“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Looking for a House

...in Houston today. About to meet the guy who's going to show me around. For some strange reason I have very good house finding karma. I think it's because I have no rigid expectations about what I want: I sort of let the thing call to me rather than imposing my idea on it. I've lived in I.M. Pei's building off of Washington Square, Oscar Wilde's old room at Magdalen, a 16th century cottage (Oxford) and an octagonal house (Boulder). And a silent paradise (Davis). Happily also my wife Kate said “Surprise me”: she is going to sell the house in Davis while I get one in Houston. Less chefs to spoil the broth that way. She is literally not wanting to see it until she shows up some time in July...

2 comments:

David Beers said...

Houston? You got a new position? Rice? UH?

Not sure what you're looking for but personally I enjoyed Houston Heights / Norhill when I lived there a decade ago:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Houston,+TX&hl=en&ll=29.786764,-95.375748&spn=0.013837,0.027874&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.222969,114.169922&oq=houst&hnear=Houston,+Harris,+Texas&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=29.786762,-95.375631&panoid=W61QxordFzGIAhKSi1tPgw&cbp=12,98.52,,0,0

Many streets as pretty as those around Rice but smaller homes without the snooty attitude. For example you'll see traditional icehouses (open air bars/poolhalls, often featuring local zydeco acts) with interesting color.

Good luck to you!

Henry Warwick said...

Wow - good luck! It was the opposite for us. We sold the place in SF (it was clear in 2007, the economy was about to implode). We moved into an apartment here that was nice but too small, forcing us to find a place. After a year we found a great place in a nice neighbourhood.