KatieDidIt

The past two years it hardly seems that it rains at all.

Kinkaid, I will have to say the big different between HISD and CISD is the art. My son is taught about the masters and contemporary artists and they create pictures using that technique. Its rotates with music class every 6 weeks. We NEVER had music at Briargrove Elem. HISD had "crafts" every 7 school days. They also get PE daily up here, which HISD had every 7 school days.. HISD gotta love them; Give the kids free breakfast because their parents can't shake a cereal box, but lets not make them run or do anything active.

But they all test for TAKS and that coveted rating.

They did that here as well in the 70's

Well, I think they need to bring that back. I think it makes the school work for the kids, not for the school district.

I went through Elementary schools in NC, which had and I think still does have a great school system. I remember auditors randomly coming into the classes and observing and grading the TEACHERS.

Wouldn't it be great to re-employ that concept. Test the schools and teachers on how well they are instructing, and on how their students are testing on the grade appropriate curriculum.

I know of second graders that are scared of third grade because of the TAKS. I can't believe they even know what that is! They have heard it affects if they go on to fourth or not...no matter what their grades are. OR that's what the kids are led to believe.

The geographical location won't open any cans of worms in terms of public safety

I think the TAKS test and the rating system is causing the demise of public education. There is too much time and fear invested in it.

In about two years all of those homes way out there are going to be worth A LOT less.

Have you not been observing building costs and the continuing rise in property values in the satellite burbs??? The trend of flight from central Houston?? The population boom that central Houston can't support, and the fact that the majority of that boom can't afford central Houston???

You'd have to shoot me first, and I'm a native.

Most native Houstonians would run to The Woodlands long before Katy.... but then they always come back.

Even the good stucco mildews terribly in Houston. You have to power wash often if you don't like that "green streak" look.

I agree with most everything posted above except for the school part.

River Oaks, Lanier, and Lamar are all great public schools. Lamar is a magnet high school but draws wealthy kids from River Oaks, Montrose, Upper Kirby, Southampton, Boulevard Oaks, Tanglewood, and Briargrove. Test scores, graduation rates, and % of kids who go on to college are VERY high.

If money is not an option, I'd chose River Oaks without a second thought.

I agree Lamar is good, but it can be a hard social choice for those that have a good student but not an intellectual rockstar. Where HISD loses kids to private school is at Junior High levels. HISD really needs to do something about Grady!....If you are only above average, not magnet gifted material, the choices are poor...Lamar can even be a little rough for those average students from good neighborhoods....I have older friends (very pro-HISD with good kids, but not AP students) that tried it with their children, that admit that they would have gone private had they been able to swing Kinkaid or St. JOhn's for all their kids.... Still, European schools are still ahead of most of our best public schools.

I know up here in The Woodlands there is a large British community, and it seems all the families I have met send their kids to John Cooper.

Well, I guess the upside of the Richmond line is that traffic will decrease in the area. Most people I know don't want to drive anywhere near the light rail lines.

Hello! I am moving to Houston from Europe (Romania) because of my business and I would like to know if The Woodlands community is a good place to by house? The main criteria are: safety, nice environment (green, parks...), time to commute to downtown Houston. Another option could be River Oaks, wich is close to downtown Houston, but I think crime is higher. I need some info from people living there. Thank you!

Crime: While Central Houston has more crime, the Woodlands basically has no police. .2 officers per 1000 vs. 2.3 officers per 1000 in Houston. Most Houston Communities also provide a private patrol to suppliment the police, which the Woodlands does not. The Woodlands doesn't have nearly the amount of serious crime at this point as Houston, but the lack of police coverage and patrol is starting to show.

Schools: The public schools are much better in the Woodlands, River Oaks area mostly attends private.

Commute: If you like having a short drive home and spending evenings with your family, the Woodlands isn't for you. Even taking the Woodlands Express ( a bus that runs from the front of the Woodlands to downtown), eats a good hour into family time.

Community: Both River Oaks and The Woodlands have have a good population of European families and communities.

