Could this be a TIKI party room?

In my quest to save mod houses around Houston, I came across a grand 50's house with a huge party/ball room. It has this wood which no one has ever been able to say with certainy what it is, (possibly bocolo rosewood?) the poor house is in desperate need of some luv.

Anyway, I am no TIKI expert, but this wood treatment looks like it would make a good starting point for a tiki theme. What would you do with something like this? Would you consider this a tiki accent? Or just something else altogether.

Hey Txmod! Welcome to Tiki Central.

That's a really cool looking house!
It may not be tiki per se, but it's a definite Wowie Pad.
The wood looks like cedar, just from the photos (but you'd know if it was that, duh) - weird.

(Are you on HAIF? I've been majorly lurking there.)

What part of town is the house in?

Formikahini

THAT is a swank pad!

Very cool Txmod. Welcome to Tiki Central.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-02-21 21:28 ]

When I saw the swank home bar, all I could say was, Wow!

holycow. no need to tiki-fy that pad..its hot all on it's own. so, make us west coast folks crazy ~ how big is that house, and whats the asking price?

I'd kill for that house!

The house is in the Glenbrook Valley section of Houston, which I have sort of taken under my wing to try and save. There are mod enthusiasts moving in now and saving the houses, but just a couple of years ago basically nobody wanted them, and houses like these were falling into very rough hands. This one is very abused now, but could still be saved. It was on the market, before the listing expired, for $224,900. It is just under 4,200 sq ft on a 15,000 sq ft lot with a pool. They have slathered the downstairs main house with that ugly shiny ceramic floor tile. There are huge formals, a big den with a stone fireplace wall, 3 bedrooms, and then this ballroom + billiards room up above the 3 car garage area. I still hold out hope that at some point someone will step in. If I flip mine I may have to approach them and see if I can get it myself. The present situation is almost more than I can bear!
There are lots of cool houses in there,: http://www.glenbrookvalley.com/index.php?pageId=181786 Thankfully, more and more are falling into more sympathetic hands.

Those wood things are so cool looking! Its good to see people who actually want to save things like this! In alomst every city with a 50's-60's mod or googie style in it, the houses and buildings are in danger of being wiped off the map. There is no telling how many private homes like this have been completely remodeled and the swanky decor chucked into a landfill.

that price makes me weep.
gosh you couldn't even buy 2 - 296 square feet condos at $149,950 here in seattle...
sigh.

Man, txmod, those are some great houses. Too bad they're located in Houston instead of a nice city. :wink:

Brickhorn, ouch man! (I've never been to Texas so excuse my ignorance)...

Those are great looking homes. I love the swanky room also, it probably wouldn't take much to tiki it a bit. Good luck, I'm glad you are adopting such a nice home.

Very cool pad!! I saw some carvings like that in the Philippines that were used as room dividers and made of monkeypod (acacia) which often has the dark wood mixed in with outer layer of white wood.
What are the rents in that area? I am looking for some investment property. Would it cash flow in the positive?

On 2007-02-22 13:36, TikiMookie wrote:
Brickhorn, ouch man! (I've never been to Texas so excuse my ignorance)...

Mookie - I grew up in Houston, and have lived in Austin and Dallas. There's an age-old heated, albeit friendly, debate between Houstonians and Dallasites over which city is better. Of course, even the most loyal of partisans on both sides of the debate agree that Austin is superior to both cities. :)

On 2007-02-22 15:42, BrickHorn wrote:

On 2007-02-22 13:36, TikiMookie wrote:
Brickhorn, ouch man! (I've never been to Texas so excuse my ignorance)...

Mookie - I grew up in Houston, and have lived in Austin and Dallas. There's an age-old heated, albeit friendly, debate between Houstonians and Dallasites over which city is better. Of course, even the most loyal of partisans on both sides of the debate agree that Austin is superior to both cities. :)

Of course the jab might have stung, had it been coming from someone living in a * real* city!!! :lol:

The wood looks great - has a funky mod driftwood vibe which would be great in a tiki bar :)

I thought that bar looked pretty swank too, and looks like a little dancefloor in front of it.....where is the disco-ball. Hope somebody gets it that will appreciate its personality. :D

Right now the house is not on the market, and continues to be abused. Whenever I get a client that I think it would work for though, I am not shy about knocking on the door and trying to get in to show it. This one worries me, because it is so hard for most people to see past the junk to have a vision of what they could have if they saved it.

sorry for these too large photos, I am trying to figure out how to downsize them.

