Mattamy University Invitation

I got an invitation from Mattamy to attend their Mattamy U session on April 23rd at the Nepean Sportsplex. Basically what they do is gather people who will be closing roughly around the same time and have an information session. They'll go through the building process of a home, warranty process, talk about the community, etc. What is neat is that you get to meet the construction managers for your house and ask them questions. I'm looking forward to it! Hopefully, I can get a better sense of whether I'll delayed or not. The April 17th deadline is just around the corner.

Good Friday!

Yay! Framing has begun on my block. It is indeed a Good Friday

Foundation is backfilled

Wow, some good progress is being made on the townhomes. My foundation is backfilled. Others are also coming along well with some of them starting to be framed. April 17th is the magical date whereby Mattamy must give me notice of a major delay. I'm going to dread coming home to a letter from Mattamy.

Foundation done!

Foundation coming soon

Footings are in and they're getting ready for the foundation.

Prepping for foundation footings

My lot looks ready for the foundation footings. In this picture, my lot is on the left and 505-5 is the end unit on the right.

Woo Hoo! Some progress

So I was in the area and decided to do another drive by. Low and behold, there was a guy there working on my lot. Nice guy. I chatted with him for a little and he explained to me that he was there to put in the water and sewer piping. They also laid a bunch of hay down which he told me was to keep frost away. Some progress finally! :)

Fingers and toes crossed, knocking on wood

I contacted customer care again and they told me that my lot is still on schedule. But I still have my doubts given that I'm four months away and not much has been done with my lot except for a little excavating of the land. On top of that, Mattamy has a unit that's in my row as a quick occupancy with a closing date of September. Doesn't look good. :(

The Brick's commercial pricing

As an incentive, Mattamy is offering three standard kitchen appliances (fridge, stove and dishwasher) with their townhomes. I can only imagine that these are the cheapest appliances that they are putting in. I know that I will be upgrading them.

How it works is that Mattamy gives you a voucher to use at the Brick. The Brick will give you a credit for the standard appliances ($1372 in my case) towards to the purchase of any appliances you choose. They also give you "commercial pricing" which is lower than regular retail price. So, I gathered up a list of models that I was interested in and contacted rep (Ken Thompson) at the Brick for pricing. To say the least, the commercial pricing was quite disappointing. On average, you save 5-7% off the regular price. I often see places like Future Shop, Home Depot, etc often run sales of 10% off. But with this voucher, I'm sort of stuck with using the Brick. I had inquired whether I could use the voucher towards something else like furniture and I figured I'd just buy my appliances somewhere else. But Ken said that it's not typically allowed. He did say he'd price match if I found a lower advertised price but it must be all from the same store (i.e. can't bring in one price from Future Shop for a stove, another one from Sears for a fridge, etc). So, in the meantime, I'll be keeping my eyes open for deals.

Basically, I'm eyeing a french door fridge, stove with convection oven and a quiet dishwasher. With the mainfloor being open concept, I want the dishwasher to be quiet. I also don't mind spending a little more money on appliances as I figure I'll have them for a while.

Houston, we may have a problem?

So, I'm reading on buildinghomes.ca that someone in a widelot townhome who was supposed to close in June 2009 got unofficial word that they will be delayed, likely two months. So does that mean that I will be delayed too? I contacted customer care and their response was that they haven't heard of anything official yet. I can't imagine that they'd delay one block and not mine considering I was supposed to close after them. Guess I should be expecting a letter from Mattamy soon. :(

Have they started???

Drove by today and noticed some diggers working on the land where the widelot townhomes will be. Could it be that they're preparing to start building???

2nd Design Centre Appointment

Today was the second design centre appointment, again with Amy. Here I get to choose everything else. Again, I went there pretty much knowing what I wanted except for maybe a few minor things. This is what I ended up with:

• hardwood floors in the Great Room and dining room
• ceramic in the kitchen (standard grade)
• ceramic in foyer and powder room (Level 1 upgrade)
• one level upgrade on all cabinets (a few more styles are available here and you can pretty much choose any colour as long as there is no glaze)
• upgraded to Superpad underpad for all carpeted areas
  
• match stain of railings to the same as the hardwood floors
• deleted the bathroom fixtures - the standard ones are white ceramic style. I was going to replace them but was told that they're glued on. So, I decided to have them not install them at all so that the wall isn't damaged when I need to remove them
• delete riser on counter top in kitchen so that the backsplash will meet right at the counter level
  

Upgrades that I was contemplating but decided not to get:

• backsplash for the kitchen - the reason being is that there was only one design that I really liked and it was the 5th level upgrade (the highest and most expensive one). I figured that I could find something nicer after I've moved in and likely for cheaper
• carpet upgrades - was quite pricey to go to a 40oz or 50oz carpet. When I visited that person with the Fernwater in Kanata, the carpet felt and looked good for a standard carpet. It is a 360z grade so it's not lightweight either. My friends who live in a Minto home told me that they upgraded to 36oz from 32oz.
• rail in-lieu of kneewall - at the top of the stairs, I could have replaced the kneewall with a railing. At first, I was going to get it but then Amy mentioned that some people keep it as it blocks some of the sound from downstairs. Ultimately, that was the reason why I didn't change it
• glass door for shower in master ensuite - this came down to price. I just didn't see the value for the price of it
• decora switches - I plan on doing this myself after the fact. Mattamy wanted almost $500 to replace them all when I can buy a 12-pack for around $20.
  

Amy was quite helpful and she was impressed with all the colour choices I had chosen. She helped me choose the colours for the handles, grout and other little things that I hadn't chosen.

This is more or less what I chose as my colour combinations (main floor, main bathroom, master ensuite). So with all my upgrades chosen, it's now a waiting game for Mattamy to start building my house. Hopefully it'll start soon!