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!