Order of UI rendering?

The UI rendering in Alloy seems to be inconsistent, but I am sure it is that I just don't quite fully understand it.

For instance, If I have a view like so

<View id="titleBar">
            <View id="webControls">
                <Label class="webButtons" id="back" text="?" /> 
                <Label id="forward" text="?" class="webButtons" />
            </View>
            <Label id="title" text="Description"/> 
            <Label id="close" text="X"/>
        </View>
        <View id="description">

And I wanted calculate the $.title label.

In order to do that, I want to know the width of the $.close label and the $.webControls view.

Is it wrong to assume since $.close is the last element in the $.titleBar view, that if I set a postlayout event on $.close that all the other elements before it will be rendered?

$.close.addEventListener("postlayout", function(){
    var cw, wcw, ttw, win;
    wcw = $.webControls.getRect().width;
    win = $.titleBar.getRect().width;
    cw = $.close.getRect().width();
});

Without adding a postlayout event to each individual element, how would I go about calculating this when Iknow all the elements have been rendered?

Do I add it to the next sibling element to $.description Would that ensure that the above elements had been rendered?