Sometimes I win a few though. This one is directly across the street & is supposed to close Monday. A mod enthusiast bought it. The swank party room (complete with a hidden movie screen, and hidden projector compartment behind a hinged picture) was sold furnished by the original owners to the second owners. This guy will be only the 3rd owner in 53 years. The game room furnishings came with the house so the room will remain intact! Even the picture of the cat with the "bubbles" which extend beyond the painting and onto the wall.

This one got good new owners recently too. It was one of my favorites in there so far

This one is being renovated by some mod purist. It was a good one too with an atrium

Oh and one more. I had a Rocket Scientist that got this one that is restoring it. (this were pictures when it was being sold with the sellers stuff in it, not his) Every inch poured terrazzo inside.

I keep begging this guy to sell.

There are a couple of others in there right now that are "at risk" of falling into unsympathetic hands. Each one in there is so different. Hopefully I will have some other success stories rather than....

I am absolutely speechless. I'm sure you realize what incredible finds these are in every respect. You or the owners really should contact Atomic Ranch magazine for a feature. If I lived in one of these places I'd never leave!! Thanks so much for sharing.

why is my shirt wet? Oh yeah, the drool falling onto it.

If only we had those houses and those prices here in Maine!

But I work in politics, and the last place I want to work is Texas. Sorry kids.

..sbim

On 2007-02-22 20:16, Suffering Bastard in Maine wrote:
why is my shirt wet? Oh yeah, the drool falling onto it.

If only we had those houses and those prices here in Maine!

But I work in politics, and the last place I want to work is Texas. Sorry kids.

..sbim

Hey, we might need you down here! :wink:

Atomic Ranch has threatened to do an article on Glenbrook Valley, but so far no luck.

I would love the exposure for the hood. It is still relatively unknown, even in Houston.

[ Edited by: txmod 2007-02-22 20:39 ]

No sh*t!
I'd never heard of it!!

It's NOT in a part of town where I would want to live (outside the loop, and south at that), but if the whole neighborhood is that amazing (and becoming increasingly filled with sympathetic types), I may have to seriously change my thinking!!

Maybe the Heights (where I live) and Montrose aren't the only cool places to live in Houston...
Hmmmm......

And BTW, txmod, you gotta get me into some parties at these ultra-swank pads! I have to see these up close! Maybe take me on a cruise through one with an open house as a pretend interested buyer? Knowing me, I'll probably decide to buy one after all!

It's filling up with "inner-loopers." You have to get them over the "southeast side vertigo." People in Houston percieve it to be way over there when in reality it is just a hair outside the loop and as close in as Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, etc. which most inner-loopers still consider close in areas.

Speaking of, the one closing Monday is someone moving from Oak Forest, beating out a buyer selling their loft at Il Pallazzo, The flat roof one with the Atrium was a Montrose defector, as was the Rocket Scientist. A couple of people have given up their Arts & Crafts style homes in Eastwood in favor of new Swankiendas down there. I have a traditional house under contract to someone selling a house on Willard and Stanford in Montrose.

This one was a Heights defector,

There is one up with another agency right now, the interior shots posted on the MLS are not of the house, I don't know what they are, but I am hoping it doesn't get remuddled. It is one of the more in danger ones since it is so large, 3504 sq ft, with a servants wing with its own kitchen. Originally it was Mrs. Carrabba's of the Italian restaurant chain. The front doors look like Doris Day should be popping out of the woodwork or something.

incidentally, there is poured terrazzo under that carpet, through much of the house.

Rip one of those babies of the foundation and put it in California and they would pull well over a million with those interiors.....especially the cat mural with tulip chairs....sigh.

250k in Bakersfield buys a pretty terrible starter house on a microscopic lot. Why on earth would houses be high priced in Bakersfield??? These types of houses can be found scatterd through the Stockdale Country Club here and would easily be $750k or more. I live in a ranch house built in 1989 and my wife and I are reversing it to 1961 with every project we do. It almost makes us want to move to Texas.

Of course the jab might have stung, had it been coming from someone living in a * real* city!!! :lol:

Ouch! Seriously, though, great houses txmod. I grew up in the boonies on the northwest side (Near 249 and Louetta) and thought Houston was the pits. And, to be honest, that part of Houston is the pits. Since that time, I've gotten to see a lot more of the city inside-the-loop. It's actually a pretty cool place with a lot of culture and a fair amount of cool mod architecture. I'm happy to see people like yourself are preserving and restoring these great homes. Keep up the great work.

