Austin Movers near Guidepost Montessori at Westlake: Moving Help for Growing Families

Strollers in the hallway. High chairs that can't be broken down. Plastic bins of toys you never knew you owned. Moving with children is a distinct animal, and moving to homes near this Westlake campus is a distinct version of that.

Most families who live in this pocket of Austin own their home. These places aren't starter homes. Houses lining Westlake Drive and off-road access streets to Bee Cave Road tend to be large one-family homes with several living areas, rooms that are now playrooms for the bonus rooms, and garage shelves with kids' stuff on top of it. You love the space in these houses until you are trying to pack it up on the first day in July.

Our crews know what happens most often when they move families in this section of Westlake:

• Nurseries and playrooms in upstairs bonus rooms, hard to access by stairs
• Cribs and rocking chairs too large to fit through doorway frames built in the late 80s and 90s
• Garage containers full of ride-on toys, pack and plays, and things out of season
• Home offices set up as learning stations because of the pandemic and never changed out

Last spring, our experienced Mountain Mover team did a two-house move for a family who was moving from a two-story on Redbud Trail to a one-story near the school. They have three children under the age of six. The dad told us his most terrifying move was not worrying about the furniture. It was making sure the kids did not get into the way while moving down the spiral staircase. We sent a four-person move crew so two of the members focused on getting items down the stairway while two other moved out of the door and into the moving truck. They made it before nap-time.

This is what matters when moving when you have young children. Time matters. It matters less how fast you can move a chair, it matters that you keep moving before your child's patience is exhausted. Our move crews know to move the kids' bedroom first before anything else at the new home. Make the beds. Bring out the blanket and make sure you find the stuffed animal.

However, there are Westlake specifics that most people don't even consider. The driveways here slope. They often slope so much you need to keep an eye on your dolly so it doesn't get out of hand. The roads along Walsh Tarlton Lane curve tight, and parking a 26-foot truck takes real planning. We've done it enough times to know which houses need the truck parked on the street versus backed into the drive.

Full-service moving services are great for families with young children. There's absolutely no reason for you to be packing your entire playroom down to the last stuffed animal at 1 a.m. Our crew takes care of the heavy lifting and unpacking, letting you worry about the kids. This isn't some perk we offer you; it's the difference between moving smoothly and falling apart. That said, if your house is near that school and you are bracing yourself for the chaos that moving to school-age children will cause, rest assured that we have made this move countless times. The same streets. The same hill country driveways. The same chaos. We're there to take care of it.

Our Approach to the Guidepost Montessori at Westlake   

We are located right off of MoPac (MoPac Expressway) at 901 S MoPac Expy, so we are minutes from the school and the streets that surround it. We are not fighting crosstown traffic to get to the school, we are already there.

Here is how we typically approach the guidepost area:

1. We take MoPac south toward the Barton Skyway from our office.
2. Take the Bee Cave exit, heading west.
3. We turn South onto Westlake driving and pass rolling hills and large lots shaded by oak on each side.
4. We follow Westlake driving toward the school located at the intersection of Westlake and the west bank drive.

The drive will only take about ten minutes from our office on a regular morning. There may be traffic on Westlake in the late morning during the school drop-off. There might be traffic around the Guidepost, as cars are constantly pulling in and out and causing a few car lengths of backups, but we know from experience to get there right after the rush to make sure we can move everything inside.

In addition, if we are moving to one of the small residential streets that branch off Westlake driving, the process may look slightly different. Streets like Laurel Valley Rd. or Redbud trail have their own challenges. Some curves sharply as it goes up into a hill; others dead end at a cul-de-sac, giving the truck just enough room to turn around in, not enough to park in. We have seen all of the neighborhoods that branch off the main road so that we won't get stuck on anyone's driveway on moving day.

But we also can do this quickly because it is such a short drive. We don't spend the majority of our time just getting there from MoPac, and you don't have to pay to wait for us to arrive at the house. Also, if we need to run a second trip to the house to do some additional storage or to pick something up, there isn't any traffic on MoPac to delay the process.

There is a large highway, Bee Cave, that connects our office at MoPac. This is a large road that runs all day, whether it is for work on Hill Country Galleria Rd or residential homes closer to the school itself.

As mentioned before, one thing to keep in mind is that some homes have very long and steep driveways that sit on the limestone base of the hill.

