Mueller Pioneers

We've been framed!

2008-05-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

The frame on our house is up! It's now actually ... well, a house!

Full Flickr set here.

Bit By Bit

2008-04-08T00:48:00.001-07:00

Next photo:

Form boards and other cool stuff!

Different Dirt!

2008-04-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

So, our house has been released to construction. Signs of progress are small, but we're excited nonetheless. Our first change: different colored dirt on our lot:

More to come soon!

Construction Release: March 21!

2008-03-05T11:33:00.000-08:00

Just found out that our home will be released to construction on March 21st. That's just over 2 weeks from now! Very exciting. We're going by this afternoon to walk through a couple of the near-complete homes so we can get a better sense of how our design choices might look in the real world. More updates soon!

Getting Involved

2008-02-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

So, if you follow the Mueller list at all, you know there's a lot going on with AISD right now. A couple weeks ago, I attended a school board meeting to speak in favor of keeping Mueller Elementary as a named school on the upcoming bond package:

Folks were also there to speak out against locating a district-wide PAC (Performing Arts Center) at Mueller - not because they don't want to fund a PAC, but because the current proposal would put it on the east (quiet, residential) side of Mueller, which
would mean huge increases of traffic and parking problems on a daily basis.

Anyway, all the attention seems to have done something, because while that board didn't make any concessions, now the larger AISD leadership is considering expanding the Bond package to include Mueller. Organizers in the Mueller community are asking everybody to contact the board, as follows (per Dusty Harshman):

1. Sign the iPetition that Kim Wine and Dusty will present to the AISD Board of Trustees. Please feel free to leave a short comment with your signature of support.

2. Write a note or letter to the AISD Board of Trustees regarding the 2008 School Bond Proposal. E-mail the Board at Trustees@Austinisd.org. Then print it and put it in an envelope and send it to AISD Board of Trustees, 2008 Bond Proposal, 1111 West 6th Street, Austin, TX 78703.

3. This is important. The Board of Trustees have re-opened the floor to public comment at their three work sessions in the next week. On February 18th (Monday), the AISD Board of Trustees are accepting public comment regarding the 2008 bond proposal. Please consider attending this meetings and signing to speak in favor of the restoration of Mueller ES to the bond proposal. The Board is re-considering the bond's scope, and they are practically begging the Mueller community to show our numbers and support for the elementary school. While not an easy task, your presence at these meetings can make a substantial difference in Mueller's development. Board meetings are held at the Carruth Administration Complex (CAC) located at 1111 West 6th Street, Room B-100, Austin, Texas, 78703. The meeting is at 6:00PM, and it will be the last opportunity to speak on Mueller's behalf before the Board of Trustees sets the bond on February 25th. Please arrive before 7:00PM to sign up to speak. There is not yet a posted agenda.

I can't make it on Monday, as I'm hosting an event for the Austin Music Foundation, but I hope others can go and speak in support of the school.

Mueller Pioneer Blogs: McCloskey Corner

2008-01-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Looking for more Mueller construction action? Check out this blog:

McCloskey Corner

You can read about their house as it's going up (which is happening right now). Lots of great photos.

We'll get there on this blog, but not until about March or so. :)

School Board Meetings

2008-01-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

This comes from Kim Wine:

"Two public forums will be held to discuss the CBAC's proposed recommendations for the scope of work to be included in the proposed 2008 Bond Program to the Board of Trustees:

Tuesday, January 15, 2008, 6:00 p.m. at Covington Middle School Theater, 3700 Convict Hill, 414-3276
Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 6:00 p.m. at LBJ High School Cafeteria, 7309 Lazy Creek Drive, 414-2543

Why should we attend both meetings?

Not all bond committee members may show up at both meetings;
Shows how important it is to us if we travel across town to attend both.

RSVP to kberlywine (at) hotmail.com if you are planning to attend one or both meetings!

3 talking points –

Put the Mueller elementary school on the ballot. An elementary school part of the master plan for 20 years! It needs to happen. People are starting to live hear NOW – it's time to build the school. Needs to be a named project on the bond. The elementary school need is driven by the demographics of the area. Catellus is planning on attending and presenting the data they collected from the survey.
District wide Performing Arts Center will be coming to Mueller? Just a rumor; Mueller commission has heard nothing about it – there has been no process around it. We don't think the performing arts center has been vetted with the community yet;
tradeoffs have not been discussed; impact to the community has not been assessed. Not for or against it per se but there is no plan for it – so it can't happen unless the master development is plan is changed – needs to be addressed with the Mueller Commission.
Opportunity for proactive boundary conversation with surrounding neighborhoods – we want the boundary discussion to be positive – we have 4 years to discuss it.

