Catalogues

Well, I'm fortunate enough to know a couple people who work at Mattamy and they were able to get me a copy of the design centre catalogues. These basically list out all of the upgrade options available to you. There are two catalogues: maingeneral and model specific.

The general design catalogue lists upgrades for items such as:

• electrical options such as outlets, switches, lighting and other wiring
  
• security packages
• central vac
• HVAC
• plumbing including upgrades to toilets, sinks, showers, etc
• fireplace options

The model specific catalogue gives pricing on items such as:

• flooring (hardwood, ceramic tiling, carpets)
  
• cabinets and vanities
  
• stairs
• kitchen upgrades

I'm so glad I was able to get my hands on these catalogues as it makes it much easier to budget and see how much the upgrades will cost. The design centre located at the sales office is open on the weekends and you can browse around looking at upgrade options. But they don't have the pricing. You can leave them with a list of questions and then they will have someone email you the information later.

I get a $5k credit that I can use towards upgrades from Mattamy. Off the top of my head, I can envision doing the following upgrades:

• hardwood flooring
• upgrading cabinets in kitchen
• getting the executive kitchen layout option
• potlights
• adding additional cable outlets
• ceramic tiling in foyer, bathrooms. I'm not sure if I'll do the kitchen yet

I quickly added up the upgrade costs and I was at $25k! Hahaha...I'll need to revisit that as that's more than I had budgeted. I'm hoping to keep the upgrades to $12-15k. Don't know how well that will go as things add up real fast. Four potlights run almost $900!

Off to sign the papers

Okay, so on a beautiful Saturday morning on July 26th, 2008, I gather up the troops (my daughter and my folks) to head to the Mattamy sales office to sign the papers. Feeling pretty good and excited, I had a big smile as we headed there.

We enter the sales office and find Alan Doak who was one of the sales agents and had been very helpful. I walked over the the little model that they had of the entire HMB community. I pointed out unit 504-2 to my folks and then they noticed that it was directly in front of Foxhound Way (i.e. cars would be driving directly towards that house). Well, my parents being somewhat traditional and following the whole Feng Shui thing, said it was bad luck. They insisted I choose a different lot. When I told them that I did not like the other lots for the reasons I had mentioned in my last blog entry, they still weren't pleased.

At this point, my cheery mood turned into one of stress. Again, not that I'm superstitious or anything but since my parents were helping me out with a few things on the house, I figured they would have a little bit of say in the whole thing. Plus, I could just picture my mom just going on and on and on about it being bad luck and all. I love my mom, I really do, but I can't believe what was happening here.

So, my only other choice that I would be happy with would be going with 505-4 elev B. Everything was good with that lot from my parent's perspective. I just couldn't bring myself to spending another $4k. My parents offered to pay for the extra cost but I didn't want them spending the money either. I went back to the model of the community and stared at it for a long time thinking it over.

After about an hour of deep thought, I simply picked up my daughter (then 4 years old) and carried her over to the area with the floorplans. I pointed at the pictures of the Fernwater houseplan and said to her "do you like A? Or do you like B?". She being very chipper that morning said in a cheery voice "B!". And that's how I ended up choosing 505-4.

Which lot???

Now that I'm in love with the Fernwater townhome, it's time to choose a lot. The lots available were: 503-2 (int), 504-2 (int), 504-6 (end), 505-4 (int), 512-1 (end), 512-6 (end). In my numerous trips out to the sales office and also from a couple of people that I know who work at Mattamy, I found out following information:

• there will be a sidewalk on the north side of Burritts Rapids Place
• air conditioning included for units on Cambrian Rd. (Block 512)
• end units are guaranteed to have some "street furniture" meaning hydro boxes, cable boxes, etc. Won't know exactly how many until later

So, I was tempted by the units on Cambrian Road with the eyebrow street. Cambrian is the main artery road that goes through HMB. I was told that it would be four lanes. So these eyebrow streets is like a sidestreet off Cambrian so that you don't need to back out onto the main road. The units along Cambrian also did not have a $4k lot premium like the others. But after some thought, I decided that I'd prefer not to live off the main road. I think the traffic and noise would bother me.

