Latest news

Not much to report, but I figured I should do a short update before the end of the year.

We were supposed to have our second design appointment on December 19th, but due to inclement weather (poor Mark was stuck in traffic for 3 hours!) its been postponed. Now that we're closing in July they don't actually need to finalize things until February, so that's when we'll be going in. Things we're considering:

- Going with Standard or Level 1 cabinets. All the cabinets we really loved were at least Level 2, but they are WAY too pricy for our budget, especially since we went with an upgraded kitchen layout. I'm looking into staining a Standard cabinet to get the look we're after.

- Ceramic tile in all bathrooms, foyer and kitchen. This is definitely doable if we stay at Standard or Level 1.

- Hardwood in the living/dining room. Definitely doable, and we both seem to like similiar styles/stains, so yay!

- Upgraded underpad in all carpeted areas. I've seen this recommended in a lot of places, especially if you're not upgrading the carpet from the standard selection (which we're not).

- Backsplash in the kitchen. We really like the selection in two of the model homes, so I think we'll pick one of those. Unless, of course, our design consultant can recommend one at a lower price point that looks just as good. Ha!

New closing date confirmed

July 10, 2008.

Closing date

No, we haven't received an official letter yet, but someone who posts on a local house-building forum has. It looks like our new closing date is going to be sometime in July, which is right around the 120 day mark (it's in our sales agreement that if they delay closing by more than 120 days, we can cancel our purchase and get our money back).

Sigh. It's disappointing, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. We're in a month-to-month lease, so we haven't been put in any sort of crisis situation by this turn of events. We can also use the extra time to save more money for appliances and other things we're sure to need for the new house. I'll be updating my countdown ticker sometime this week, which is when I expect to get our official letter.

Structural upgrade appointment

We had our first design appointment, the "structural" one, this past Monday. The good news is that we spent less than I thought we would. The $5000 Design Center credit, plus the fact we didn't have to pay for a couple of things I thought we would, meant we walked out of there a little less poor. But only a little. :P The upgrades we chose are as follows:

• Direct conduit for A/V TV cables (in the room we'll be using as a "den", which is where the TV will be)
  
• Extra capped light outlet (above the island in the kitchen; it was a nice surprise that this is the only extra light [apart from what comes standard] that we thought we needed)
  
• Master Kitchen upgrade (one of several kitchen upgrade packages available, this one gives us 24" deep fridge upper with support gable, any light valence, valence lighting under cabinets with switch, door-match drawer fronts, #150 crown moulding, microwave shelf [which we won't use for a microwave, but it actually costs extra to get rid of it], pot drawers and an upper open shelf)
  
• Henderson security system (this gets us the pre-wiring done for the security system; there's no obligation to subscribe with Henderson and it's actually cheaper getting this done through the builder)
  
• Hepa filter Amaircare 350 Airwash
  
• Upgrade to whirlpool/airpool tub in main bath (alas, not a huge corner tub, but a nice tub nonetheless)
  
• Shut-off hot & cold water valves under all sinks (I think it's ridiculous that we have to pay for this as an "upgrade", but there you go)
  
• 2-hinge 10mm clear glass frameless shower door in ensuite
  
• Coventry Ball style door handles in Antique Nickel
  
• Microwave range hood Frigidaire stainless steel
  
• Upper cabinets for the laundry room
  

We also scheduled our next appointment for December 19th. That one is to pick out stuff like flooring, cabinets, paint color, etc. And before anyone asks, we don't know our new closing date yet, although our design consultant says she thinks we'll hear in the next week or so. They were putting in the sewers while we were there, which I'm taking as a good sign.

First design appointment

I have much better news to report since the last time I updated the ol' house blog. Mark and I are going to our first design appointment on Monday! This one will be to decide on Bell (phone) and cable jack placements, and pick our structural upgrades. We have a pretty good idea what we want, but we're going to sit down on Sunday and finalize our choices. More to come after Monday's appointment, I'm sure.

Blargh

We got a letter from our builder today, sent by registered mail. Apparently, they aren't going to be able to meet our original closing date of March 12, 2008. Not only that, "due to a number of variables and the uncertainty of information related to land development", they won't be able to tell us when our new closing date will be until November. SO not impressed right now.