Please join us at these forums! - Kim Wine (kberlywine(at)hotmail.com)"

Pool Progress

2008-01-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of progress on the new central park area at Mueller, with pool:

(That big hole in the ground is where the pool will be, AFAIK).

Incidentally, you can keep up with lots of shots of the development at Mueller on the Flicker Group.

Model Home Photos

2007-12-25T20:41:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Hope everyone is having a great holiday. We got a new batch of photos from our builder - the Standard Pacific model home is now open. Here are a bunch of shots - click to embiggen.

All looks good, though I can say with some certainty that we wouldn't have picked that particular shade of ... Salmon? Peach? Nantucket Red? Whatever it is. Yearg. Thankfully, we'll be picking our own colors.

Framing & Slabbing

2007-12-21T03:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a few new photos of progress at Mueller from our Realtor, Oliver Hall:

First Move-In

2007-12-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

Got a note from our builder (Standard Pacific) - they're moving their sales offices from the trailer into the model home on December 19, and they'll be located there from that point on. Is that the official first Mueller move-in?

Home Depot

2007-12-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

So, the big news in the past week or so is the addition of big box hardware store Home Depot to the Mueller area.

While I'm not generally a big box fan, I don't really mind HD moving in - if nothing else, it'll help with all the extra move-in tasks like assembling things, fixing little annoyances, etc. And when I think "Home Depot", I don't usually think "suburban takeover of urban areas".

What do you think, readers? Big opinions either way?

Thanksgiving Photos

2007-11-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Got a bunch of new Mueller photos from over the Thanksgiving week. Here are a few from our builder, showing the progress on a model home (a two story, not the same model we'll be in):

And here are a few from our realtor of the progress on the Moore-Hill (our model).

Nice.

Mortgage Questions

2007-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

So, today Jill and I have to turn in some information for our mortgage application. Yes, we're still months in advance of even starting construction, let alone closing, but apparently this is the time when we need to get serious about the mortgage. We had to dig up bank statements, 401k information, pay stubs - basically, all the material proof that we're not deadbeats and will actually pay our mortgage (which is reasonable) and taxes (which are outrageous, but that's another matter).

One of the options we have at this point is an interest rate lock. For a price, we can lock in the current rate we've been offered (which is below the prime rate). This might not be a bad idea, considering how rates have been looking lately:

The lock costs money, of course, and how much it costs depends on how far out in front of it you are. For us, the lock would be in the neighborhood of $1500. So, the next question is, how much do rates need go up enough in the next 10 months to make a rate lock now worth the $1500 we spend on it?

Well, I did a little math (thanks to Excel's PMT function ... which, if you've ever tried to calculate accrued interest, you'll know is a lifesaver). Turns out, for our loan amount, the interest rate would only have to go up by .025 percent to cost us $1500 over the life of the loan. So, in other words, if the rate goes up AT ALL, we'll have been better off getting a lock.

Now, admittedly, that figure works on a 30 year loan, and as much as we like Mueller, I doubt we'll live there for 30 years. So, doing the math on only being there, say, 10 years, the rate would have to climb by .07% to make our investment worth it. Still not much of a climb to come out ahead by locking in the rate.

And, of course, if the rate goes down ... well, then, we've wasted $1500. So it's a bit of a gamble.

Now, I'm no economist, and while I should be better educated about this stuff, I'm really busy. Even by my usual standards ... like, "Grad school + full time job + music performance schedule" busy. So, let's call this a reader poll: is it worth buying a rate lock now, 10 months in advance? Are rates going to continue to trend upwards or head south again?

November Commission Meeting

2007-11-16T23:27:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday was the November edition of the Mueller Commission meeting. This one was more well attended than the last one I made it to - seemed to be about 40 folks there, including a lot of Catellus people. I came late, so I didn't get the whole scoop, but for those interested, here are Karen Z's notes from meeting: November Meeting Notes

I also took a couple shots from the meeting on my camera phone, but I seem to have lost the cable that connects it with the computer, so they're trapped there for now. :(

Update: apparently when I tried to email the photos from the phone, it worked ... it just took a few days for them to arrive. I love technology. Anyway, here's one:

Halloween Progress

2007-10-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, all. Got a message from our builder with some of the first interior shots I've seen. Very exciting! These aren't OUR house, of course, or even our same plan - but they still give a better sense of place than just empty frames do:

It occurred to us that by this time next year, if there aren't any major delays, we'll be moved in to the new house. So we decided we'll have a Halloween party next year. You're all invited. Yes you, internet.

Rail Dreams

2007-10-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

The news today was that Mayor Winn announced phase-two plans for the Austin Light Rail, which would connect directly between Mueller, downtown, and the airport. That would pretty much rule.