I decided not to choose 503-2 because it was on the side where there will be a sidewalk. Also, the house will face south meaning not much sun will come through on the main floor since there aren't any windows at the front of the house except for the one in the door and the one in the powder room.

So, it was down to Block 504-2 and 505-4. I had eliminated 504-6 because it was an end unit which meant another $4k on top of the $4k lot premium. Plus the address was 3144 and in Chinese culture, the number 4 is bad luck. Not that I'm superstitious but I would hear no end of it from my folks. For now, I'll just say it was purely to save money. :)

505-4 was elevation B whereas 504-2 was elevation A. All this really means is that elev B has a slightly different exterior. It has more brick on the front and also has three windows instead of two on the second floor. Elevation B costs $4k more. Again, from a financial standpoint, I was leaning towards going with the cheaper house and use that money towards upgrades instead. Done and done. Time to go sign the papers, right? Oh no...

Decision Made: The Fernwater

So after weeks (now late July) of visiting sales centres, model homes and such, I decided on the Fernwater Widelot Townhome from Mattamy. It certainly was a race to the finish line between the Eastland and Fernwater. I knew the first time I laid my eyes on the floorplan that I liked the design and layout of the house. Starting price was reasonable at $234k. The house is 1517 sq.ft. Small enough that it won't break the bank for upkeep and maintenance but still room to grow a little bit in. About the house:

• 3 bedrooms
• master bedroom includes walk-in closet and ensuite (with shower stall)
• open concept main floor
• unfinished basement
• laundry on second floor
• single car garage

There's not really much that I don't like about this house. I'm not sure if I like or dislike the idea of having the laundry on the second floor. For one, it eats into some of the room sizes on the second floor. As mentioned in my Eastland blog entry, the rooms are a bit smaller in the Fernwater. I'm also worried about noise as I generally do laundry at night. But it seems like having the laundry on the second floor is the "in" thing now as seemingly many houses have it on the second floor. It certainly will be convenient not having to lug the laundry basket up and down the stairs.

The other minor gripe is that the master ensuite comes with a shower stall only. It's not as if I take baths but I figured having a nice soaker tub with shower would give the best of both worlds. But now I'm just nitpicking. Or maybe I'm showing my sensitive side?

Let me tell you about how I made my decision. Mattamy, for whatever reason, did not have a single model home of ANY of their widelot townhomes. So, I was constantly staring at the floorplan and trying to visualize the house. About four weeks into the whole researching process, I decided to ask the sales centre if they had actual photos of what the interior looks like. Sure enough, they did! Why they didn't mention that before in the numerous trips that I made there, I'm not quite sure. But I'm an idiot for not asking sooner. Anyway, I glanced through the photos and it just reaffirmed how much I liked the house. But for various reasons, I still held off for a little bit before signing my life away.

Fast forward a few weeks later and a lot of pondering. One Thursday afternoon, I decided that I'd leave work early and go to the sales centre to sign a conditional offer. I had already gotten mortgage pre-approval and found a real estate lawyer. I asked my parents to come along with me. When we got to the sales centre, I asked to see the photos again. Yep, still looked good. But there was something that didn't feel right. It could have been nerves knowing that it's the biggest purchase of my life. So we left the sales centre and decided to drive out to the Mattamy Fairwinds community in Kanata to take a look at what the exterior of the house looks like in real life.

With brochure in hand, we walked around the neighbourhood and identified which houses were the Fernwater. I stood in front of one house thinking things over when the owners, a very nice young couple, came home. I decided to approach them to ask how they like their house. I think they were a bit freaked out when I asked if they lived in a Fernwater but after seeing the brochure in my hand, they were happy to tell me about their whole buying experience. They were very happy with their home. After some more chatting, they invited me into their house. Wow! I couldn't turn down their offer.

As soon as I walked in, it felt right. I saw immediately the ceramic foyer and hardwood flooring. Both are upgrades that I would be doing. They showed me the main floor and then upstairs to all the bedrooms. Throughout the tour, I had this amazing feeling inside of me. It was incredible. I knew this was the house for me. I wish I could remember the couple's name (yes, I'm terrible at remembering names) but if you're reading this, THANK YOU!!

So there you have it. In another entry, I'll tell you about the day I actually went to sign the papers. It was an interesting day also.