the true countdown has begun!

I know, I've been slacking on my blog posts. But between finishing my undergrad (FINALLY!) & doing a new store opening - things have been rather hectic. And it's only going to get even busier!! Ryan and I have made several attempts to "break into" our home to check out it's progress, but we haven't had much luck - finally, last Thursday - 2 weeks before our official closing day, WE GOT IN! Luckily, we were Aiden free, we were able to take a ton of photos and just grasp the whole idea of us being homeowners soon. We cannot wait.

We were in complete, jaw drop mode

- so happy with how our little home is turning out :*)

Ryan starring out our bay window - thinking, "wow, this is our home".

Peaking into our kitchen from the formal dining room.

Our kitchen :*) - minus the granite counter tops & the double undermount sink.

Ryan checking out if the cabinet space is sufficient and to his likings :P

Closer look of our kitchen cabinets, glad we chose to go dark.

Was def iffy about this feature, but pleasantly surprised with the OTR microwave that we ordered through Mattamy.

Check out the shelves in our (ok, Ryan's) walk-in pantry.

The tiles in our kitchen & throughout our main floor.

Okay, so I just need to keep telling myself that this is not the final product. We'll stain the stairs when we go hardwood with our floors in 2-3 years time ... this is not the final product .. this is not the final product ... this is ...

Aiden's own bathroom, he better keep it clean - teehee.

The light fixtures in A's bathroom, love!

The colour combo that Ryan didn't let me have in the kitchen, I just did in our master bath :)

Ain't it a beauty? :)

I also took a video tour of our home this day, but it's almost 5 minutes long, don't know how long that would take to upload. But the video shows the lovely space that is my walk-in closet and you get a better gauge of the space of our home. It's truly starting to sink in, we move in next Thursday - a year goes by, just like that.

the night that JJ & I successfully broke in!

After a night of indulgence at 168 with Janelle and JJ, we decided to drive out to the house to see what kind of luck we would have. JJ followed me as we ventured out into the darkness of scary unpaved roads & when we finally got to our part of the terrace - blockades were preventing use from driving an closer to the house. Crap. & as I stepped outta the car to maybe remove the blockades by hand - a lovely security guard came walking along. I started making some small talk, he told me that I could just walk past the blockades, BUT that the houses were locked ... & don't try to get into them - uhh, ok, sure - whatever you say, hehehe.

So we took the walk & SUCCESS!

JJ was able to go to our backyard & through our walkout to then unlock the front door! Note for next nightly visit: bring a flashlight! (so that my photos are actually taken straight - hahaha).

This is a perfect example of a non-straight photo standing from the front door - trying to capture shots in the dark.

View of our home standing from a corner of the breakfast nook. The arches get me every time.

Well look at that, they're getting the walk-in pantry ready for shelves :*)

The definite hot spot in our home. Where most of the action will take place. View of our lovely kitchen - can't wait to see what the breakfast bar, cabinets & quartz will look like :D

Our naked, unstained (still regretting that) hardwood stairs.

I'm hoping that next time we go to visit, we'll have our cupboards in and possibly the toilets? Stacy (A's potential baby sitter) who closes 3 weeks after us already has her cupboards in - so it's making me question the logic of these Mattamy people, hehe. Well, I'm also just super anxious. So many things to do in the next few weeks and so much paper work to handle.

can't

freaking

wait

dressed in all white

Finished 1/4 of my final assignments.

Treating myself to a little bit of surfing, found this:

Kinda fell in love.

I can only imagine the kind of damage that A would do to this.

But ain't it a beauty!

the inside is coming alive!

*As of March 31st, 2010

Drove down to Milton with Cha, A and Nanay a few days & luckily our house was unlocked! The last time we ventured down, our house was locked and all I could do was just admire the exterior of our home. It was a sad day, lol. We called Nanay our lucky charm :) Things are really starting to come alive. We got some of our trim done the siding on the side of the house is almost complete, the bay window looks better & look a garage door! Something seems to always be blocking the front of our home, always. Almost ONE MONTH until our closing day!

Our front door is looking a little shabby, hopefully they'll paint this soon. We didn't have a choice on the design of our front door - although I didn't love this one at first, it def is starting to grow on me.

Totally noticed this as we toured around our home. Our construction men drink cheap beer.

The arches, they make me tres weak.

Our Aiden baby standing in the walk-in pantry. Let's not forget that this pantry is the reason we bought this plan. Oh how Ryan will love this space.

The rest of the doors for the house are being stored in my fav room. Still debating on what we'll use this space for. Top choices are the comp room avec ry's cookbook, my novels & textbooks. Or maybe I can even convince Ryan to let me have this little nook as my scrapping room, hehe.

I totally forgot that we chose a dark tile for our master bath, but I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout! Good thing I didn't start buying things for our master bath.

