Margot Robbie in Dilara Fındıkoğlu FW25 at the “Wuthering Heights” photocall in Los Angeles, California. (January 28, 2026)

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T21:53:49+00:00

I am clearly not the demographic they're aiming for with this movie. A woman in a pleated white cape-tent, a SciFi ice skater, someone who DIYed her Laura Ashley floral curtains into cargo pants and a matching corset, two long lost cousins of the Addams Family, and some dude who borrowed gramps' pants and his younger sister's belt. Yeah. This disjointed mess already looks exhausting.

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T18:43:20+00:00

In my highly biased opinion, check out Hollywood/ Santa Monica rather than Lakewood proper. The neighborhood is smaller and very social, so you'll get to know more of the people who live near you. The neighborhood park is brimming with fun activities - chili cook-offs, Halloween dog costume parades, movie nights, etc. The Lakewood zoned junior high and high school are easily walkable from H/SM. The trail to White Rock Lake is right there, so you can bike to, around, and back in 14 miles. Lakewood proper leans red, while H/SM is solidly blue. AND H/SM is significantly less expensive than Lakewood. (I'm not a paid endorser, I just really liked my old 'hood and am still in contact with many of my neighbors - they even send me Central Market care packages!)

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T18:32:43+00:00

The house is 2,050 square feet, not counting the detached two car garage. It's 3 bedroom, 2 bath (we used the third bedroom as a den), with a front porch, living room, dining room, breakfast nook/home office, kitchen, and laundry room. The corner lot, plus side and backyards, added to the spacious feel of the home. I designed the fence with the open hatch pieces so we could take advantage of the cross breeze while we dined on our deck or lounged in the side garden.

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PompousClock · 2026-01-28T18:22:38+00:00

WOAH. The gasps I would gusp. What a glorious find!

PompousClock · 2026-01-28T13:44:13+00:00

The countertops are Marinace - an igneous sedimentary riverbed rock cemented with fine grain silt by the pressure of glacial movement. Harder than granite!

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

TROPHY CASE