Celebration marks new home, car magazine, birthday
Karen and Bob Derr recently held a triple celebration to commemorate Bob’s birthday, the conversion of their newhome inHouston Heights from awashateria to a house and the recent online launch of his “Firing Order” magazine— full of fine old cars.
The Derrs, both broker/ associates with Boulevard Realty, which formerlywas Karen Derr & Associates Realty, invited friends and Realtors and manywere in attendance. Quite a fewattendees remembered the home as a washateria, which stood on its corner lot for decades.
“Whenwe first bought the building and gutted it, Karen drewup a plan for making it into an industrial loft- style home with two bedrooms, two baths, and a large living area and kitchen,” said Derr, who supervised the project and did quite a bit of thework himself.
The custom- built kitchen is brightly accessorized in yellow, purple and green accenting marble countertops and newstainless- steel appliances. Leading into the master bedroom is a very long and wide hallwaywith awet bar, wine cooler, bookshelves, couch and a television. Adjoining the bedroom is a master bath with a large porcelain soaking tub and a large showerwith a rain faucet along with a regular faucet andwand. The home’s guest bath has awholewall of art- glass tiles.
Therewas plenty of birthday carrot cake and other delicious food for the guests. Bob was hesitant to say the number of birthdays he’s had. However, judging by the number of skills he has learned to perform in his lifetime, there have been more than 21 birthdays celebrated.
Bob is an accomplished father of two, real estate broker, photographer, craftsman, technology expert and car buff. His real passion is old cars, and he has some really nice ones he has rebuilt and continuallyworks on in his small amount of spare time.
He has a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle; 1957 Ford Ranchero; 1941 Chevy panel truck; 1941 Ford pickup truck; and a 1928 Dodge Brothers Coupe.
Putting his magazine “Firing Order” together has been a dream in the making for a long time.
The first online issue featured many beautiful old cars, and thewhole mantra is for guyswho are out there building their cars by themselves. Also, some of the articleswere written by peoplewho own old cars. Bob’s object is to meet people and take pictures of them and their cars.
“Typically, when a guy is into building cars, their fatherswere into it, too. I remember helpingmy father swap motors,” said Bob, who drove to Boerne for a car show and another nearHouston off of Texas 249. Pictures of these showwill be featured in the next issue of “Firing Order,” which is published every other month.
• • • RebekahMayfield, broker/ associate at Prudential Anderson Properties’Heights office, served as chairwoman for the first Norhill BungalowHome Tour. The goal of the tour focused on bringing exposure to the many unique, smaller andwonderful bungalow- style homes in this historic neighborhood, north of 11th Street. Mayfield’s experience in corporate event planning made her an ideal coordinator for this special neighborhood event. AlongtimeNorhill resident and member of the active civic association, Mayfield selected the homes and interviewed the homeowners. She enlisted sponsors and docents for each of the lovely homes. The bungalows chosen represent a cross section of development, including homes from the 1920s with to- the- stud renovations and one complete newbuild.
• • • Ronnie and CathyMatthews of RE/ MAXLegends and Mike and Ally Seder of RE/ MAX TheWoodlands & Spring presented “Evening ofMiracles,” a charity concert featuring 11- year- old piano prodigy Ethan Bortnick on Oct. 13 benefiting Children’s MiracleNetworkHospitals.
The concert, held at Amerigo’s in The Woodlands, had an attendance of nearly 200 people, including RE/ MAX agents, local business partners, sponsors, and representatives from RE/ MAX LLC, Children’sMiracle NetworkHospitals, and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Bortnick’s younger brotherNathan, who was born with a heart abnormality, was treated at a Children’sMiracleNetworkHospital in their home state of Florida, and Bortnick donatesmuch of his time and talent to raising money for CMNH.
Bortnick’s talent and charming stage presence captivated the crowd, with songs ranging from classical compositions to Little Richard toAdele. Before intermission, Bortnick asked the crowd to get on Twitter and tweet their thoughts about the concert, after which he opened his iPad and composed a song incorporating the tweets in real time. In addition to Bortnick’s performance, the eveningwas peppered with spectacular live and silent auctions. The concert raised more than $ 100,000 for Texas Children’sHospital, the local Children’sMiracleNetworkHospital inHouston.
Real Estate News is written by Jude Patronella, a real estate closing specialist. Send e- mail to news4jude@ aol. com.