The master tub. We deleted all the ceramic accessories in the bathroom, so we'll have to purchase these on our own sometime. Can't wait to see how all our choices come together. With all the excitement, I totally forgot to take a photo of our stairs. So glad that we chose the newall posts instead of the standard, but still sad about not staining them. Guess it's something that I'll just have to live with ... for now, lol.

I still can't believe that we purchased a home. & we did so at possibly the best time ever. The market was a buyer's market, the HST wasn't in effect yet and prices were reasonably low. Not to mention, our mortgage interests aren't bad either. So excited, did I mention that?

framewalk day!

My mom notified me that she told her coworkers about this little blog of mine,

but that they couldn't comment - I have changed the comment settings, so feel free to leave a note!

Finally! The call came and it was time to do our framewalk :D

*Note to self; must change the primary contact number to my cell instead of Ryan's.

Luckily, I didn't have Friday lectures to attend and neither did Wayne, so he was able to watch Aiden while Ryan I headed to the site. It would have been super difficult having A around, not to mention kinda scary. There's definitely so much action on our street now since the closing dates are just around the corner.

*As of March 12, 2010

Still quite a few things missing on the front of the house:

• Lights surrounding the garage
• Drywall in the garage
• The garage door (lol)
• The trim and finishings of the bay window
• Our windows are supposed to have shutters
• The sidings of the house
• The exterior trim

Of course, this is just a list compiled by a 1st time home purchaser. Missing in terms of what's obvious in my eyes, hehehe. Maybe there's a ton more that I don't even know!

Taken right out of the Mattamy University Reference Guide ...

Your Framewalk is an opportunity for you to:

• Meet your Builder (Andrew)

• View the features of your home prior to the completion of the walls

• Review the Design Options you chose at the Design Centre

• Ask a Building Professional any questions you may have

& basically, that's what it was. It's hard doing all this for the first time, cause we don't know what's to be asked and what to look out for. I guess we just have much trust in the builders. But everything seemed to be ok. Andrew was great. He explained everything and the little amount of question we had quite well. He also let us know that if we ever wanted to go back into the house (to measure windows, show it off to family and friends during the construction process) to just let him know 24 hours in advance & he'll make sure that our place is clean, swept and presentable. Thought that was nice. Especially because some people on our street are complaining on the forum how the security guard on site is giving them a hard time when they go to visit their homes. Thankfully, we haven't had any of these encounters!

Okay, onto the photo update :)

Not so much has changed in our bay window room, except for the drywall smack in the middle of it. But this is still my favourite room, so I have to photograph it every time I go.

Here's Ryan checking out our space for the "living room", he's letting me know of the decorating ideas that are floating around in his head ... c'mon now, we all know I have the final say :P

Ryan & his walk-in pantry! (Probably his most favourite room in the house, lol). The reason why we opted out for an island in the kitchen. Decent size, no?

Our unfinished basement looked a lot cleaner this time around. It's still not poured, but the space is an awesome size. Can't wait to make use of all the space a few years from now when we finish it up!

There were even "secret-like" spaces in the basement. See underneath the stairs, behind the stairs and even behind the "wall" ... love all the nooks that can we can use. The black piping like material on the right is where our 3-piece bathroom rough-in.

I didn't take too many photo of the upstairs area. It's still hard to imagine the space because we can still see through the walls. I'll wait until the drywall is in to post those.

Lastly, woohoo! Carissa & Alex have cutouts, hehehe. They've started the process on their house. She was so excited when I sent over this photo to her :)

One month & 3 weeks until closing.

truly falling in love

So the last time I was at the house (the time when safety man dan let me wander in), I was a little disappoint with what I saw. I don't know what my expectations are, but they seem to be on the higher end of the spectrum. Ryan has to keep reminding me that, this is our first home. It doesn't have to the "perfect" but it'll be perfect for us. But, at this visit (with Ma, it was her first time seeing our home), I was falling in love and the reality of all this, was starting to sink in :)

*As of March 6th, 2010

With Ma and Chelsea being there on this visit, I was able to walk around the house on my own without carrying an extra 30 pounds. I was truly falling in love with our almost home.

This photo doesn't give this space justice. This is our bay window room. Still thinking about what we'll be doing to fill this space. Maybe something along the lines of a mini library where my textbook and Ryan's cookbooks reside.

I know it's not much now, but this is MY future walk in closet. Ryan has his own slider closet facing mine. How lucky! Considering that we're sharing a closet with Aiden right now and we have 2 drawers each, it's definitely a huge upgrade, & I'm a happy girl. We all know how much I love to shop, errr, I mean ... how much I love to, save. Save.

This visit was the first where I checked out the status of the basement. It's obviously not filled yet, but got to take a peak of the walk-out to the backyard from the basement. And once finished, this space is going to be amazing. Having a feeling we'll be spending much of the future days and nights laying low here. Oh the possibilities, I am ... in love.

super nice of the safety man

*As of March 2, 2010

(why is there something always forever parked in front of our house?)

