommodate a third bedroom and second bathroom -- aka a master suite, boosted a bit by capturing space from the second bedroom for a bigger closet and part of a former porch. Meanwhile, at the front of the home, the former garage bay has split its space between a new entry and expanded kitchen. “It’s not oversized, it’s right-sized,” Ryden says of the results. Richardson says the main issue was where to put the HVAC since the original roofline was low-slung and attic space minimal. Ryden’s snazzy solution was to vault the roof at the front of the home, something that adds a modern design sensibility, soaring sense of space, natural light and aesthetic zip. The roof height didn’t change in the bedrooms because the exiting exterior walls were salvaged, he notes. “It’s still a small home,” Ryden says. The open floor plan helps flow and feeling. So does the loft tucked under the vault over the kitchen. It’s accessed by
Photo Contributed Developer Chris Hotze, Les Bag’et owners Cat Huynh and Angie Dang, and architect Kevin Stewart in front of the 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth development that’s in the works.
Development on 34th opening soon Photo Contributed When tweaked into its current form, shown here, the compact property with a newlyvaulted roof and re-oriented entry, sold quickly.
Photo Contributed Shown here is the wooden-side 1940 domicile prior to renovations by a couple of Oak Forest residents and advocates for right-sized residences.
a firehouse style ladder. In addition to keeping the home “efficient” in its modest scale, the project sought to reclaim and reuse what it could. The former attic, small as it was, revealed pine planks and rafters in excellent condition that were worked into the interior finishes and parts of the exterior. As tweaked, the compact property sold quickly. “Perhaps I am not the only one who hates moving,” Ryden says. (His homeownership advice and personal philosophy is to pick well the first time and avoid the starter-home, move-up market progression of home ownership.) Buyer expectations continue to escalate, he observes. Among the “must haves” of today: bright rooms, lots of exposed woods and no more granite. Storage is still in big demand, with walk-in closets a particular challenge to provide in small floor plans.
So are designated spaces for specific uses, such as a home office, workout equipment and such. One way to include these functions in a smaller home is to add flex space in the master suite, he notes, where a bump out or nook can accommodate the tread mill, reading area or TV/sitting space. Meanwhile, with smaller interiors, outdoor spaces provide much needed overflow space. However, this too can be a design challenge for homes adhering to the Modern Style: how to add a screen door without varying the style. In Houston, however, that’s a bug-busting necessity. With this first home flip complete, they are gearing up for another project, though it will be a new build since the older home on the lot (another pieshaped property) was beyond saving.
The long-awaited 2.5-acre commercial development located on the southeastern corner of 34th St. and Ella Blvd. will officially open in late spring and offer some new additions to the community. Called 33&1/3@ Thirtyfourth, local residents can look forward to a highly regarded Vietnamese restaurant, a new UPS store, and nail salon among others. Even in its present state, the new retail center is a standout. There is an 80-foot, hand-painted mural of Texas’ famous Cadillac Ranch on its eastern wall. The brick work used in the buildings is a blend of clean, modern lines mingled with historical elements. The pavement in the parking lot allows water to permeate, so the entire lot functions to abate flooding in the area, and there will be a comfortable green space for outdoor picnicking. The site is the work of Crescere Capital Management LLC under the eye of its owner and founder Chris Hotze. Hotze has 20 years of experience in the investment marketplace and developed numerous commercial sites now hosting tenants such as Kroger, Starbucks, Wells Fargo, and numerous local or mom-and-pop concepts. Hotze paid a great deal of personal attention to the design and construction of 33&1/3rd@Thirtyfourth. He committed from the begin-
To share your renovation survival tale, contact Cynthia.Lescalleet@gmail.com.
