--- a/create-deploy-environment
+++ b/create-deploy-environment
@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # Bail on any setup error
 set -eu
 
 ROOT=`pwd`
 VENV=${ROOT}/venv
 
-if [ ! -d ${VENV} ]; then
+if [ ! -d ${VENV}/lib ]; then
   . ${ROOT}/testing/create-virtualenv
 fi
 
 cd ${ROOT}
 
 # activate fails on read of PS1, which doesn't exist in non-interactive shell
 set +u
 source ${VENV}/bin/activate

--- a/create-test-environment
+++ b/create-test-environment
@@ -56,17 +56,17 @@ if ! type msgfmt >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   echo "On OSX you can use homebrew to install this:"
   echo "  brew install gettext && brew link gettext --force"
   exit 1
 fi
 
 ROOT=`pwd`
 VENV=${ROOT}/venv
 
-if [ ! -d ${VENV} ]; then
+if [ ! -d ${VENV}/lib ]; then
   # There is a bug in pycrypto where it tries to invoke `configure` instead
   # of a path qualified configure. So if there is a "configure" on $PATH
   # it will invoke the wrong one.
   configure=which configure &>/dev/null || true
   if [ "x" != "x${configure}" ]; then
     echo "configure in PATH; pycrypto install will fail!"
     echo "Remove the path containing ${configure} from PATH"
     exit 1

--- a/testing/create-virtualenv
+++ b/testing/create-virtualenv
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-mkdir ${VENV}
+mkdir -p ${VENV}
 
 # Securely download virtualenv, setuptools, and pip.
 ${ROOT}/scripts/download-verify https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/moz-packages/virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz \
     ${VENV}/virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz \
     02f8102c2436bb03b3ee6dede1919d1dac8a427541652e5ec95171ec8adbc93a && \
   cd ${VENV} && tar -xzf virtualenv-15.1.0.tar.gz && \
   rm -f ${VENV}/virtualenv-15.1.0/virtualenv_support/setuptools-28.8.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl \
         ${VENV}/virtualenv-15.1.0/virtualenv_support/pip-9.0.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl