We had a few trick-or-treaters this evening, the most memorable of which were a pair of penguins. I'm sure we'll have an overabundance next year at Mueller, given how many families with children are moving into the neighborhood!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Trick or Treat!
We had a few trick-or-treaters this evening, the most memorable of which were a pair of penguins. I'm sure we'll have an overabundance next year at Mueller, given how many families with children are moving into the neighborhood!
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Happy Halloween!
Well, I must say the idea definitely looked better on paper. Tonight we made a House-o-Lantern:
Have we gone too far?
Have we gone too far?
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
New Kitchen and Bathroom Schemes!
Update: The photos below now include images of the materials themselves, in addition to the computer renderings. We've finalized our selections and are very relieved to be done with the decision-making process. More to come soon!
Timothy and I spent Saturday afternoon in the Design Center, rethinking our kitchen. Our designer had created two great schemes, as we showed you below, but we couldn't come to an agreement regarding which kitchen we wanted. Rather than one of us compromise, we completely redesigned the kitchen and now have a scheme both of us really like:
We've kept the black cabinets from Option 1 but swapped out a much brighter Silestone countertop, Tea Leaf. It's mostly tans with splashes of green. For the backsplash, we'd like to use green mosaic glass tile, with hints of turquoise to tie in with the fabric on my couch and chair.
We're all but convinced that we should do the tile ourselves. The cost to have the builder upgrade the countertop is far cheaper than we could do it after the fact, in part because a fairly nice counter was included and also because little labor is involved in the installation. Upgrading the tile, which has labor-intensive installation, is far from reasonably priced. Another advantage is that we could do all glass tile, rather than the tile listello band offered by the builder. (I'm sure they would offer more than just the band, but if the price is already steep... !) But, I've been warned by a reputable source (my mother) that glass tile is a do-it-yourselfer's nightmare since the tile is translucent.
After redesigning the kitchen, we got carried away with countertops! In picking the new counter for the kitchen, we found another we love but that wouldn't go with anything we own. It's similar to the Tea Leaf, but rather than flecks of green, it has large pieces of bright cobalt blue! So, why not put it in the master bathroom?
Here, the cost of the countertop is at least competitive with doing it later, despite only an inexpensive faux-marble counter coming standard. We are also considering not having the builder tile the tub skirt, but instead doing blue mosaic glass tile there as well!
These are by far our most exciting choices. Flooring throughout the house will be standard level carpet and tile in beige and more beige. We would love to have hardwood or bamboo flooring, but again the cost to have the builder do labor-intensive installation is exorbitant. So, we'll let the carpet wear out and then replace it later. We've also done some wiring upgrades - for ceiling fans upstairs and on the front porch, and for Timothy's amazing technology-free living room. (Well, not technology free, but also not DVD player et al front and center!) We're going to get rounded corners on the sheetrock since they look so much nicer. And then there are a few frivolous upgrades, like a really great front door, but we've surprisingly managed to stay within a reasonable budget!
Our final Design Center appointment is this evening! Hopefully you love our kitchen and bathroom ideas - or you might want to tell us now before it's too late!!
Timothy and I spent Saturday afternoon in the Design Center, rethinking our kitchen. Our designer had created two great schemes, as we showed you below, but we couldn't come to an agreement regarding which kitchen we wanted. Rather than one of us compromise, we completely redesigned the kitchen and now have a scheme both of us really like:
We've kept the black cabinets from Option 1 but swapped out a much brighter Silestone countertop, Tea Leaf. It's mostly tans with splashes of green. For the backsplash, we'd like to use green mosaic glass tile, with hints of turquoise to tie in with the fabric on my couch and chair.
We're all but convinced that we should do the tile ourselves. The cost to have the builder upgrade the countertop is far cheaper than we could do it after the fact, in part because a fairly nice counter was included and also because little labor is involved in the installation. Upgrading the tile, which has labor-intensive installation, is far from reasonably priced. Another advantage is that we could do all glass tile, rather than the tile listello band offered by the builder. (I'm sure they would offer more than just the band, but if the price is already steep... !) But, I've been warned by a reputable source (my mother) that glass tile is a do-it-yourselfer's nightmare since the tile is translucent.
After redesigning the kitchen, we got carried away with countertops! In picking the new counter for the kitchen, we found another we love but that wouldn't go with anything we own. It's similar to the Tea Leaf, but rather than flecks of green, it has large pieces of bright cobalt blue! So, why not put it in the master bathroom?
Here, the cost of the countertop is at least competitive with doing it later, despite only an inexpensive faux-marble counter coming standard. We are also considering not having the builder tile the tub skirt, but instead doing blue mosaic glass tile there as well!
These are by far our most exciting choices. Flooring throughout the house will be standard level carpet and tile in beige and more beige. We would love to have hardwood or bamboo flooring, but again the cost to have the builder do labor-intensive installation is exorbitant. So, we'll let the carpet wear out and then replace it later. We've also done some wiring upgrades - for ceiling fans upstairs and on the front porch, and for Timothy's amazing technology-free living room. (Well, not technology free, but also not DVD player et al front and center!) We're going to get rounded corners on the sheetrock since they look so much nicer. And then there are a few frivolous upgrades, like a really great front door, but we've surprisingly managed to stay within a reasonable budget!
Our final Design Center appointment is this evening! Hopefully you love our kitchen and bathroom ideas - or you might want to tell us now before it's too late!!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Street Names
The names of the streets at Mueller "honor a diverse cross-section of Austin leaders and legends symbolizing the city's great history and distinct culture." (From Mueller Street Legends, pdf file.) Our house will be at the corner of McCloskey and Scales streets:
McCloskey Street: John McCloskey
Scales Street: Normal Scales
Architects and designers are well represented, accounting for two of the 53 new street names. Timothy and I were excited to find Page and Taniguchi streets.
Charles Henry Page established the firm of Page Brothers Architects in 1898, which would ultimately grow into the internationally acclaimed practice Page Southerland Page. Among C.H. Page's most prominent works are the Littlefield Building and Travis County Courthouse in downtown Austin.
Isamu Taniguchi created the beautiful Japanese Garden at Zilker Botanical Gardens from 1967 to 1969. His son Alan served as dean of both the University of Texas' and Rice University's School of Architecture. He established Alan Y. Taniguchi Architects, continued by his son Evan.
McCloskey Street: John McCloskey
John McCloskey, a professional baseball player, brought professional baseball to Texas by request of Austin businessmen and baseball fans after his Joplin, Missouri team challenged and beat the New York Giants in two games. Mr. McCloskey founded the Texas League in 1888 and managed the Austin team The Austin Baseball Club, later renamed the Austin Senators, which consisted of professional players he brought to Texas as the Joplin Independents.
Scales Street: Normal Scales
Norman Scales grew up in South and East Austin and was the first African-American pilot from Austin. In 1940, Mr. Scales enlisted in the United States Army and in a few years was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in class of the U.S. Military Single Engine Fighter Pilots of Tuskegee, Alabama. He flew more than 70 missions engaging in enemy fighting and was in charge of installation and maintenance of wire and radio signal communications. Mr. Scales was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross presented at Bergstrom Air Force Base.
Architects and designers are well represented, accounting for two of the 53 new street names. Timothy and I were excited to find Page and Taniguchi streets.
Charles Henry Page established the firm of Page Brothers Architects in 1898, which would ultimately grow into the internationally acclaimed practice Page Southerland Page. Among C.H. Page's most prominent works are the Littlefield Building and Travis County Courthouse in downtown Austin.
Isamu Taniguchi created the beautiful Japanese Garden at Zilker Botanical Gardens from 1967 to 1969. His son Alan served as dean of both the University of Texas' and Rice University's School of Architecture. He established Alan Y. Taniguchi Architects, continued by his son Evan.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Decisions, decisions and only 12 days left.
Welcome to our kitchen options.
This is option one and Elizabeth's favorite...
This is option one and Elizabeth's favorite...
I'm favoring Kitchen Option 2...
Neither of these models do the selections any justice, but either of them will look great.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Model Home
Okay, so I've been tinkering around with SketchUp to get an idea of what our house will look like since we are buying it "site" unseen.
This is a pretty close representation of the shape, size and paint of our Willie.
As we make decisions in the Design Center, I'll up date the kitchen and other option in the model to reflect them. Right now this is just a sample, but the appliances and structure are pretty close to how it will actually look.
I may even add some furniture to help give it some scale.
This is a pretty close representation of the shape, size and paint of our Willie.
As we make decisions in the Design Center, I'll up date the kitchen and other option in the model to reflect them. Right now this is just a sample, but the appliances and structure are pretty close to how it will actually look.
