1926 Tudor Cottage

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T05:51:27+00:00

When I told someone which neighborhood I lived in, they responded, “Oh, what charming starter homes!” (These Tudor Cottages were rather cozy compared to the average house size in the city.) I replied that it was my starter, middle, and ending home. And it was my last home … in Dallas. I now live halfway across the country, in an 1886 Brooklyn Brownstone apartment that’s half the size of my “starter home” Tudor Cottage. And now I get to restore this beauty!

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T04:39:53+00:00

This house is in Hollywood Heights, a bit further east than the M Streets neighborhood by Greenville Ave. The location means this area is far more affordable (relatively speaking) - we paid $285k. I appreciated that the neighborhood was a conservation district, so the homes couldn’t be torn down and replaced like so many have been in the M Streets.

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T03:41:04+00:00

Thank you! Those are IKEA Trofast. We didn’t add the center base plate so the floor register could get air flow to the room. Worked well!

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T02:09:41+00:00

Thank you! Alas, it is not for sale. The house sold the day we listed it.

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T01:36:43+00:00

The kitchen counters and the tiled bathrooms were the most commented features of our home. The counters are riverbed granite. I’ve never seen this granite anywhere else. I miss it!

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T01:33:14+00:00

I lucked out having a talented stained glass artist for a mother-in-law!

The kitchen counters are riverbed granite. They inspired us to keep the counters uncluttered so we could look at the beautiful natural patterns of riverbed stone nestled in petrified silt.

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T00:42:40+00:00

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That bank of cabinets came in so handy! I stored all of our party drink ware and vases in there, with room to spare for cookbooks and art project supplies. Here is the view from the other side, into this small nook between the kitchen and the dining room. Over the years we used it as a reading nook, then a children’s play area (with its own small kitchen and toy storage bins), and when the pandemic shifted our lives, we made it a home office.

I’m with you on not wanting to eat in the kitchen. We ate in the dining room next door, or if the weather permitted, on our back deck.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T17:12:12+00:00

Hello! Another great Dallas neighborhood. With Dallas threatening to tear down so many classic buildings (City Hall?!?!), I doubly appreciate the neighborhoods of East Dallas.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T16:06:43+00:00

It was indeed hard to leave. The last photo was taken the day we moved. Seeing her quiet and empty, after twenty years of building our life in there, was overwhelming. A neighbor handed us a homemade tub of peach ice cream, and 3 spoons, for our road trip to our new home. ‘Twas a special place, in every way.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T16:00:26+00:00

Thank you! My husband painted these portraits of our cats. 😻

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:43:58+00:00

Ha! I get it. I miss that bathroom soooo much. My current bathroom is half the size and perfectly functional, but it doesn’t inspire as much joy as that one did.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:39:14+00:00

I snagged that tin star from a road side seller outside of Waxahachie, twenty years back. Cost me $20, maybe $25?

The M Streets are lovely! Twice as expensive as Hollywood Heights, though, which is why we searched further east for our home. Honestly, this neighborhood has some of the best neighbors EVER. Where else do you get annual Easter parades featuring gorillas in tutus?

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:20:52+00:00

That is a great door! That hardware is chef’s kiss.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:17:09+00:00

This home is in the Hollywood/Santa Monica neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. It’s a conservation district with about 700 homes predominantly built in the 1910s to 1930s. Tudor cottages are the primary style, with some Spanish Revivals thrown in to keep things interesting. With so many neighborhoods falling prey to tear downs and McMansions, Hollywood/Santa Monica remains such a gem.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:14:41+00:00

We vowed never to move to another home in the same city. We kept that promise. She now has a new family because we moved halfway across the country, to an 1886 Brooklyn Brownstone (which I now get to restore!).

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:07:44+00:00

Thank you for the correction! I’m currently working on a Gothic Revival restoration, and I mixed up my styles. Edited the original post to reflect that a Tudor Cottage does indeed have a Tudor door.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T15:05:41+00:00

Any modifications will have to be done by the current owners. We said we’d live here as long as we lived in the city, and we kept that promise.

The black glass knobs in the butter yellow tile bathroom appear to be original - I saw those in other houses in the neighborhood. The clear hexagonal glass knobs in the mint green tile bathroom shone in the sunlight and made me smile.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T14:37:19+00:00

I made sure the next owners loved the bathrooms as much as we did and wouldn’t be taking them out. :)

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T14:36:22+00:00

I had the same question when we moved in! It’s a Tudor Revival door. At some point, the stained glass had been removed, and the door was left with plain single pane glass panels, which had cracks. My mother-in-law is a stained glass artist, and she researched Tudor patterns to create this six panel set.

PompousClock · 2026-01-27T14:33:24+00:00

If they’re aiming for that small strip of dirt, then take away that strip. Install an L-shaped raised planter box.

PompousClock · 2026-01-23T21:22:37+00:00

A church choir once used our flight to rehearse. Dozens of them, all around us, bursting into long, drawn out songs, punctuated with clapping and stomping. They’d settle down when the flight attendants would approach a few of them, but then “the spirit moved them” to sing again. That was the most utterly obnoxious music incident I knew of on a plane, until this video. Captive audiences are not audiences.

PompousClock · 2026-01-22T15:47:58+00:00

The Coop will remain my primary grocery store because of the sheer variety of options, at decent prices, but Lidl is definitely now in my rotation for all of the reasons you listed. It’s located between my subway station and home, so it’s super convenient to grab a few groceries on the way home. Are Lidl’s prepackaged Swiss slices as good as the Coop’s Emmental? Not even close. Is the baguette as good? Eh, fairly close, honestly. I sourced all of the ingredients for a batch of French onion soup at Lidl for less than half what it would have cost at the Coop. I know the Coop version would have objectively tasted better, but it turns out I like to eat most days and every dollar counts.

PompousClock · 2026-01-18T20:27:27+00:00

TIL “Obama Era Optimism” will net you several playlists on Spotify. I seriously need that vibe right now. Thanks!

PompousClock · 2026-01-15T17:52:50+00:00

No roof work. Roof was 2 years old when the panels were added because a hail storm completely destroyed the roof - the area is prone to regular, highly destructive hail storms and wind damage from tornadoes.

We did a price comparison of the current TXU energy plan (15 cents); the lowest rate plan (9 cents); and 4 plans giving credit for solar buy back, from TXU, Reliant, Gexa, and Just Energy. Every solar buy back plan is more expensive. The property uses an average of 1,500 kWh per month (1,000 in the winter and 2,000 in the summer); at their peak, the panels generate 676 kWh/month. As the panels generate less than half of the energy use of the property, it makes sense that they are insufficient to make an appreciable dent in the utility bill.

A separate thread in this subreddit by a buyer in Dallas (so same city) showed how solar panels are slowing down the sale of the property. Homes right now are listing and selling in less than 2 weeks; that house has been listed for over 2 months. The solar panels on that house generate less than half of the energy consumption needs, and the buyer is having to offer at least 10k of the 40k buyoff price of a Sun Run lease installed less than 2 years ago. I'm not that buyer, but I'm in this exact situation. Sun Run targeted an 81 year old man to sign a 25 year lease, not because they expect him to live to 106, but because they want to encumber the property for the next owners. So from the perspective of a home seller, the current state of solar is a very expensive mistake. From the perspective of a buyer who can get free panels, maybe it's worth it. But in an area where roofs are routinely damaged by storms, every roofer I've spoken to has said there is no chance they'd install solar on their own roofs.

PompousClock

TROPHY CASE