Remnants of the Old Airport

This afternoon, Timothy and I went on a walk through what remains of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. The former entrance was on the southern edge of the airport, off Manor Road across from E.M. Franklin Ave. The entry road, with directional signage and canopy waiting structures, extends up to the control tower and former site of the terminal. Beyond, all remnants of airport structures and runways have been obliterated in the desolate, lunar landscape of Phase II, where utility work and new roadways are being prepared. Eventually all but the tower will be removed for new construction.





Although the master plan calls for the retention of the 1961 control tower, it has deteriorated considerably since the airport closed. Plans for its reuse are up in the air, likely to be decided during a later phase of construction. The small building footprint and numerous levels will make adaptation difficult. Although the tower does have an elevator for accessibility, fire code would require a second stair for certain uses, which would be impossible within the structure. However, the master plan does have promising suggestions for use of the ground floor:

Additions or modifications that detract from the tower’s original form are discouraged. While adaptive reuse of the tower for other activities is desirable, modern-day life-safety and exiting requirements may prevent it from being used as a public assembly building or viewing tower. Opportunities should be explored for retrofitting the ground floor of the building as a small interpretive center; the first two floors of the tower were originally within the terminal building, and
as a result will need to be enclosed and clad in a complementary manner. Interpretive elements and displays that recall the history of aviation at Mueller and in Austin are encouraged at the base of the tower. (Mueller Design Book, Nov. 2004, p. 101)

To go off on a tangent, I like to imagine the vastly different form the Mueller redevelopment might have taken, if its design had been left up to an idealistic architecture student, not a developer. Comically misleading signage would remain, runways would become roads, new houses and commercial buildings would intermingle with renovated terminals and hangars, and the whole site would have a layered effect where its history and evolution would be clearly legible. At least Catellus is making an effort to retain some of the most important structures and incorporate them into the development.

Monday!

Upon returning from our Christmas trip to see my family in Abilene, we were relieved to find out that our foundation had not been poured in our absence. According to our friendly builder Stan, who we saw at the construction site today, the pour is scheduled for 7 AM Monday morning. It will take 7 concrete trucks, each containing approximately 10 cubic yards of concrete! After the concrete has cured for at least a week but less than a month, they will pull the cables - hence the term "post-tension."

Hey, We're Famous!

Or, more accurately, our soon-to-be-neighbors (and Mueller) are in the New York Times!

Happy Holidays!

Looking over across Phase II, the old airport tower has a lighted "Noel" sign. Happy holidays!

PTSD: Post Tension Slab Deduction.

It looks like we'll be out of town for the big pour. Stupid Christmas. It's only been nine days since they started. I think there may be one more inspection right before the pour and then the framing starts. We might have walls before the new year. Woo Hoo!

Construction Progress Photos

From this past Saturday until the house is complete, Timothy and I plan to take the same two photos every day to show the progress of construction. In order to get the shot framed properly, we used another Willie further along as a model, and then discretely marked the same position for the tripod in front of our house. The marking is so discrete, in fact, you can't see anything if it's not midday.

For the time being, the photos will largely consist of the houses behind us and sky, but you'll be able to watch the transformation...



from this...



to this!



Yes, that's right, we've got plumbing! Or sewer pipes, at least. Construction is also progressing on the other houses in our block, but ours is by far the furthest along.



A few blocks away, they've started the row houses on Zach Scott, a major street with bike lanes that connects to Airport Blvd.

Good Things Come to Those Who Whine

While Elizabeth was on vacation in Houston, I was left to attend to the beginning stage of construction, namely placement of the form work for our foundation.



The layout of our floor plan is such that the backyard is pushed into the northeast corner of the lot, so to maximize our lot size upgrade from 37'x90' to 44'x90' our foundation needs to be off-center favoring the west side, thus giving our backyard an extra 7' in width.

Last Wednesday, while I was on my way to visit my sister, I thought I'd swing by and view the empty lot one more time before the start of the construction on Friday. Much to my surprise they started early! The batter boards were already in place. And much to my dismay the foundation was centered on the lot, adding 3' to the already unusable side yard to the west of the house.

A phone call to Stan, our builder, led me to confirm a fear that the developer, Catellus, who dictates the overall look of the development, wouldn't want the house to deviate from the original plan. But Stan managed to talk them into letting him move the foundation. Much to my vindication.

An Inconvenient Move

My parents and their two little dogs came down to Austin for a visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. We had a great time, and showed them around the rapidly progressing construction at Mueller, where my talented photographer father tried out the new camera he'd just bought.



Unfortunately, almost as soon as they'd left, we started having major electrical problems. We'd been renting this adorable 1950s, asbestos-clad house from a couple of old women with little interest in maintenance. Despite its small size and deteriorating state, it had a lot of charm - an abundance of windows, hardwood floors, original cabinets and countertops. It also had the original wiring.

After a small electrical fire, two visits by an electrician, ongoing shorts and an exploding light bulb, we realized the problem was not going to be fixed, or at least not easily. We'd lost multiple electronic devices with the first big surge, and, more importantly, were worried the house would burn down if we turned the power back on. Both times the electrician came out, he gave the house a clean bill of health, and during the second visit, he checked wiring in the attic. If the problem wasn't there, it had to be in the walls, and the landladies made abundantly clear they had no interest in rewiring the house.

We had no choice but to move. We really appreciate the help of family and friends, who put us up over Thanksgiving and the week thereafter while we waited for December 1 to come around. Our new apartment is up north, with a 20-30 minute commute fighting traffic on Mo-Pac in the mornings. It's a nice place (with working electricity!) at a reasonable price, but I'm sure the quasi-suburban lifestyle will make us that much more grateful we're buying a place so close to downtown. We're certainly relieved to be buying a new house, and to know we'll never have to rent again.

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.

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!

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?

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!!

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

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.

Decisions, decisions and only 12 days left.

Welcome to our kitchen options.

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.

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.

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!

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 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!

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!