I may even add some furniture to help give it some scale.Thursday, October 11, 2007
Panic! (First Design Center Appointment)
Yikes! The Design Center coordinator just called to schedule our first of two appointments. They request that you schedule one during the week, I'm sure because everyone wants the weekend slots, but they don't make any appointments starting after 5:00. So, rather than take time off during my first week at the new job, I'll be ending my last day of the current job early, with our Design Center appointment from 3:00-5:00 TOMORROW!
We still have so much planning to do! We've been gathering magazine and catalog clippings of home interiors we like and have a good assortment already. Tonight, from the end of the work day until they kick us out at 10:00, we'll visit the Architecture Library at UT to find (and scan) more images. Then we've got to arrange all of this in a coherent presentation to show the designer.
We also need to prioritize which options we absolutely can't do without, and what we might be willing to cut in favor of something else. Our budget is tiny, our taste is expensive, and we're planning to make some cosmetic changes later since we can't do it all now. Perhaps I'll post some of our ideas this evening once Timothy and I have had a chance to discuss everything and pull our thoughts together!
We still have so much planning to do! We've been gathering magazine and catalog clippings of home interiors we like and have a good assortment already. Tonight, from the end of the work day until they kick us out at 10:00, we'll visit the Architecture Library at UT to find (and scan) more images. Then we've got to arrange all of this in a coherent presentation to show the designer.
We also need to prioritize which options we absolutely can't do without, and what we might be willing to cut in favor of something else. Our budget is tiny, our taste is expensive, and we're planning to make some cosmetic changes later since we can't do it all now. Perhaps I'll post some of our ideas this evening once Timothy and I have had a chance to discuss everything and pull our thoughts together!
Model Homes
David Weekley is building two model homes at Mueller, the Willie and the Antone, their largest plan. All of the houses under construction have gone up in no time. Once the foundation is poured, the prefabricated walls are put into place in a single day, with the roof trusses and framing following not far behind. Then comes the sheathing and roofing... These photographs are from a couple of days ago, so I'm sure it already looks vastly different.
The best thing about the Willie is the vaulted ceiling in the living room! It will make the house so much more bright, airy, and spacious feeling, and it reminds me of my parents' house.
Another great feature is the breakfast nook, complete with window seat. I know where we'll find the cat!
One small disappointment is that the dormer window on the front of the house will be false. Although the model home is a different elevation than ours, with its large front gable versus our side gable and dormer, the wall of the bathroom will still be too far back to be the front of the dormer. On the plus side, maybe we'll be able to set up a darkroom!
The best thing about the Willie is the vaulted ceiling in the living room! It will make the house so much more bright, airy, and spacious feeling, and it reminds me of my parents' house.
Another great feature is the breakfast nook, complete with window seat. I know where we'll find the cat!
One small disappointment is that the dormer window on the front of the house will be false. Although the model home is a different elevation than ours, with its large front gable versus our side gable and dormer, the wall of the bathroom will still be too far back to be the front of the dormer. On the plus side, maybe we'll be able to set up a darkroom!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Big Willie
Robert Mueller Municipal Airport served Austin from 1930 through 1999. With growth of the city and increased air travel, the airport had long since become a nuisance to surrounding neighborhoods, and a new airport was opened at the former Bergstrom Air Force Base southeast of town. Given the old airport's proximity to downtown, the vast, 711-acre tract provided a prime opportunity for redevelopment, with many different schemes considered. The final, mixed-use plan was created by Catellus Development Group, in cooperation with the City of Austin and citizens groups. It incorporates single-family homes, condominiums, apartments, live/work houses, small to large-scale commercial buildings, a children's hospital, and an elementary school. (More to come on this later; in the meantime, take a look around here.)
Catellus selected six homebuilders to participate in the first phase of residential construction. In anticipation of high demand for these initial homes, the developer set up a Pioneer Program, in which participants would select a plan type (row house or yard house) and a builder, then enter a lottery to obtain a priority number for that builder. Timothy and I heard about the development and decided it couldn't hurt to put our names in the hat. At that point I don't think either of us seriously thought we'd wind up buying there! Then Timothy got number 36 for one of the first 100 houses from our builder, and we started considering our options.
Our initial selection in the lottery locked us into buying from David Weekley Homes. Along with Meritage Homes, they had houses that were within our financial means (in other words, the cheapest that weren't part of the affordable housing program). We really liked the flow and openness of David Weekley's plans better than the more compartmentalized plans from Meritage.