So yesterday morning, Aiden and I ventured off to Milton (again) to check out the status of our home. Ry was being all like "I need to send out so many emails", so he didn't come with us. So much action was going on on our street, they seem to be working tres hard to get all these houses to close on time, or at least with minimum delays. It's been such a good first home buying experience, well, let's not jinx it now. I stood outside our house for about 10 minutes, debating if I should enter the house (considering that I was carrying 30 lbs Aiden). I didn't want to endanger ourselves, but I wanted, so badly to take a peak! By luck, Mr. Construction Site Safety Man, decided to show up and my initial reaction ... I thought I was in trouble (lol). But instead, he pleasantly asked if I wanted to tour our home! Whhhaaat? Really? He even offered to carry Aiden while I took a peak around, but of course, Aiden is a true mama's boy. We went inside the house, nothing too special yet, but things are definitely coming along. The fun bit was the fact that we were allowed to go upstairs. It's still hard to envision everything, I'm so anxious to see the final product. Dan, the safety man, was so super nice. Saying that they don't usually let people into the houses while it's an active zone, but when he sees people trying to peak around, he always tries his best to accomodate .. after all he said, "you've driven all this way!" It was kind of hard to take tons of photos considering I was carrying Aiden with one side of my entire body, but here's what I got ...

View of our kitchen, looking in front the eat-in.

Capturing our curved arches,

my favourite upgrade, well, number 2 to the 9ft ceilings of course!

It's funny to think that Carissa and Alex's lot, which is right beside us, still look like ... this:

I asked Dan when construction would start on their home and he said in the next couple of weeks, but truly not until they've 95% completed our home. Looks like we'll be stuck with the sound of drills and wearing rainboots for the next little while. But that's okay, we'll be in our first home :)

falling in love with home organization

Because our closing date seems to be coming closer and closer, I feel like it's perfectly normal for me to start obsessing over pretty things like: home organization.

This I am TOTALLY in love love love with. Being as we have a breakfast bar in our kitchen, we still aven't decided if it's completely necessary to even have a eat-in kitchen table. Completely digging this wall self:

Studio Wall Shelf / Pottery Barn

Now, I'm in love with this as well, but because of the price point (approx. $1000!), my interest diminishes from time to time. But how cute and simple is this piece? - thinking of something like this for my scrapping nook:

Bedford Project Table Set / Pottery Barn

Getting super anxious about this entire process. Noticing that I'm lacking focus on other things in my life, for example, work, school ... hehehe. But I'm allowed to right?! I mean, you only get to purchase your first home ONCE. Such a freaking exciting time.

all tarped up!

*As of February 15, 2010

Happy Family Day! After Sushi 168 with the siblings, A and Ryan, we headed down to out our home :)

This is what our house looked like today. Looks like they're prepping to have the bricks put onto the house! (squeals like a school girl) Was actually able to walk inside the house today. It hard to envision everything, but it's definitely all coming together. The space does seem a little small, but maybe it's just a perceptual thing. Hopefully it's a good amount of living space. Here's a shot from me standing in the "living room", starring at the stairs, looking towards the front of the house.

Still not too much on the inside of the house. Can't wait to see how all our colour selections flow (hoping that they actually flow!), and how the upgrades turn out. Obvi most excited to see the kitchen :)

peer pressure has lead to new heights!

So glad that our appointment at the DC went very well. Tiffany, our design consultant was so helpful & it was definitely a bonus that we seemed to have the same kind of interior tastes. I'll post our final decisions in another entry, as some things did in fact change, and we even did some changing after the appointment, but the main focus is something that has been much debate since the day we signed our purchase of sale.

9 ft ceilings, yay or nay?
Upon signing, when we were choosing our 'architect's choice' upgrades, I just couldn't justify spending approx $7K on extending the ceiling by one foot (as standard was 8 ft). BUT, I loved loved the open feeling that 9 ft ceilings bring - not to mention, they would look wonderful with the curved arch package.
So, the verdict is in, YAY.
Super excited about this decision :)

the upgrades

Ok, here's the LIST:

Pre-planned options
-Curved arch package
-Energy star package
-Door from garage to interior of house
-3-piece rough-in (basement)
*9 ft ceilings (in total debate mode)

Shape your interior
*Unable to delete kitchen bulkhead
*Delete all ceramic bath accessories
-Oak stairs R2T rail style
-Oak square pickets
-Stainless steel microwave hood fan
-Exterior side rear lights
-Security system rough-in

Bring your interior to life
-Sous kitchen package
*Waiting on response RE: base pie cut in exec package
-Kitchen counter (quartz)
-Upgraded carpet: specified sisal (berber)
-Designer grout colours

Nearly 3 hours & 20K dollars later, I think it's safe to say that we're pretty satisfied and excitied about all the options that we chose. Super sad about not being able to delete the bulkheads in the kitchen. Tiffany, our design consultant even confirmed that it wasn't possible to do so, so even if I was to fight & plead ... I don't think I would get anywhere. Oh well, we'll do what we can to make it work, I guess :P