Post-Harvey dream house
Memorial-area family of six builds up to avoid flooding
Working more from a home office since the coronavirus pandemic started, Justin Hodge enjoys seeing neighbors walk or drive by. They wave to him and he waves back, gestures of humanity at a time we all need a little more of that.
His wife, Courtney, notices the same thing, and though Justin likes seeing more of people he rarely saw before, she sometimes feels a little too exposed. No more walking around in her pajamas and bathrobe during primetime morning hours.
The Hodges’ house has large steel-framed windows that open to the world outside, and its elevation — 4 feet off of the ground — emphasizes it even more.
In May 2017, when the Hodges bought this corner lot in Gaywood on the city’s west side, they intended to demolish the small rancher that had been built in 1964. They were living in a 2,700square-foot home in nearby Wilchester, but with four children, they felt like they were on top of each other. When the kids had friends over, it was even worse.
“We’re a family of six, so we need more space,” Justin said. “Especially for hosting, we want to be the house where our teenage kids can have their friends over. Our other house would not allow for that.”
The family’s new house was in the planning stages — waiting for its construction drawings to finish — when Hurricane Harvey struck. Not all of this neighborhood flooded, but the Hodges’ lot did. Subsequent changes in city building codes meant they had to create a new plan to elevate their home to stay above potential floodwater in the future.
That’s what contributes to the family feeling like they live in a fishbowl: Not only do they have beautiful windows, but they’re elevated to a point that people can see straight into the study, main living area and dining room at the front of the house.
“Initially we didn’t want draperies because we wanted to see out, and then we realized that everyone could see in,” Courtney said. “I don’t even come out in my pajamas anymore. After a week in the house, I called Genna and said, ‘We need curtains.’ ”
Interior designer Genna Weidner and her business partner Deborah Hasou of Weidner Hasou & Co. designed the Hodges’ home inside and out. Weidner is the interior designer, and Hasou is a certified professional building designer.
The two women joined forces a decade ago when, as neighbors, they met and started referring clients to each other. They came to realize they were a good team, and now have a design studio and retail store with a variety of home goods on Memorial.
The Hodges met Weidner and Hasou after learning that they had worked on a neighbor’s home. And their builder, Huseyin Finci of Houston Quality Builders, was a friend.
Both Justin, 43, and Courtney, 40, wanted more space, but they needed a home that could function better for their family’s growing needs.
Their inspiration for the home’s style and architecture was one of their favorite vacation spots: Alys Beach in Florida’s Panhandle. It shows up in the white exterior, unique floor tile, curvy arches inside and outside the home and black-pebble walkways on outdoor sidewalks and as the base of an outdoor shower.
During vacations, Courtney and Justin took pictures of the brightwhite Mediterranean palette, courtyards and water features. Part of elevating their home included creating two small front courtyards, each of which has a bubbling fountain.
The current layout has a downstairs primary bedroom suite, and the upstairs is devoted to their kids, Hallie, 14, Tynsley, 12, Bowen, 8 and Crawford, 6. There, each child has a bedroom and bathroom, plus there’s a more casual family room where they watch TV. A homework nook was meant for kids to get studying done, but for part of this year it was where Bowen and Crawford attended school virtually while Hallie and Tynsley got new desks for their rooms.
Each child now has room that reflects their personality and taste, with plenty of pink and purple in the girls’ rooms and dark blue in Crawford’s masculine bedroom and bathroom wallpaper crawling with cute snakes.
Downstairs has a calmer overall palette with pops of color. The family room features a wall of built-in cabinets painted deep teal, paired with emerald-green draperies and a Bohemian-print rug in blue and white. The nearby homework nook — with pocket doors that can close it off — has the same colors with built-in desks painted teal and green as the wallpaper and window shade.
A cute settee in the hallway got a modern update when Courtney had her grandmother’s piece painted bright pink and reupholstered in a modern pink-andwhite fabric.
Hallie’s room got a more sophisticated treatment with lavender paint and a purple bed along with wallpaper that looks like pieces of onyx stone on the ceiling. She and younger sister Tynsley each got what every teen and tween girl wants right now — a hanging swing chair. Tynsley opted for a pink-and-gray combination with a statement wall of wallpaper and gray paint on the remaining walls. Bowen’s sweet room has a pair of pink twin beds against wallpaper covered in greenery and birds.
Downstairs, a large main living area includes the living room and kitchen with the formal dining room off of one corner and a study off of the other. White dominates the kitchen in paint and the counter stone, with pops of gold in plumbing fixtures, lighting and barstools as a warm accent.
A visitor’s first impression in
the living room is of the color that is used boldly in teal and chartreuse chairs, plus more in decorative pillows and objets d’art on open shelves. The room is warmed up by pale French oak floors and white stone with strips of brass inlay around the fireplace and running up the wall, a striking backdrop for the spiky starburst lighting fixture in the center of the space.
The study is a jewel. Not only is it filled with rich colors and gorgeous furnishings, it also has a hard-to-spot secret door that allows Justin to shift from the office into his closet in the primary bedroom suite.
Weidner persuaded them to paint the paneled walls and ceiling in Sherwin-Williams Tempe Star, a deeply saturated dark blue.
“I wasn’t sure how much I would use it, but I’m in here every day,” Justin said, noting that he does work for his law firm, Marrs Ellis & Hodge, and as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Houston Law School, where he teaches classes in eminent domain and land taking.
And he does use the secret door once in a while because it’s a shortcut from one part of the home to another and because sometimes Courtney and her friends might be in the living room and he doesn’t want to disrupt them.
His antique desk was a Round Top find and is paired with two more contemporary-style chairs in deep tan leather. Lighting brings in gold accents in a boxy chandelier and a pair of table lamps that remind you of something out of an old New York library.
Everyone likes to visit him in the study, and that’s fine with Justin, whose main goal was to have a home where everyone could use everything.
Visible from every window at the back of the house is the inviting backyard, with a swimming pool and a cabana that has a large living area with an outdoor kitchen, plus a full bathroom and a small gym, all surrounded by artificial turf.
Just like indoors, this outdoor living area has something for everyone. The living area has two built-in sofas lined with blackand-white cushions. A pair of lime-green chairs adds a major punch, and a large table allows for al fresco dining.