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. :)

Framewalk

My framewalk today went very well aside from all the muddiness at the construction site from the last three days of rain. Tried my best not to get it all over my clothes but I lost the battle. Anyway, I met with Matt from Mattamy (I'm pretty sure Mattamy wasn't named after him). He was really nice. I found out that he's from England and has been in Ottawa for four years. He currently lives in a Mattamy home in Fairwinds in Kanata.

He took me around the house to each room. He pointed out a bunch of things including the electrical, structural things, measurements, etc. Everthing seemed to be in the right place and in order. Potlights and switches are in good locations, and all of the extra outlets/cabling I bought were there. All of the insulation and vapour barrier was up too.

Some interesting things that I learned:

• the common walls (i.e. ones that are shared with a neighbour) are double drywalled (two layers). I'll be curious how much sound and noise will come through the walls;
• he mentioned that it will likely be that joints where drywall meets certain framed areas may buckle and separate because of the house settling and the moisture/air stabilizes. This will be taken care of at the 1-year inspection;
• there is a switch which operates the main bathroom fan located on the main level near the thermostat. Makes you wonder how bad one's business could be to have to turn on the fan from downstairs, eh? :) Actually, it's just to help push air out especially during the first year to reduce buckling/shifting/separating mentioned previously;
• bathroom GFI switches are all connected to one switch located in the powder room;
• new code has all of the bedroom switches connected to a GFI type switch in the main circuit panel.

Matt said that everything is still on schedule and that the drywalling will commence early the following week. There is still a few little things to take care of in my house prior to the drywalling. Outside, they have started to do the brick work.

I took a bunch of pictures while I was there. It will be handy to have them in the future if I'm ever wondering what's behind my walls. I've uploaded some of those pics on my picasaweb album.

Mortgage Rate Approved

So, I got word from my mortgage guy, Bruno, at TD Canada Trust that I will be getting a 3.75% 5-year fixed rate. Right now, the current posted 5-year fixed rate is 5.25% so I'm basically getting 1.5% off the posted rate. I'm happy with that. I could probably get a slightly lower rate if I went to a smaller lender but I've been quite happy with the service that I've gotten from Bruno since I've signed my purchase agreement last year.

To recap, here are the rates I was guaranteed since I signed last year in July:

July 2008: 5.9%
Aug 2008: 5.6%
Dec 2008: 5.5%
Jan 2009: 4.54%
April 7th 2009: 4.44%
April 26th 2009: 4.0%
May 2009 (final): 3.75%

I decided to do a 5-year fixed rate for stability and piece of mind. I could have gone with a variable rate mortgage (currently at 2.85% which is bank prime + 0.6%) since the prime lending rate is at an all-time low. But my gut is telling me that mortgage rates have bottomed out and that it will only go up in the future. When that will be, I don't know but I'm content with riding my 3.75% over the next five years.

Framewalk scheduled!!!

I just received a call from Mattamy to schedule my framewalk for tomorrow at 3pm. At this stage, it basically means that the house is ready for dry walling. So, all the electrical, plumbing, hvac, etc is all done. I think it's a great idea that Mattamy does this as it gives you an opportunity to see what's behind your walls before they seal it up. Also, you can ensure that stuff like light fixtures, electrical outlets, cable outlets, etc are where you want them to be. I plan on taking lots of pictures when I'm there tomorrow.

Washer & Dryer bought!

After many months of researching and looking for deals, I ordered a washer and dryer for the new home. I went with the Samsung WF337AAL front load washer and the matching DV337AEL dryer. What attracted me to this particular model was Samsung's VRT (Vibration Reduction Technology). It utilizes ball bearings which greatly reduces vibrations due to unbalanced loads. I was a little skeptical about it but I went to Brault & Martineau in Gatineau where they had one on demo mode. When it enters its spin mode, it really does self-balance itself and is pretty quiet and vibration free. Since the laundry room backs onto my daughter's bedroom, I wanted to make sure the washer and dryer would be as quiet as possible especially since I usually do laundry at nighttime. The reviews seem decent on this set and people seem generally happy with them although some people reported having a hard time sourcing parts. If you want something similar to Samsung for a little less money, Sears has a Kenmore version of this washer and dryer. It's pretty much the same except for some minor differences.

I ended up buying the Samsung pair at Sears after price matching Future Shop's $1980 price. Sears has a free delivery promotion and it was double Sears Club points if you use your Sears card. I didn't have a Sears card but a friend of mine does. So I benefited from the free delivery promo and she got a bunch of Sears Club Points. :) Also, the washer is PST exempt because it is considered an EnergyStar appliance.

Edit: July 3/09 -> Future Shop has its own exclusive Samsung laundry pair. The model series has a '229' in it. Probably very similar to the Kenmore versions in terms of number of features. And priced at around $2000.

Moving along

I visited my lot tonight and things are progressing very nicely. Check out the pics that I've uploaded starting with this one (if anyone from Mattamy Corp is reading this, as a law abiding citizen, I would never consider trespassing on a construction site :) ). The stair cases have been installed. Plumbing, HVAC and electrical have all been started and looks near completion. The furnace has been put in place as well (I noticed it's a Armana model).

The entire area is progressing. Block 501 has its outer brick completed and was having its siding installed while I was there. Block 507's outer brick is about 70% complete. I also noticed that a skid of bricks for my block was sitting out front. So I imagine that my block will be up next for its outer brick.

Greetings from Mattamy

I received a little postcard from Mattamy saying that the roof of my house is complete and that the framewalk will be happening in the near future. According to my spy photographer, looks like their story checks out.

Genie Excelerator Garage Door Opener

I pulled the trigger on a garage door opener. I went with the Genie Excelerator. It is a screw-drive type garage door opener. What's unique about this one is that it opens the garage door at twice the speed. Nice if you're the impatient type. :) It closes at "regular" speeds and has a soft stop when it gets to the end. I never heard of screw-drive openers until I saw one at my friend's place. He's had his Excelerator for almost five years and has had no problems. It's also very quiet which is a critical factor for me as there is a bedroom right above the garage so I want to minimize the amount of noise that can be heard from inside. I'm not sure if a belt-drive is quieter but I think they're pretty close. I may replace the rollers of the garage door to the nylon type to try to make it even quieter. I bought the Genie at Canadian Tire, it was on sale for $270 from a regular price of $350. It comes with two remotes, wall control and a wireless external keypad.