Design booklet!

It's been a very long time since I've posted, but there hasn't been anything to report. That all changed last night, however, when I came home to find a message from Mattamy waiting: our design booklet was ready for pick-up! Finally, we can sit down and figure out how much everything will cost and what we can and can't afford.

Mark went out and picked the booklet up after work (what a sweetie) and I've already looked through the whole thing. I will have to go over it a few more times for sure, but I've already done a quick calculation and we're pleasantly surprised. It looks like we're going to be able to get most (if not all) of the upgrades we want within our budget. This is dependent on a couple of things (for example, we know we want to upgrade the kitchen cabinets, and I used the Upgrade Level 1 in my estimate - hopefully we'll be able to find something in that level we like) but it definitely looks like we won't be spending a crazy amount of money. Yay!

Most importantly... the design booklet includes options and prices for a bigger tub! If you read through my past entries, my biggest disappointment so far was that it looked like our layout couldn't accomodate anything larger than a standard-sized tub. I want a big soaker, and if the booklet is anything to go by, I can have it! I won't believe it until I actually sit down with the design consultant and she tells me for sure, but I'm cautiously happy. (Edit: Hmmm, after reading it again, I'm not sure if I CAN have a bigger tub. I can definitely have a whirlpool tub (mmm, whirlpool) but it might just be the standard size. The design consultant's email address was in the booklet, so I just went ahead and emailed to ask.)

I'm sure I'll be posting about these upgrades in even more detail as we move further along in the process.

Another exciting development!

We got a cute little card in the mail yesterday from Mattamy. The front of the card featured a drawing of the home we purchased (the same drawing featured in the sidebar), and inside was some very exciting news: we have an address! We may not have a foundation or even a hole in the ground yet, but I can tell you our exact address (but, of course, I won't, unless I know you for real).

It's slow 'round these parts...

... but I do have a small update.

Mark had this past weekend off, so we went out to the design center again to make some notes on stuff we like. It was total information overload, so we only seriously looked at cabinets and counter tops and will go back a few more times to look at other stuff.

In more exciting news, I managed to get some information out of our Customer Care Coordinator regarding the dates of our design appointments (i.e. when we'll actually be picking our upgrades out for real). Our structural appointment is tentatively scheduled for September, while our design appointment will be in November. Exciting!

Model Home!

When we purchased our house back in February, Mattamy only had single family model homes built. While we really loved the singles, they were out of our price range, so we bought a townhouse - without the benefit of having a model home to look at. We had the floor plan, of course, but it would would have been nice to have a model home to walk through.

Fast forward to this past weekend, when Mattamy finally opened an urban townhouse model! I was super excited to go and see it, since we actually purchased one of the urbans, so Mark and I headed out there this evening. It wasn't the same floor plan as ours, but it was close enough that we got a good idea of what our future home will look like. AND I LOVE IT! Now, we know that the model home is filled to the rafters with expensive upgrades that we can't afford, but even beyond that it was a gorgeous home, and we got lots of ideas for upgrades we would like to get.

Upgrades that we're seriously considering:
- Hardwood on the second floor (in the living room)
- Ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms
- Upgraded cabinets (the ones in the model were this lovely dark brown stain... I think they're out of our price range, but seeing these cabinets really convinces me we should at least go up one level from standard)
- Chef's Kitchen upgrade that'll give us the bigger island, potlights, etc.

Upgrades that were awesome but won't be happening for us:
- The wet bar off the game room. It was so nice, but for the amount we entertain (or drink, for that matter) it'd be silly.
- Granite countertops. Mark thinks we should at least get it on the island. That DID look nice, but I think even that is pushing it.

I wasn't entirely pleased with the bathtub in the model home; it was bigger than a standard tub, but not a Roman. It's absence makes me think that it isn't an option, since they went all out on putting in the best of the best in the model, but we'll see.

Pictures!

It's been a while since I last posted, and I think posts will continue to be few and far between since I don't anticipate much happening for a while. However, Mark and I went out today, and since I knew we'd be driving past the construction site I decided to take the camera along.