Price of the Housing: The Woodlands is amazingly inexpensive to purchase a home in. The Golf Club in the Woodlands is joined by the price of a joining fee and its immediate.

River Oaks is a classic, old and very affluent Houston neighborhood with prices averaging 1 million and up for homes in the better areas. The club is private and exclusive, often taking 5 to 8 years to gain membership with many recommendations from members and leaders of the Houston community.

It just depends what you are going for. Most likely if you have children, they will attend private school no matter which area you live in. They will be ahead of American schools.

Your choice is therefore: River Oaks/Tanglewood with no commute, no club membership, high property cost, lots of culture and an urban life style.

OR

The Woodlands/Northern Suburbs with an hour minimum commute, club membership, very affordable housing, excellent public schools if you chose them, yet limited culture and a very sleepy suburban lifestyle.

If you don't have school age children....stay in town!

You mean like the time in college my best friend and I jumped off a bridge in Mississippi into a raging river in the middle of winter after a horrendous storm that caused the river to be 15 feet above it's norm, while broken trees and who knows what, are rushing by in water so murky it looks like a giant Cafe' Latte roaring by at about 5 to 10 mph, and you jump in and try to swim to the side while your best friend who jumped in with you almost drowns because he got hit in the head by a log as soon as he hit the water, and then you almost die of hypothermia because it is about 43* outside, and all you have on is a pair of shorts, and you just used every muscle in your body to make it to the side before you get pushed into the train tresles about 1000 feet down river ? Stuff like that ? I am pretty sure my parents told me at some point, NOT TO DO THAT ! It wasn't from a lack of parenting, just a poor choice, that seemed like a fantastic idea at the time, and there was no alcohol involved.

LMAO. You know after all the "guy stories" I have heard, I am surprised that the precentage of males that make it alive into adulthood is so high.

....or George and Laura or Jeb and (insert Jeb's wife's name here)? Not to excuse White's daughter but maybe being the child of a famous person has it's added pressures?

Dunno, but they certainly get watched and caught more because of it.

I felt sorry for the Bush twins. What well adjusted, red-blooded American teen waits until they were 21 to get drunk off their butts on a 6th Street? If I had been the president's daughter, my face would be on the tabloid cover every Thursday through Sunday night in college.....cept in my Senior year, because then I was 21 and it was all boring.

Being a good parent, with fantastic skills and good values, does not insure your teenager's brain will function maturely and within the moral code at all times.

In fact, I would dare to say that every poster on this board did something MORONIC in their teenage years and probably didn't get busted for it.

We went into the Orvis up here a few weeks ago, my husband is a Texan and an avid hunter. They certainly did there research and are catering to the Woodlands demographic, no custom guns or deluxe hunting accesories...just clothing, dog beds and preppy women's clothing. There was some fishing gear....

The Orvis on Augusta and Westheimer is certainly more "Texan."

Any running bets on how long it will take for this statue to get "tagged?"

We recently flew an 8 hour flight. My husband and I are pretty small and we barely had room on either side. His shoulders came over into my seat, but it wasn't a big deal because I liked him that day.

On the flight home the plane was full, no upgrades available, we couldn't sit together and I sat in a row with an overweight couple. Fortunately I was on the aisle otherwise I would have gotten off the plane. The woman fit in her seat, but her shoulders and arms came half way into my seat. When the food service came her arms were on my table, she knockied a drink over in my lap that was on my table, and everytime she worked her seatbelt she elbowed me. I am sure it was an uncomfortable flight for her, but I gave up half my seat and was smashed against a strangers bare arm for 8 hours, my back went out from the angle I sat at.... yet paid full price.

So yeah, I think either the seats need to get bigger or bigger people need to book two seats.

Its crazy where customs homes start at in 2006, compaired to 5 years ago. Even companies like Village and Horton have gone off the the deep end in my opinion. What's amazing is the land value in the newer sections is only about 75k, your value is in the house..........that's rather a scary thought for a Houstonian. Your house better be a good one, and I guess that's what was the hardest thing for those Life Form owners when the stucco hit the fan.

