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!