My wife and I bought our first home this past summer. Unfortunately, Austin doesn't have nearly the quantity or quality of midcentury ranch style homes that Houston does. We ended up settling on a fairly cool 70's home in South Austin, but it's nothing like the examples you posted. Maybe I should transfer to our firm's Houston office...

By the way, did you ever post on Hornfans.com or Orangebloods.com? There was a guy on one of those boards that used to post about preserving the midcentury homes in the Memorial area.

On 2007-02-23 07:04, BrickHorn wrote:

Of course the jab might have stung, had it been coming from someone living in a * real* city!!! :lol:

Ouch! Seriously, though, great houses txmod. I grew up in the boonies on the northwest side (Near 249 and Louetta) and thought Houston was the pits. And, to be honest, that part of Houston is the pits. Since that time, I've gotten to see a lot more of the city inside-the-loop. It's actually a pretty cool place with a lot of culture and a fair amount of cool mod architecture. I'm happy to see people like yourself are preserving and restoring these great homes. Keep up the great work.

My wife and I bought our first home this past summer. Unfortunately, Austin doesn't have nearly the quantity or quality of midcentury ranch style homes that Houston does. We ended up settling on a fairly cool 70's home in South Austin, but it's nothing like the examples you posted. Maybe I should transfer to our firm's Houston office...

By the way, did you ever post on Hornfans.com or Orangebloods.com? There was a guy on one of those boards that used to post about preserving the midcentury homes in the Memorial area.

I wonder if it was Michael Brichford that has http://www.memorialbendarchitecture.com

On 2007-02-22 20:59, Formikahini wrote:
And BTW, txmod, you gotta get me into some parties at these ultra-swank pads! I have to see these up close! Maybe take me on a cruise through one with an open house as a pretend interested buyer? Knowing me, I'll probably decide to buy one after all!

Houston Mod http://www.houstonmod.org sometimes coordinates open houses with agents that have mod listings. The one with the game room with the tulip chairs, and the 2 story one with the two Jetson's looking couches were both open at one time for that. Shannon, (a.k.a Stolitx on the Houston Architecture Forum) sometimes has open house get togethers at her swankienda. There may be a real good one coming up near the Galleria that will be the next Mod of the Month for Houston Mod.

Very cool pix, txmod. There are also a good number of 1-story, 1700-1900 sq. ft. houses built on my side of town (Antoine/Mangum near 290) that range from 160-190K and were also built in the 50s-60s. Same kind of low-pitched roofs, too. Not quite Da Montrose and Da Heights, but not "da hood", either.

Mateo

[ Edited by: Mateotiki 2007-02-23 10:46 ]

this is what I hope to head off when I can. Things like this....

becoming this...

this...

morphing...

into a complete disaster.

Or ending up with this..

when it started out a Robert A. Little of Cleveland design...

http://www.glenbrookvalley.com/index.php?pageId=181797&action=picture&itemId=729813

I guess while I am asking about tiki, there is also this gotta-love-it-because-its-so-bizarre house. I think this is the closest I have ever seen to a whole house that almost looks Tiki (that wasn't a hut with a straw roof)

sweet!

TXMOD...Man, that is some of the worst disaster examples I've seen. People who f*ck with stellar MCM houses should be put to sleep.

The second one has an obvious Asian influence, hence the Tiki-esque appearance.

Paint that house a dark brown and watch it become VERY tiki. I did this to my old house, which had a slight Asian MCM flavor.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2007-02-25 16:54 ]

WOW, Those photos of the remodels made my stomach turn. But thankfully the photos followed in the comments after ward helped settle it. I must say, that "asian style" is freeking awesome. I have a friend who studies martial arts who is thinking of remodeling his non descript brick home to reflect his Japanise garden.

I know, believe me. The last one that was the "Home for All America" prototype just kills me. About the only consolation is there are more around of that design, just not in Houston. On the last 2 pages of the article (included on the Glenbrook web site) is a list of addresses where they were built, there is probably one near you. (or was)
The undulating wall one makes me want to knaw my wrists, especially since I begged the owners to sell it before they did all that crap to it.
Hopefully we will see less of that now that more people seem to be appreciating these.

On a lighter note, I dug up some other pics I had on another one in there. I'm not sure what exact architectural style I would call it, "Cinderella style" or maybe a French contemporary. It has a 40' round rotunda living room with a round fireplace and flaring divider walls. Very cool house.

