Wandering Around Phase I

Phase I of residential construction is at the southwest corner of the old Mueller airport, near the intersection of E. 38 1/2 St. and Airport Blvd. It's bordered on three sides by expansive parks - the Lake Park to the north and the Southwest Greenway. Additional phases of residential construction will follow to the east and northeast. Some commercial development along Interstate-35 is already completed and open, and a town center and market district will be built to the north of the residential areas. Unfortunately the master plan is out of date, but the Mueller website should be updated soon.

Six builders are involved in Phase I: David Weekley Homes (163 houses), Meritage Homes (52), the Muskin Comany (6), Saldana Homes (6), Standard Pacific (84), and Streetman Homes (37). Different plan types include row houses (63), yard houses (273), and garden court houses (12). David Weekley is building both affordable and market rate row and yard houses, with the affordable homes seamlessly interspersed with the rest.



Although our lot is still as barren as can be, construction is underway around it. The block just to the north contains garden court homes, constructed by two different builders - Muskin and Saldana. The garden court consists of two rows of houses that face an open interior courtyard rather than a street. We'll share an alley with the Muskin homes.



Standard Pacific and Streetman are building the largest, most expensive homes in Phase I. StanPac has 45' x 90' lots, while Streetman has 55' x 90' lots. Both builders fill most of that space with the houses, but they're generally near the various parks. Meritage and David Weekley both have 37' x 90' lots, but with the extra 7' as a corner lot, ours will be just about as big as the StanPac lots across the street! We ventured into one of the Streetman homes recently, and they have some really impressive interior features.



Speaking of parks, work is underway for the pocket park that will serve our portion of the neighborhood. There's a huge pit where the pool will go, and the plumbing and foundation are being laid out for the poolhouse. Sizable trees have also been transplanted for this park and the larger Lake Park to the north.



The sidewalks say "Mueller"!

David Weekley's Construction Progress

Residential construction is moving along rapidly at Mueller. Although David Weekley got a later start than Meritage Homes, they're beginning to catch up. David Weekley has three block faces of homes in various stages of construction - some with exteriors nearly completed, others where they're preparing to pour slabs. The staggered building keeps the various sub-contractors busy at any given time.





David Weekley is rushing to complete their two model homes. They have nearly finished exteriors and rapidly progressing interiors. All of the Willies under construction presently, including the model, are Facade C. Ours will be a B, but we have to wait until they start work on the other side of the streets to see what one will look like.



Wednesday, the insulation was installed in the Willie model. By the end of the day Thursday, they'd already put up the sheetrock!









As construction has moved along on the models, David Weekley decided to make some changes to Willie plan. They're enlarging the two upstairs bedrooms, which is great since they were fairly small before. In reconfiguring the closet space to make the bedrooms bigger, the designers made some questionable decisions. One closet is half the size it was before to accommodate an existing location of a/c ducts, and both rooms have attic access doors in the rooms rather than concealed within the closets. While of course it's vital we be able to get to the water heater, it would be nice to have more flexibility in furniture arrangement than we now will. Not to mention it doesn't exactly look nice. On the plus side, in the master closet we'll have access to storage under the stairs, a change we thought we'd have to do ourselves later.