The grade isn't a big deal to us. We plan for the grade. We always have some additional dollies that we'll have with soft rubber tires. We set up the truck so that gravity is our friend rather than our enemy. This isn't the flat terrain of East Austin. This is Hill Country. It's all Hill Country all the way out. So, when you're booking a move here, you're not hiring us, saying, "Oh, you come from, you know, Pflugerville or Round Rock." No, we're right here. We know how to deal with all the different school zones and narrow turns. We've worked here long enough to learn how to get everything done efficiently, because being right here and being close saves us time during the move and saves you time too. We like to keep a fast-moving day in these parts.

Inside the Neighborhood Near the School   

Guidepost Montessori at Westlake is along Westbank Drive, a street with turns and hills. It's in an area where the homes on this stretch of Westlake Hills are all owned by young parents with young children and families that tend to stay put for years, because they're not investors flipping homes. They're raising families here. They're doing patios, they're building garages full of bikes and kayaks for Lake Austin, the local lake.

The homes in this pocket of Austin all have several things that make them a lot alike:

• Steep, hillside driveways on limestone, often with no place to turn around the large truck
• Split-level floor plans with small stairs between levels
• Mature, full trees, often with low branches that overhang the home's main walkways and entrances
• Narrow residential streets, where curbside parking is rare

We've taken furniture out of homes that run from Redbud Trail on that steep hill, where your front door is higher up the hill, but your garage is down the hill. It's one of those things where if you're on that street a couple of times, your crew is going to understand how that is going to affect the move. It's going to affect how they set up boxes. It's going to affect what dolly they use first. That's something you can only learn in the neighborhoods.

Most of the homes here in this area are single-family homes on large lots. You'll find stone, you'll find some cedar work, you'll find some Hill Country style landscaping. But these are large homes. There are stone features like entryways and large door widths and built-in cabinetry that can affect the move, especially if furniture can't fit the doorways. So, what they had fit 10 years ago might not necessarily fit the new doorways that have stone columns around them.

There's a lot of quiet to be found here on Westbank Drive during the day. It's not until school is letting out and school is starting that you might see some congestion and some traffic jams, so we try to work around that schedule if that's the best option, because we don't want to be the 26-foot truck in front of the parent line at 8:15 a.m. when kids are getting off the school bus. Families are moving out of this area for other parts of West Austin or they're heading north, going up toward Steiner Ranch, but if they're moving in, usually they're moving out of downtown condos or moving out of East Austin and they're looking for more space for their children. Either way, there's going to be a significant increase in square footage. More stuff. More packing. A piano or two, no doubt.

Summer moves, in our part of Westlake Hills, hit different. Sure, the canopy of trees overhead makes for shade on the street. But, that humidity can still be quite oppressive from June to September. Our guys drink water and we change positions throughout the day. The goal is for the move to feel steady and even. Not rushed or exhausting.

One thing that's not on most people's radar: the HOAs. Several of the streets near Guidepost Montessori are also part of Westlake Hills city jurisdiction. If there's a commercial vehicle parked overnight, it needs permission. So, for a two-day move in one of the affected zones, you need to ask yourself if that's worth the hassle. Because, we've moved in that neighborhood before. We're used to HOAs.

This is also a very watchful community. If someone spots a moving truck on the street, someone will be paying attention. We're cool with that. Better to have a supportive audience than to take shortcuts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast can you get a moving crew to a home near Guidepost Montessori at Westlake?

We're usually about 10 minutes away from the school and surrounding streets. Our office sits right off MoPac, so we skip crosstown traffic entirely. We do watch for backups near the Guidepost during drop-off, so we plan arrival times around that rush. This lets us start loading right when we get there instead of waiting in traffic.

Are there specific challenges with homes near Guidepost Montessori at Westlake?

Yes, many houses here have narrow doorframes from the late 80s and 90s that don't fit oversized cribs or rocking chairs easily. These are large single-family homes with bonus rooms upstairs, often used as nurseries or playrooms. Our crews know to plan ahead for stairway moves and awkward furniture angles common in this style of home.

What should I know about truck access on streets near Westlake Drive?

Streets branching off Westlake Drive, like Redbud Trail and Laurel Valley Rd, often have steep, sloped driveways and tight curves. Some end in cul-de-sacs with barely enough room to turn a truck around. We've moved families throughout this area before, so we already know which houses need street parking versus a driveway backup.