This is the living room of a "prefabricated, sustainable design-build project by the College of Architecture, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and the College of Engineering at Texas Tech University."
Eco-Friendly remodel in Austin TX on This Old House
The Healthy House Institute has an interesting article on a recent series of eight episodes of This Old House devoted to the "greening" of a 1926 Craftsman bungalow in Austin, Texas:Taking on its first-ever project in Austin, Texas, This Old House shares
strategies and solutions for transforming a historic house into a low
maintenance, healthy, and comfortable eco-friendly home.The renovation of a 1926 Craftsman-style bungalow for newly married
homeowners Michele Grieshaber and Michael Klug will be “green” in
nature, while making room for a growing family — including Michael’s two
young sons, Sam and David — with the addition of two bedrooms and a
modest full bath on a new second floor.By using
technologies that conserve energy and water, and opting for durable and
sustainable materials, This Old House is taking an outdated house and
giving it an energy-efficient future, while showing that “green” does
not have to be experimental, or expensive.Since this ground-up remodel included low-maintenance, low-water xeriscaping, that became one episode all by itself; another was dedicated solely to the planning process – something worthy of extra attention whenever you’re working with new and unorthodox materials and techniques. The episode also generated plenty of materials for articles on subjects as varied as lighting and remodeling with and for families with children on the TOH website.
photograph by Kenny Braun for This Old House
“Shelterporn” from Houstonist: big profits in Texas
Houstonist‘s every-Saturday Shelterporn section focused on a really pretty bungalow in last weekend’s edition:
Longtime shelterporn readers will know that we’re most partial to two
kinds of houses: clean, contemporary designs and traditional bungalows.
Frankly, though, it’s the bungalow that really makes us think "home" —
and so it’s only natural that we fell in love with this Heights beauty at first sight.At $599K, it’s no bargain, whatever that means, but I can’t speak to relative prices, not having much knowledge of Houston’s current real estate climate. However, based on the last selling price and the square footage price of other homes in the neighborhood, Zillow estimates the home’s value at $187,915, which certainly seems a bit more realistic.
Adam Wells, president of Clerestory Homes, says that the upgrades and renovations were extensive:
This project was definitely a labor of love for our company. It is
an original 1920s bungalow that was extensively remodeled and
renovated. We added ~1,900 sq.ft. to the original ~900 sq.ft.
footprint.You can see previous sales data here; looks like a flipper or the developer bought it for $160,656 last year – so a more than 300% increase in price. It’s just too bad that people are priced out of neighborhoods they’ve lived in for years, and entire areas are ghettoized, by profiteering and personal greed. That said, the house itself is beautiful, inside and out, and apparently the buyer is very happy with her purchase.
old homes make way for strip malls in Lubbock TX (and everywhere)
Lubbock’s North Overton neighborhood – once sparsely populated with sprawling ranch-era Craftsman bungalows – is slowly being reseeded with strip malls, tract developments and other signs of the coming apocalypse. One such home is being picked up and moved to make way for that harbinger of class, culture and the real building block of a modern neighborhood, the strip mall.
"This
was called a craftsman-bungalow house, it was built in 1911. It’s one
of the oldest houses in Lubbock, it’s also one of the most historic
because of the people lived here the first 75 years," said former
resident, Frank Potts.In 1924 A.B. Davis moved to Lubbock.
Soon after moving into the home. A.B. served as the manager of the
Chamber of Commerce and later as Lubbock’s City Manager. His family
called 1724 Main their home for 60 years.Frank Potts is A.B.’s grandson, he
said, "lots of memories here, there really are. As a child it was a big
world out there, World War II was going on when I first moved here and
I just remember everything just seemed, the house seemed like a huge
mansion and I was just a little bitty guy and wondering what happens
next."The original plans for the home show a 4,500 square
foot house with wide overhanging eaves, deep porches with large square
brick posts and beautiful wood paneling, all adding to the charm of
this old home. With the vision and financial help of Lubbock attorney
Ted Hogan, this old house will be able to stand for another hundred
years. He said, "a lot of heavy lifting (will go into moving the
house)! and quite frankly the fellas that the credit goes to are the
movers because they’re the guys that have the technical knowledge."With
the development in the North Overton area, this old houses days were
numbered as a strip mall is slated to go here. But in 5 weeks, 1724
Main will get a new address on the corner of 16th and Avenue R after
it’s moved, piece by piece, down Avenue R.Hogan said, "we
have about 5 weeks to get it done, we have a May 1st deadline. There’s
new development coming in here. If the weather permits and if it
doesn’t rain, we should be good to go at the end of April." Giving this
old Lubbock home a new lease on life.It should be noted that Lubbock’s Overton Park project is currently the largest private residential development in the state. Questions regarding the number of homes destroyed or moved directed to the McDougal Company, the firm tasked with making rubble of old homes in the way and clearing it, were not answered