But this sharp upswing is good for The Woodlands I guess. But I am very skeptical about those Brownstones going for 800 up in Eastshore. That's almost as much or more than an intown garden home,with a strip of grass. I can't understand how the apraissals are going through, the land is worth so little.

As to Beckonvale, I think its a really cute neighborhood and many of the houses have that Craftsman feel. We looked at a few with the idea that we would upgrade some of the standard materials. In the end, we thought with the reputation Life Forms had and the lack of land value up here, they weren't worth the price and resale was risky. Plus, I have to agree with a previous post, these particular homes were cute on the outside but the bedroom areas were like a rabbit warren. BUT, those Life Forms are now selling for 100k more that when we were looking...so there ya go.

that's a no-brainer. if i were going to spend upwards of 800k on a george weaver custom home, lifeforms wouldn't be on my radar. lifeform homes are about more house on a budget. i don't think anyone in the 150k price range would be considering a george weaver home as an option.

Bach, there are many Life Forms in an area called Beckonvale that are larger and were built in the past few years.. And Weaver homes didn't hit that crazy level until recently, in fact three years ago they weren't much more than those Life Forms they are/were building. I was speaking of companies, not price ranges.

But more to my point, realtors continue to dog the company, maybe unfairly. If the problems were fixed and resolved, I would think fair practices would let the issue go.

Spring, that's too bad! Many of them have just that, wood paneling, wood floors. I am sorry you did not get a chance to see them!

I wouldn't call their houses poorly-built. I understand they had issues as noted above, but also noted was that it affected a particular group of houses in a particular neighborhood that used a particular stucco. I particularly like the word "particular".

Did you end up moving to a Jerry Kirkpatrick home? I am not familiar with him. Are they like Life Forms?

Real Estate Agents really rag on Life Forms, even the newer ones, to this day. We went with George Weaver. Great family and company.

Well, I am hoping all the rescent attempts at child abduction throughout The Woodlands, by several different men (some with puppies), has woken a few people up. Its slays me that parents here think 8 year olds can go to parks by themselves.

I wish the Associations would just hire private patrol already. They have enough money, its ridiculous.

In the less than two years here, we have had more neighborhood "incidents" than we had in the entire 14 years in our Galleria neighborhood. But there we had private patrol 24/7 with HPD backup. They were ever present in the neighborhood, we knew most by name, saw them cruising the street several times a day, and they had a response time of 3-4 minutes. And get this, they provided that AND twice a week trash pickup for a flat, non-prorated fee, that is 1/3 of the Woodlands. So I hear fiddles playing when the Associations say they have to "find the funds."

Granted the crimes here aren't major : Sprayings, smashed windows, smashed car windows and doors, home invading peeping Toms.....but the big criminals have to start somewhere. When areas grow, so do the social problems with it. If the WDC/WDC paid Association Employess (gosh I miss a board of home owner trustees) were truely "pro-active" something would have organized and a plan budgeted years ago.

WDC opened the Parkway and basically served up its residents on a platter to a whole new set of problems...

.2 officers per 1,000 residents is laughable for the amount of taxes and fees residents pay here. The best way to curb crime, is to have a law enforcement presence. And taking years to figure out "were they are going to find the money to pay for it......." please, they are just affraid their bonuses will get smaller.

Its time for The Woodlands to become some sort of City, living within a corporation is no longer working.

The have copies right at the Barbara Mitchell Branch Library on Ashlane. Ironic that they put a library in her name in an area that which will have a Park-n-ride, a YMCA, a strip mall, a gas station and a Junior High School all in the same location.

Kids and Stressed out commuters don't mix.

2 years ago it was 75-80,000 for a approx. 12,000 lot. I know they have gone up a litte, but the lots sizes are certainly getting smaller. Our builder says every year, the WDC gives them smaller and smaller lots to build on. Demand in huge and you can make more money if you can squeeze a few more homes in.

Terramont. To me the whole village really seems almost solely devoted to commercial at this point. Not sure what types of resdients it will have. Everything that is selling or sold on East Terramont claims to be Sterling Ridge. I have a feeling it will be apartments.

Greenspoint. What a failure.