Having lived in San Francisco for years, Jill and I got quite used to taking light rail pretty much everywhere (I didn't even own a car for the 5 years I lived there). Having that chance in Austin, even if it's a few years away, would be awesome.

Builder Update

2007-10-13T09:00:00.001-07:00

Quick update from our builder, with some photos:

"We have started framing our first Duran plan home and should be ready for our Corporate Office to do their frame walk by the end of next week.

We are hanging the dry wall in the Carothers model home and should start to tape and float the seams of the dry wall at the beginning of next week.

We are framing three homes on Tom Miller Drive and getting ready to pour the foundation on five more homes.

There has also been progress made on the swimming pool park."

I'll go by soon and take some pics of my own.

Framing

2007-09-20T10:17:00.001-07:00

Here's a couple shots from our builder, showing the framing process coming along with the model homes:

Can't wait till it's MY house that's at that point! :)

Model homes getting started

2007-09-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Got a couple pictures from our builder of the Standard Pacific model homes, which have started construction:

Looking good! Aaron also posted this week about slabs. Good reading.

Statesman Article

2007-08-29T13:48:00.001-07:00

The recent groundbreaking at Mueller was the subject of an article in the Statesman today: Mueller breaks ground on first homes. Though they don't mention it, the first new homeowner they profile, Aaron Wine is a blogger as well; you can read his blog over at Design & The Car Dependent City.

Checking Out Our Lot

2007-08-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

So, the roads are finally done in the "phase 1" area of Mueller. This weekend, Jill and I went by to snap a couple shots:

That's our corner. Here's our lot:

Not much to see, but as they say, "watch this space". More pictures, as always, here.

Trees

2007-08-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Got this note from our Standard Pacific rep, today:

I just received a "Tree Map" from our Project Manager and wanted to pass the information on to you. In addition to your standard landscaping package you are tentatively going to receive one Cedar Elms planted in front of your home between the sidewalk and the curb. These will be 65 gallon trees with a minimum size of 3# caliper. All of the streets in the neighborhood will be tree lined. It is going to be lovely.

Nice! Trees rule. I'm happy there will be a lot of them.

3D Designing

2007-08-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

So, after a few weeks of going through noob tutorials on Blender, I finally got up the gumption to try doing a simple model of our future house. Or, specifically, our future kitchen. Witness its glory:

OK, sure. Not much yet. But wait'll I put another, say, 350 hours into it. It'll look awesome.

The main point in doing this, at the moment, is actually to try to make some educated decisions about the interior design of our kitchen. More on the design process soon. But what you see here, friends, is beige walls, white cabinets, and black granite countertops.

Squint really hard. You'll see it.

Acronyms

2007-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last night, Jill and I attended our first "RMMA PIAC" committee meeting. That's a lot of letters; it stands for "Robert Mueller Municipal Airport Plan Implementation Advisory Commission". Basically, it's a bunch of stakeholders (neighbors, future residents, etc.) meeting with people from Catellus (the master developer) and Roma (the design company). It's a forum to ask questions and get updates, as a community, on the progress of things. The meeting was headed up by the enthusiastic & put-together Rick Krivoniak:

It was a really enlightening meeting for us. Aside from just meeting some of our future neighbors (hi guys!), we also got a real sense of "who's in charge" at Mueller. The verdict? They're not some big faceless company off in Boise, Idaho ... they're real Austinites, living and working here. They seem to be invested in this process and have the right motives at heart, at least as far as we can tell.

That went a long way towards putting our mind at ease about what Mueller will be like. Of course, there are still lots of important issues that need watchful eyes on them; but it feels doable. Plus, we learned all kinds of inside stuff that hasn't been publicized. Curious? Then you should come to the next meeting. :)

Visualizing It

2007-07-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

At this point in the process, months away from seeing any real construction, our mental map of our new home is pretty sketchy. We've got the floor plans, but it's hard to really get a feel for the size & layout from those basic photocopies.

So, we decided to take matters into our own hands, and invest a little time to get a better map of our soon-to-be house. Using Inkscape (a free open-source alternative to Freehand & other similar vector graphics programs), I traced over a scan of the floor plan to come up with an editable, scalable, zoom-able floor plan of our new house. It's not exact down to the inch, but it's pretty darn close. Here's the bedroom:

The cool thing is, since Inkscape supports layers, now I can also add layers for other things, like furniture, rugs, etc. Using a tape measure and a conversion between inches and pixels, I added a few of the larger items in our house to the rooms, so we can really get a sense for how big these rooms are compared to our current place. Here's the bedroom again:

That makes it so much easier to visualize how this house is really going to turn out.

