Some of Our Favorite Kitchens

April 26, 2021April 26, 2021Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Guests always seem to congregate in the kitchen, right? Even if you set up the party buffet and bar in other rooms, people wander into the kitchen. And they often stay there all evening. Is it the messy informality of the kitchen? Do some shy guests need a place to hide...

5 Changes for Your Garden

March 21, 2021August 16, 2021Teresa Byrne-Dodge

It was just four weekends ago that we all emerged, kind of numb, from the mid-February deep freeze and took a look around. Even if you were among the fortunate who did not have damage to your pipes and home, you surely were disheartened to view our Houston landscape … the...

Nosy Questions with Karen Pulaski

January 16, 2021January 17, 2021Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Building a new nest or refeathering an old one? Either way, we can probably agree that the bedroom is life’s most personal space, a retreat that should look good and feel good. After all, we spend about a third of our lives in our bedrooms. Meet Houston designer Karen Pulaski, who...

Add Some Zing to Your Life!

December 14, 2020December 15, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Cameron and I were talking about ginger. It seems like every time you buy a plump hand of ginger at the supermarket the darn thing dries out in the vegetable drawer before you get around to trying some new recipe for Thai-inspired coconut soup. I’ve spent years buying fresh ginger, only...

A Tale of Two Houses

October 20, 2020October 20, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

What are the chances that two of our current listings would both be fundamentally Mid-Century Modern in their DNA and yet so very different? Both homes are located on highly desirable River Oaks streets (albeit on opposite sides of the subdivision), both were built in 1950 and both are exquisitely realized...

At Home in the Garden

April 17, 2020April 17, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

A lot has happened since our last River Oaks Letter. At the same time, almost nothing has happened. Every day we get up early (the dogs don’t know we have a stay-at-home order), make the coffee and toast, read the news in The New York Times and online, listen to Morning...

Take a Look at 2300 Timber Lane

September 26, 2019October 16, 2019Teresa Byrne-Dodge

We’ve all been hard at work on 2300 Timber Lane for the past 14 months. If you get the print edition of the River Oaks Market Report, you’ve seen renderings for this big-deal house. Finally, as of late September 2019, it is complete and about to be unveiled. Here’s the scoop:...

How to Protect Your Trees from Heavy Rains

September 26, 2019September 26, 2019Katie Dubow

Fall in Texas often means storms and heavy rains that saturate the ground. While trees in the region are accustomed to this amount of rain, too much water threatens trees’ ability to stand tall, strong and steady. Just like most living things, your plants, shrubs and trees can only handle so...

A Bee in His Bonnet

July 15, 2019July 16, 2019Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Maybe you’ve seen that t-shirt that has a cartoon drawing of a bee followed by the quote: “If we die, we’re taking you with us.” Or perhaps you’ve read the newspaper and magazine articles that discuss bee colonies collapsing at a rate that beekeepers seem helpless to staunch. In any case,...

Color My Hinges

June 22, 2019June 24, 2019Teresa Byrne-Dodge

You’ve heard that expression – variously credited to Mies van der Rohe, John Ruskin and Friedrich Nietzsche – that God is in the details. I often find myself whispering that affirmation as some stupid insignificant thing has me bogged down. And it’s never truer than with a whole-house renovation. Take our...