Despite the effects of Hurricane Harvey, both the greater Houston and local housing markets have shown surprising resilience, with most demonstrating a pattern of slight growth in December 2017 compared to the previous year. According to the most recent report from the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), our markets in the local neighborhoods mirrored the greater area’s patterns, which resulted in a 3.5 percent increase in homes sold along with a rise in both average (2.9 percent) and median (3.8 percent) price, to $291,340 and $229,000, respectively. In the 77008 zip code, which envelops much of the greater Heights and Lazybrook/Timbergrove, realtors saw 937 total homes sold in December 2017, up 4.2 percent from 936 during the same time period in 2016. Accompanying the rise in homes sold was a slight uptick in both median and average home price; but both categories displayed a flat trend, each rising by slightly more than 1 percent. Just to the east, in 77009 (which contains the rest of the Heights), total home sales jumped by more than 5 percent from its December 2016 figure – the largest jump in our local area – with 510 homes shooting off the market. Along those same lines, this market displayed the largest year over year boom in both average and median home prices. Average home price ended 2017 just under $439,000 – a 5.4 percent increase – while the
Photo courtesy of Houston Association of Realtors The Garden Oaks/Oak Forest market, with homes such as this one now for sale, showed a modest uptick in December 2017 from the same time in 2016.
market’s median home price jumped more than 11 percent according to HAR, coming in at $410,875 to end the year. To the north, 77018 (Garden Oaks/Oak Forest), December 2017 figures came in with a 585 homes sold, up 3.2 percent from 2016, while average and median home prices both displayed modest increases between 2 and 3 percent from 2016, ending the year at $449,841 and $403,879 respectively. Zip code 77092 – the remainder of Garden Oaks/Oak Forest — saw 244 homes sold in December 2017 (up 3.4 percent from 236 in December 2016). Average home price in these neighborhoods rose slightly from December 2016, to $261,591 (up 2.6 percent), while median price showed a similar 2.9 percent jump to $247,000 Finally, in the northernmost part of the local neighborhoods, zip code 77091 (Northside/Greater Inwood) was the only local market to see a dip, experiencing a 15.5 percent
drop in homes sold with just 93 homes sold compared to 110 in December 2016. Other than that, the market bounced back along with the rest of them, showing a 6.9 percent spike in average home price to $183,507 and a 9.1 percent increase in median home price $179,999 at year’s end Bigger picture When glancing at the greater Houston market, the most recent HAR report says that 2017 ended with sales of all property types in 2017 totaling 94,726 units, a 3.5-percent increase over 2016’s volume. Total dollar volume for singlefamily homes sold in 2017 rose 6.5 percent to $23 billion. And all of this happened despite the market being forced to recover from Harvey’s devastating effects. Months of inventory began the year at a 3.3-month supply, and while it grew to a 4.3-month supply just before Harvey struck the region, it ended 2017 at a 3.2month supply according to the HAR report.
“No one could ever have imagined 2017 turning out to be a record-setting year for the Houston real estate market, which had weathered the effects of the energy slump only to have Harvey strike such a devastating blow,” said HAR Chair Kenya Burrell-VanWormer. “We know that many are still working tirelessly to rebuild their lives after Harvey, but overall, this clearly illustrates the incredible resilience of the people and the economy of Houston, Texas.”
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Local markets mirror greater trend in December For The Leader
ning to create high quality structures, with a tenant mix that will reflect the caliber of the local community. “The project has been extremely important to me because the corner of 34th and Ella Boulevard is the grand entry to Oak Forest and Garden Oaks. It needed to respect the community and its people,” Hotze explained. “It needed to make a statement.” There are three signed tenants at the time of this writing, with several more in lease negotiations. Expectations are that it will be nearly 100 percent leased by the end of February. Husband and wife team Cat Huynh and Angie Dang will be opening their second Les Bag’et Vietnamese café at 33&1/3rd. The couple developed a following with their affordable, traditional Vietnamese home cooking at their first location in Montrose. The new restaurant will feature the same fresh products with everything made in-house, to order. Their Bánh Mì sandwiches have won awards, and their slowdripped Café Sua Dá (iced coffee with condense milk) uses Le Bag’et’s special blend of beans.
By Kim Hogstrom For The Leader
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