These aren't the best shots, since I had to take them through the car window as we drove past (there isn't really anywhere to pull over along that stretch, and the speed limit is 80 and it isn't a great place to just slow down). They're also a little boring, since construction won't actually start for a few months yet. However! They do show approximately where our house will eventually be built, and I'm sure it'll be neat to look back on these in a year or so to see how much the landscape has changed.



I think that this will eventually be the sales center, once they start selling the singles in Half Moon Bay (opening in May, I believe). There was quite a few cars there today, so I'm guessing they're working hard at getting ready to open.



It's dirt! And rocks! Okay, this is really boring, but it's where our house will (approximately) be built. As you can sort of tell from this picture, right now it's a big muddy field, but eventually it'll be lots of townhouses (and further back, single family homes).

Thinking about upgrades and appliances

At some point Mattamy will be providing us with an upgrade price list customized for our home. Given how much time there is before we close we probably won't be getting that for quite while, but we're still doing a lot of thinking about upgrades. (Well, I am; Mark just smiles and nods as I babble on.) We have a general idea about what things will cost, and this is the preliminary list of upgrades we want:

• Hardwood in the dining/living room


• Hardwood on the stairs (this will be freakin' expensive to get through the builder, but my research tells me that it's freakin' expensive anyway, and a pain in the ass to do afterwards)


• Ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms


• Upgraded underpad in all carpeted areas


• Upgraded cabinets in the kitchen (this is one we don't actually want to spend the money on, per se, but we don't really like any of the standard cabinets)


• At least a Roman tub (I will be upset if I can't have a tub bigger than the glorified soap dish that is a standard tub. Mark thinks I'm being foolish to worry about this, but the floor plan makes it look like only a standard tub will fit. We'll see.)


• Glass shower door (the fact that this is an upgrade seems ridiculous to me, but there you have it)

Upgrades we have thought about, but whether we get them will depend on how expensive they are and how exhausted our budget is by the time we get through the above list:

• Tile backsplash in the kitchen


• Some sort of upgraded kitchen; I know Mattamy offers several kitchen "packages", but I'll have to see what's included and how expensive they are before deciding


• A window seat in the master bedroom (I don't even know if this is a possibility with our model, but one of the model homes has one and I loved it)

I'm sure there're other things we're not thinking about, but those are the ones we've considered so far. We got a $5000 credit for the Design Center as a purchase incentive, but we'll blow through that pretty quickly (probably on one of the hardwood options alone). We do have a budget in mind beyond that, and I'm hoping to stay within that amount if at all possible.

Speaking of purchase incentives, another one that we got was three free appliances (fridge, stove and dishwasher) from The Brick. They're pretty standard white appliances, but hey! Free appliance! If we decide to stay with those they'll be delivered and installed when we close, but if we choose to upgrade we'll have to arrange delivery and installation after closing (and pay a delivery fee, I believe). We are pretty seriously thinking about upgrading. We don't want anything too fancy (did you know you can get fridges with TVs in them now?!), but ideally we'd like something a little nicer. We're thinking stainless steel or black, flat top stove and a bottom freezer fridge. As for washer and dryer, I don't want to spend a whole lot but definitely want front loaders. Luckily, we have a separate budget for appliances!

Taking the leap

At the beginning of February 2007, my husband and I purchased our first home. What we currently own is a big pile of dirt, but on March 12, 2008 (or thereabouts) we'll have a brand new house.

The builder we went with is Mattamy Homes, due to good word of mouth, their reputation and their home designs, which we really liked. We bought one of their "urban townhomes", which is essentially a walk-up style townhouse. Instead of the backyard you get with their "WideLot" townhomes, we'll have a deck and more square footage. We went with the Bellshore model:



We choose their optional 3-bedroom plan, with a total of 1726 square feet. The ground floor:



The main floor:



And the third floor:



We'll be living in Barrhaven, a suburb of Ottawa (well, technically Nepean, but let's not get picky). We're currently living about 5 minutes away from where our new home will be, and we really like the area. Here's an article about our new neighborhood.

Over the course of the next year, I plan on chronicling our home-building experience. I think it'll be pretty cool to be able to look back at it once we're living in the new house. Now if only this coming year would hurry up and pass!