This one belongs to a friend of Albert’s from his synagogue. It’s in Bellaire — one of those transition zones where some houses have been flipped and some have been torn down and built new, which honestly describes most of Houston. I’ve watched too many people buy in neighborhoods where no remodel, however good, can overcome the location. This isn’t that.

To get the hard money loan, the garage conversion had to be part of the deal — that was the lender’s condition. And it made sense. I walked in and immediately saw the walls that could come out. The house was chopped up — formal living, dining, and den all separate — with three bedrooms sharing a single full bath and a half bath stuck behind the kitchen in the laundry room.

The plan: knock out the walls and open it into one big space with room for a large island. The old kitchen peninsulas came down in favor of a full wall of cabinetry. Then the bathrooms — I carved a primary bath out of the former living room, taking part of the den next to the patio door and walling it into a large bath accessed through the primary bedroom in the back. The garage became a second primary bedroom with its own bath. Three full baths and a half, when it’s done.

Permitting is the holdup — adding this many bathrooms takes time. The kitchen renderings show where it’s headed.