We recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of living in our Modern home in north-central Austin. In short, we have no regrets. Well, that's not entirely accurate. What I mean is that we don't look back and say to ourselves, "Well, that was a mistake." Quite the opposite. The house has been a major improvement in our quality of life. As a friend once said upon visiting for the first time, "This place is like a spa!" We love the light, the engagement with the outdoors, the water and energy efficiency, the aesthetics, and the general livability. We're so grateful that we had this pleasant place of placidness during the pandemic. Home in general is a comfortable place (or at least I hope it is for you), but the bones of our home have made it all the more comfortable.
When you build a house, you build for your life at the moment or for what you see or think you see in your future (more kids, granny flats, aging, etc.). But life often follows unexpected paths as the world around you changes in unforeseen ways.
Things we wouldn't change for the world:
- The design: We adore the aesthetics of our house and the thoughtful design that considered solar orientation, natural light, and indoor-outdoor connections. With the living spaces and the master suite on the ground floor, the floorplan is immensely efficient.
- The window wall: This is the best feature of the house. When I sit in the living room, I feel like I am outside where I'm with the trees, flowers, sky, water, and the wild critters that stop in for drinks. We can reap all those benefits of nature without stepping out in it (which is rather important these days when the temps flirt with 110 F). The hardscape pond (which we feed with rainwater) is an oasis during droughts, including the current one, where a phalanx of birds, bees, and other urban wildlife stop in for a drink. Over the past week, an owl couple has been stopping in at dusk to wet their who-whistles.
- The efficiency: The spray foam and sealing have been great in reducing energy costs for heating and cooling and reducing the intrusions of outdoor sound.
- The aesthetics: The concrete, wood accents, and white walls have been a great canvas for our art and furniture. These add to the calming nature of the house.
- The landscape: The landscape architecture has been fantastic both in water efficiency but also in aesthetics and use. If you can afford a landscape architect, hire one! Their work is work that develops over time as plants, particularly trees, grow.
Given what we know now, here are some things we might have changed. "Given what we know now" are important words here because back when we made decisions on the house, we had no idea (not to mention no additional money!):
- The design: As good consumerist Americans (although we are [trying] to be better), we've grown into and beyond our current space. I wish my office was bigger these days as covid reignited my DJ "career" and wish we had an extra bedroom and bathroom. We knew we were going to have cats (and have more cats) but had no idea that would turn into eight of 'em. Given that, we would have had a larger laundry room or perhaps a wet room that could turn into a cat room. However, we won't always have eight purrmonsters. Would have been nice to put a guest room on top of the garage.
- The build: Just like any good flat-roofed house, we've had a few roof leaks (Frank Lloyd Wright is smiling somewhere). The issues have popped up at the edges of the roofing and on the seams of the parapet flashing. Insist on single-run flashing if you can. I also regret that the foundation did not go all the way down to the underlying limestone. I think we were a foot or two away (I had assumed that we would be down there after reviewing the soil survey; assume nothing!). Accordingly, the shrink and swell of the soil has caused some cracking in the house. This is common in Austin, but "sigh."
- The upkeep: The place has, for the most part, not required too much upkeep, but it really needs a whole-house power wash every year to look its best. And that's a chunk of change.
- The location: All in all, we're in a great overall location in the city, and people are building multi-million dollar homes on our street. But the city has streets and lots like ours in its crosshairs for high-density redevelopment. That means, sadly, our house will be scraped for redevelopment sooner rather than later. Also, the odds of a high-rise behind us are immensely higher now than they were 10 years ago. I figured that would happen at some point, perhaps 20 to 30 years in the future. But, with all the redevelopment along Burnet these days, it seems much more imminent. The dealership behind us has new ownership, and I have to think that the new owners are thinking about the redevelopment potential for the property. And that's a wildcard for what we would get as a result (loss of privacy, noise, parking garage, sun-blocking height, blank wall?).
- Austin's growth: Austin's growth has been going gobsmack. One good outcome are the high-quality architect-designed homes being built. One bad thing is the cost of property, which is astronomical and moving faster than the speed of blight. Lots (lots!) are running ~$800K which means the resulting builds are $2 to 3 million easy. That means property taxes get more and more out of control every year.