My next step: trying to do a 3D model of the house with Blender, so we can make decisions about decorating. Wish me luck - I've never done any 3D modeling before. :)

Open Letter about Dog Parks

2007-07-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just wrote the following letter to Catellus, the development group running the show at Mueller. We've heard from other Mueller pioneers that this is an important thing to lots of folks; if you feel likewise, you should send them a letter as well.

Catellus Development Group
4550 Mueller Blvd.
Austin, TX 78723

To whom it may concern:

My name is Ian Varley. My wife Jill Meyers and I are moving in to a new Standard Pacific home in the Mueller Redevelopment next year. We just signed the contract this week, and couldn't be more excited.

We have a request for the planners at Catellus: so far, we haven't seen any provision in the plans for an off-leash dog area. We've got a dog, and while we'll have a small fenced yard, we'd really like a place where we can let him off-leash to run around and get some exercise. I know this will be even more important for the folks in row houses without yards of their own.

Additionally, we've discovered from living in West Austin for the past 2 years that the local off-leash dog park is one of the real hubs of community life in the neighborhood - the only neighbors I know well are those I've met through the dog park. We’ve heard that strong community connections are a part of the “big picture” goals for Mueller, so we thought you'd like to know that the benefits of a dog-park extend to that area as well.

Thanks for all you're doing to make Mueller a sustainable, friendly, urban neighborhood that feels like Austin.

Ian Varley & Jill Meyers

Chain Retailers

2007-06-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Mueller Yahoo Group had a message today with a list of new retailers:

- Papa John's Pizza
- Starbucks
- Wachovia Bank
- Famous Footwear
- Old Navy
- rue21 (apparel)

Bleargh. From the group:

"Though many folks feel there is not enough local retail in the mix, the regional retail generates considerable sales and property taxes, all of which go back into paying for the infrastructure and amenities (parks and trails) at Mueller. No City of Austin general revenue money is being used to pay for Mueller's redevelopment. The planned Town Center at Mueller will strive to have more local merchants in a much more pedestrian friendly environment."

I buy that, and it's good that these retailers are just going into the "retail" portion along I-35. But I can't help thinking that now that these chains have a foothold, they'll be squeezing their way into the portions of Mueller that are supposed to be more "Austin". Especially Starbucks.

Don't do that, Catellus. Bring in a Cafe Medici or a Progress Coffee, or an Austin Java, or a Jo's, or ... the options are limitless.

And don't even get me started on Papa John's ...

It's Official

2007-06-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

It's official: we have signed the contract for our new home at Mueller!

In celebration, we're casting off the thin veil of anonymity we'd been maintaining, and owning up to our real identities. I'm sure you're all dying to know. :)

My name is Ian Varley - I'm a musician and software developer (plenty more here if you care to read up). My wife is Jill Meyers (Jill works as the managing editor of local literary journal American Short Fiction, and will be posting on this site quite a bit as well).

Our builder is Standard Pacific, and our home will be in the Moore-Hill plan (I'm not going to state which specific lot it is, for privacy reasons, though I'm sure astute readers who are members of the community will eventually be able to figure it out).

Lots more to come as we go through the process over the coming year!

More Resources

2007-06-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

In doing some research on the HOA (more on that later), we stumbled across a few resources that are starting to come about for this new Mueller community.

The Mueller Redevelopment Yahoo Group - a pretty active discussion list with lots of members (presumably, many or most of them are folks in surrounding neighborhoods; Jim Walker, the head of the local neighborhood alliance that was integral in the early planning stages from Mueller, is a frequent poster.)

Design & The Car Dependent City - A blog by an Austinite that talks a lot about urban planning in general, and Mueller specifically.

Flickr Photo Pool - An ongoing pool of photos of and about the Mueller redevelopment, started by Prentis Riddle. (Some really beautiful photography, too!) The photo at right was taken by Flickr user mirsasha. We'll use photos from that stream here whenever the license allows (go Creative Commons!) to make this blog a little easier on the eyes.

I'm sure there will be many more like these to come, but these are the first crop. There are lots of local real estate blogs that mention Mueller as well, but I'm sure you can find those on your own. :)

Howdy

2007-06-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Mueller Pioneers blog. We're a couple prospective home buyers who've entered the Mueller redevelopment lottery, and our hope is to use this blog to write about the process as it unfolds. Hope you find it worth a read.

Background: About a month, we got our lottery number, and it was a good enough one that it looks like we'll be buying a home at Mueller. We've selected a site and are going to contract this week, which is exciting. Much more to come as things develop.

One more note: this is not an official blog from the Catellus development group or anyone officially connected with the Mueller redevelopment. We're just a couple folks who are planning to live at Mueller, and we thought it'd be useful to collect & publish interesting stuff about the process. If you're looking for anything official, go directly to Mueller's site.