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Bidding on the home of hostess extraordinaireBecca Cason Thrash and energy executive John Thrash will open May 18. The property is listed for $19.5 million, though interested buyers can bid whatever they want at auction.

MORE ON THE HOSTESS: A few of Becca Cason Thrash's favorite things

The couple is selling the property because they have a home in Paris and spend most of their time overseas, said Jay Monroe, the real estate agent who listed the property with Martha TurnerSotheby's International Realty.

The 18,113 square-foot home, sitting on 3.62 acres, is at 306 Longwoods Lane. The Memorial area home was built as a mid-century brick house in 1965. It has since been renovated into a "contemporary architectural triumph," according to theSotheby's listing. It combines Eastern and Western inspiration, and the house has a reverence for the designs of architects I.M. Pei, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

"It's almost 20,000 square feet, but you don't know it," Becca Cason Thrash said in a video shared with the listing. "It's nestled back in this very green property. And you see this sort of very minimal gray structure and gray granite gravel, and everything is really, really restrained. And then when you walk in, it just gets bigger and it unfolds. And it gets bigger and bigger. And you're just flabbergasted over the actual enormity of it."

The home has been a staple for lavish gatherings. Among the soirees were those thrown for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama and George Clooney (the evening Clooney visited, one guest fell in the pool!).

The property flooded during Hurricane Harvey, with Becca Cason Thrash evacuated by boat as she stayed behind trying to save photos and artwork. They lived in the Four Seasons for nearly two years as the house was renovated.

Becca Cason Thrash was co-founder of the PaperCity Magazine. She's a Houston Chronicle Best Dressed Hall of Famer. John Thrash is CEO of energy companyeCORP International.

Amber Elliott contributed to this report.

andrea.leinfelder@houstonchronicle.com

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Houston socialites' $19.5M party house that's hosted Obama ... - Houston Chronicle