The house we first thought we would get is the SoCo, the smallest plan provided by David Weekley at 1,387 square feet. But we really liked the Willie, a pretty big step up at 1,751 square feet.** It comes with a whole array of useful added features: a mud room off the back porch, with a half bath and laundry room right there rather than in the kitchen; a breakfast nook in addition to the dining room; two bedrooms out of the way upstairs; and all around bigger rooms downstairs.
Call us crazy, but we also decided to go for a bigger, corner lot! The "yard" houses have only 37 x 90' lots, which leaves all of 7-8' between houses and a tiny back yard. With the corner lot, we'll get an extra 7', meaning a nice if modest back yard, usable side yard, and neighbors only on one side.
Mueller has been planned, down to the minutia, in advance. The builders had to comply with strict design guidelines and a green building code set out by the developer. In order to give a varied appearance to the streets, houses of different sizes, with different plans, elevations, and paint colors, have been prearranged. In choosing our plan and lot, we were essentially assigned our elevation and exterior color scheme. The elevation wasn't our favorite, and the colors are drab to say the least, but it's not like any of the options were bad.
And speaking of options, we're presently in the process of selecting our interior features at the David Weekley Design Center. The choices are overwhelming but our budget isn't - especially after the bigger plan and lot. We'll be posting about our design conundrums soon!
**Everything at Mueller, namely all of the house plans and streets, have been named after iconic people and places significant to Austin. SoCo is the nickname of South Congress Street, full of trendy shops and restaurants, and Willie is short for Willie Nelson. More to come on street names later!
Catellus selected six homebuilders to participate in the first phase of residential construction. In anticipation of high demand for these initial homes, the developer set up a Pioneer Program, in which participants would select a plan type (row house or yard house) and a builder, then enter a lottery to obtain a priority number for that builder. Timothy and I heard about the development and decided it couldn't hurt to put our names in the hat. At that point I don't think either of us seriously thought we'd wind up buying there! Then Timothy got number 36 for one of the first 100 houses from our builder, and we started considering our options.
Our initial selection in the lottery locked us into buying from David Weekley Homes. Along with Meritage Homes, they had houses that were within our financial means (in other words, the cheapest that weren't part of the affordable housing program). We really liked the flow and openness of David Weekley's plans better than the more compartmentalized plans from Meritage.
The house we first thought we would get is the SoCo, the smallest plan provided by David Weekley at 1,387 square feet. But we really liked the Willie, a pretty big step up at 1,751 square feet.** It comes with a whole array of useful added features: a mud room off the back porch, with a half bath and laundry room right there rather than in the kitchen; a breakfast nook in addition to the dining room; two bedrooms out of the way upstairs; and all around bigger rooms downstairs.
Call us crazy, but we also decided to go for a bigger, corner lot! The "yard" houses have only 37 x 90' lots, which leaves all of 7-8' between houses and a tiny back yard. With the corner lot, we'll get an extra 7', meaning a nice if modest back yard, usable side yard, and neighbors only on one side.
Mueller has been planned, down to the minutia, in advance. The builders had to comply with strict design guidelines and a green building code set out by the developer. In order to give a varied appearance to the streets, houses of different sizes, with different plans, elevations, and paint colors, have been prearranged. In choosing our plan and lot, we were essentially assigned our elevation and exterior color scheme. The elevation wasn't our favorite, and the colors are drab to say the least, but it's not like any of the options were bad.
And speaking of options, we're presently in the process of selecting our interior features at the David Weekley Design Center. The choices are overwhelming but our budget isn't - especially after the bigger plan and lot. We'll be posting about our design conundrums soon!
**Everything at Mueller, namely all of the house plans and streets, have been named after iconic people and places significant to Austin. SoCo is the nickname of South Congress Street, full of trendy shops and restaurants, and Willie is short for Willie Nelson. More to come on street names later!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Welcome to McCloskey Corner!
Timothy and I recently signed a contract to have a home built in the Mueller Airport redevelopment in Austin, Texas. We're really excited, and I've created this blog to keep all of you informed about the house. We'll be sharing photographs, posing questions regarding looming design decisions over the next couple of weeks, and providing updates once construction starts in late November!
I have lots of posts already planned in my head - about the New Urbanist development, progress of construction on other houses, the model home of our plan, and photos of our lovely but currently barren corner lot.
Timothy is building a detailed 3-D computer model of the house, we drive out to the site almost every day, and I spent hours matching the color scheme of this website to the paint colors for the house. Should we be diagnosed as OCD? Perhaps. Or maybe we're just thrilled to be buying our first home and eager to watch it appear from the ground up. At any rate, there will be no shortage of content, so check back soon for new posts!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)