My first unexpected surprise

So I went to visit my house this past weekend. Things are really coming along. When I was there, there were a couple of workers finishing off the ceramic tiling in the master ensuite. One guy told me it was okay to come in so I did! The ceramic tiling in the front foyer, kitchen, powder room and main bathroom was all done. The drywall was complete and painted. All of the trim was dropped off. On the outside, the siding is complete and the porch railings are installed. Now here's the unexpected surprise. If you look at the picture above, you'll see there are railings on the left and right side. I was expecting not to have the railing on the left and a longer railing on the right so that you could walk straight into the house after stepping onto the porch. Here's a picture of what I thought it would look like:
Thinking that they screwed up on my railing, I contacted Mattamy customer care and sent them the two photos. They responded quickly saying that they checked the architect design and there was no error with the railing. And they also pointed out that in the product brochure, it shows that the Elevation B unit like mine is shown to have the railings on both sides. Sure enough, I rechecked the product brochure and it does indeed show that. Mattamy said they would not change it.

I don't really like this design. First off, it can be a bit of a pain to moving big stuff in and out of the house. Secondly, I was planning on putting a couple of patio chairs on the right side to make a little bit of a sitting area. Now, it will seem weird having on of the chairs in the middle right where the step is. There's nothing that I can do right now. I guess I could see if I can change out the railing after I close. Not sure how much that would cost though. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Shop til I drop...or go broke.

So the money spending continues even before I take possession of my house. This weekend, I bought a bedroom set for my daughter's room, coffee and end table and a kitchen table. There were some decent sales this past weekend so I took advantage of it. I'm not 100% sure about the coffee table though. It's so hard buying furniture for a place that doesn't exist yet. Besides trying to figure out whether the colours will work, it's also hard imagining the furniture layout. I just hope it isn't too cluttered. I've been using those online room planners but still. Anyway, I can always cancel the order if I have second thoughts before they deliver it.

Later this week, I plan on ordering my dining room table. Again, there's another sale that I know of so I want to take advantage of that. Basically, I've been deal hunting for the last few months. If I see something that's on sale that I know that I need, I picked it up. Lately, I've been looking through all the flyers I get with my paper. It's quite a sad site seeing me get excited about flyers. I know which ones come on which days and I've even resorted to cutting out coupons for certain stores like Home Outfitters. Hahahaha! Hey, may as well save a few dollars with the amount of stuff I need to buy, right? With my kitchen table (glass top table, nothing fancy) that I've been eyeing, there was scratch and save so I pulled the trigger on it this past weekend. But of course all I got was the lowest discount of 5%. Saved a whopping $25!

Still lots of other stuff to buy though. I think I need a bunch of linens, housewares stuff and some other furniture items. My friends are going to wonder where all this stuff came from when they help me move. :) Less than 5 weeks away until close date!

Market rebounding?

So, in my last blog entry, I mentioned that rates 5-year fixed rates went up 0.2%. Well, I noticed this week that the rates went up another 0.4% (variable rates are still holding). The posted 5-year fixed rate at the big banks is now 5.85%. I've read that the bond markets have been strong as of late which explains the increase. But still somewhat of a shock that the rates have gone up 0.6% in a couple of weeks.

Something else interesting is how the Ottawa housing market seems to be somewhat bucking the trend. I've been reading that builders have been raising the prices of new homes. Now, I can't say for certain what the puts and takes are given that sometimes they offer incentives to offset their prices. But I did notice that for my particular house that the base price went up by $5k. I popped into the Mattamy sales office to see whether they were offering any kind of incentive. Besides the same "free kitchen appliances" that I got, there was no incentive like the $5k upgrade credit that I got. So, factoring this in, my house went up in price by $2k from when I bought it. Not exactly a huge amount but I wouldn't have thought that prices would have gone up until next year sometime at the earliest.

Rate drop over?

Could it be that the falling mortgage rate ride is over? The big banks raised their 5-year fixed rates by 0.2% to 5.45% today. 7 and 10-year fixed rates also went up by the same amount. Variable is still bank prime + 0.6%. Although I haven't signed the final documents, I'm still locked in at 3.75%. Phew...I cut that one pretty close.

Moving truck booked

Hoping this doesn't jinx my close date but I reserved a 24' moving truck through U-Haul for July 19th. Cost is $40 + mileage. Now, just need to scrounge up some friends to help with the move. :)