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...

New Choices in Home-Building Materials

August 9, 2020August 9, 2020Matt Lee

Investing in a home in River Oaks usually means that you are committed to building a legacy that you can share with your family for years to come. It takes work and money to make the idea of legacy a reality and even more work and money to make it endure...

Nosy Questions for Mariquita Masterson

July 6, 2020September 1, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Mariquita Masterson is well known to Houstonians as the designer namesake of the jewelry store/workshop nestled in the boutique shopping center at the foot of River Oaks Boulevard. The Mexico City native, who moved to Houston in 1957, says that she was first inspired to make her bold trademark jewelry while...

Nulla Nulla VII (Translation: 007)

May 19, 2020May 19, 2020Cameron Ansari

“Bond is a daydream of absolute irresponsibility. A world where nobody civilises you. None of the girls is annoyed; none of the girls has a baby. He can even get married without having to get married. There are no repercussions. A dream of power without responsibility.” Thus, the journalist and one-time...

Bond. James Bond. All of him.

May 19, 2020May 20, 2020Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Years from now, when someone asks what we did during the COVID-19 lockdown back in the Spring of 2020, I will say that I gardened, baked, slept long and well, attended countless Zoom webinars and watched every one of the 24 James Bond movies to date, in order of their release....

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...

COVID-19 and Houston Real Estate

March 20, 2020March 20, 2020Cameron Ansari & Teresa Byrne-Dodge

No one in Houston has been unaffected by the COVID-19 crisis that is playing out. And the scary medical/social-distancing circumstances have been compounded by free-fall oil prices and stock market. For many clients contemplating the largest purchase of their lifetime, this is a daunting situation. As of mid-March, most business that...

Take a Look at 2414 Inwood Drive

December 12, 2019December 13, 2019Teresa Byrne-Dodge

Designed to grab the attention of passersby, 2414 Inwood Drive has been slowing down traffic since it was built. This pretty jewel box of a house, just five years old and located between Kirby and Chilton in River Oaks, is French inspired. Squint your eyes, and you can imagine a 16th-century...

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...