Entry

living

On 2007-02-25 16:50, tikiyaki wrote:
TXMOD...Man, that is some of the worst disaster examples I've seen. People who f*ck with stellar MCM houses should be put to sleep.

The second one has an obvious Asian influence, hence the Tiki-esque appearance.

Paint that house a dark brown and watch it become VERY tiki. I did this to my old house, which had a slight Asian MCM flavor.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2007-02-25 16:54 ]

That came out beautiful!

Ugh.

It's not that I've loved MCM my whole life (I was taught to hate it as a kid), but I can truly say that I wouldn't buy those re-models at the top of this page even if I hadn't known what they'd destroyed, you know? I mean, they are just plain old plain. The second one is a hideous McMansion wannabe that looks transplanted out of Sugarland (non-Houstonians, just know that they're the worst architecture in maybe all of Texas). These two re-dos are what I would maybe have to settle for if the interior was great and so was the neighborhood. And it was the only thing I could afford.

OK, I couldn't stomach the second one.

And I'd tell myself I could plant a lot of trees to cover it (the first one).

And a lot of bushes.

And maybe fig vine.

But I'd be eagerly scanning the real estate pages to see when something I actually wanted was coming up.

C'mon, people (the idiots who destroyed these beauties)! If you don't like these houses as they are, BUY A DIFFERENT HOUSE! Is that so hard?!? I mean, they took out THE GIANT OAK TREE BY THE FRONT DOOR!! Sure they "updated" the house (if one considers that a virtue), but to the fugliest modern-day style out there.
Is that an improvement???
ab

At least on the first one, the original roof is under the new one they put on there, so I suppose someone could put that one back, the other two are gone.

Sometimes they are just abused and beat up, but at least with those you can bring them back. There is one somebody has listed in there, but they didn't post pictures on the MLS. That is my pet peeve b/c how is a mod appreciative buyer going to find it? I put pictures of it on lottaliving just in hopes it doesn't get any worse or worse yet, end up like the 3 bad examples at the top of the page. I wish somebody would rescue this one.

http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8608

You should come out to Lubbock sometime and check out all the Dolly Mack houses they have. I will live in one someday.

That could be tiki-ied up very nicely! Nice big Benzart in the front garden, some volcanic rock around the garden bed, some glass float lamps from peaks of the roof, letterbox would be modelled after some vintage neon sign...

Here were some other pics I dug up on the hood. These were ones that were part of the "Parade of Homes" for 1956.

BTW - One of the mod houses I just sold, (the one in the pictures earlier in the thread with the metal roof and the steel beams off the carport) is having an estate sale on the 10th. 9 to 4. There is some rattan stuff that might work for a tiki set up, a few other nice pieces. I noticed a couple of tiki-themed items, this odd little shadowbox for one. I have never seen anything like that before. I have no idea how old it is. The house is really cool too. It's a good opportunity to see inside of it just for fun. 7911 Santa Elena

[ Edited by: txmod 2007-03-04 16:24 ]

I'm THERE, Baybee!!
Just to get to see inside is cool enough, but the added incentive of picking up a goodie or two...
Thanks, Txmod!

BTW, I'm planning on having a gathering of the Houston clan in the next two weeks. Kilikopela and his wahine are in from Korea, and it seems as though Houston is hitting critical tiki mass. I've collected the email address of all but Almost Human, whom I can PM if he doesn't see this.

It will be at my home bar if I can get a few things hung up in time. (Some goodies I've scored are collecting dust waiting to be strung from the ceiling, etc.). Looking forward to meeting everyone soon.
F

Formikahini - were you able to make it by?

On 2007-02-22 21:53, VampiressRN wrote:
Rip one of those babies of the foundation and put it in California and they would pull well over a million with those interiors.....especially the cat mural with tulip chairs....sigh.

I'm the lucky buyer of the house with the cat mural and tulip chairs. Can't wait to sell my Oak Forest house (which is cool too) and get into my swanky new pad in Glenbrook Valley ! It's an awesome hood....just driving around viewing the houses is like being in time warp.

You are one lucky son of a gun. Please share some pics with us after you have moved in and are inaugurating that bar. Enjoy!

Yes he is a lucky son of a gun! that swank party room came furnished, complete with the cat picture!

I want to ask a question just to make sure my thinking is correct.

there is this mod currently available down in Glenbrook

which is really cool with an atrium, but it doesn't seem to grab people. I think the colors are too "washed-out."

Is it my imagination or doesn't it look better with these colors from this old photo?