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PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:11 pm 
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Location: Tothburg, Winter Cres.
On friday (Dec 3) morning Nicole & I had our Tothburg structural appointment with Tiffany at the design center. We were there for about 4 hours and Tiffany was helpful and also very patient with us. She went into more detail in answering most of our questions which were non-structrual in nature.

Our upgrade price sheet is currently over-our-budget and we've already cut things (deleted the open stairs to basement we wanted which was a biggy) and also took out some obvious ones like Bell/Cable hookups (will get buildinghomes.ca to do it for us after), shower door, fireplace mantel, etc.. Take a look at our "list" at http://rick.dilorenzo.com/upgrades.htm

Questions..

(1) Plywood Subfloors (upgrade to 5/8" plywood subfloors in lieu of standard OSB). This is $2621 for the Tothburg. We're only planning on having hardwood floors in the upper hallway & common room. And the hardwood flooring we are planning (Bruce Natural Refelections) already includes 3/8" plywood subfloor! Tiffany mentioned it's still good to get this upgrade, lowers squeeks etc through house. Any comments? Especially others who may have gotten standard OSB instead? If most of the house is carpet, and you are not planning on going hardwood floor in most of the house do you really need this? What are the benefits?

(2) Kitchen countertop upg to Group 3 Granite is $9761 for Tothburg. Some people mentioned doing granite counter-tops after through a third-party contractor. How much would you actually save? The tothburg has a lot of counter space. Could another contractor easily take the old countertop off and put a new one in seamlessly making the finished kitchen look just as good if Mattamy did it all themselves? Any ideas on what reputable company/contractor could do this and what type of savings are we talking about over mattamy's $9761 cost? Mattamy also charges around $8500 for "lower" group granite selections.

(3) Energy efficient windows. Tiffany mentions there's an upgrade for the windows to bring them from R1 to R2 levels? We forgot to add this to our wish list and get the price. Anyone doing this upgrade?

(4) Apply earthstone stain to 1 stairclase $941.60 Lot of people said do this after yourselves but I wouldn't trust myself to do a good job, so would want a contractor, and would be worried about them matching the stain properly to the floor. Any thoughts? This is something we'd want right away, just see-sawing between having Mattamy do it or hire someone else to come in and do it the first week after we move in.

(5) Upgrade to Trim pack 2 plus the 5.5" baseboard ($2.8k + $1.6k = $4536.46 for Tothburg) Ouch! But what would it cost to hire someone right away to rip out all our old trim (or get mattamy to put none in) and put in bigger-sized better-looking (2.75" step casing & 5.5" step or colonial baseboard) trim? And then also painting it white (which mattamy would already do of course since we are going standard white (crappy) paint).

(6) Looking at either the small ($2000) or large ($3544 maybe) moulding on the kitchen cabinets (AYA). Anyone look into if this is something that after we move in (post-closing) we could hire Aya to do directly? Would there be savings? We like the look of the large mouldings around the aya cabinets but for Aya Group 5 the moulding cost is either $3544 or more (not sure yet) through Mattamy.

(7) Insulated Garage ceilings with foam insulation $1864 Tiffany didn't mention this but we saw it on the big price list she gave us when we got home. The Ensuite Bathroom is right over the garage. So if there is an upgrade for this, it means that normally there is no insulation for the ensuite bathroom? The floor would get fairly cold during the winter since the Garage itself isn't insulated?? Any past Tothburg owners who can comment on this? I assume this is something you could easily do-yourself after you move in? (or hire someone).

Question we've asked Tiffany and she's finding out for us is WHY would the moulding or elite upgrades cost more when moving up each aya group level? It doesn't make sense for some of group differences. I.e. if you had Aya Group 3 Vermont in Cherry/Espresso or Aya Group 5 Charleston in Cherry/Espresso it SHOULD be the same price for moulding/elite upgrade. Because the wood is the same, the finish is the same, the only difference is the door shape/style which wouldn't make any difference to the moulding or interior elite upgrade. They would be doing the identical same thing, same material, same finish. The outside door style shouldn't affect the moulding price. It would be more the finish/wood that should affect moulding prices (i.e. blackened espresso moulding would probably be more than normal espresso, same thing with glazed versus non glazed, or oak wood versus cherry). Anyone else ask this question??

We may just do zero-kitchen-cabinet upgrades and have it all done after through an outside contractor. Still looking at pros/cons. But if we have a big list of "things to do third-party after" it means after we move in our weekends won't end up being free for a loooong time. We'll be spending our time looking/talking to contractors and having someone available to let them in the house to do work on weekdays while we're not home, etc...


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:55 pm 
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Rick I will comment on #1 and #2.

#1 There is debate on the plywood vs. OSB and it really depends on who you talk to. I've heard some places say no to OSB and I've heard others say its fine. Personally I think OSB will be fine, and I would trust those who say that OSB is fine before I'd believe those who are trying to sell me something. Here is a link to another forum that has some good information. http://www.newhomesreviews.com/phpBB/vi ... php?t=1537

#2 This is an easy one, I think we saved upwards of 1500 on our granite countertops by going with Busche Granite http://www.buschegranite.com/ And it might be more because I'm not sure if Mattamys prices included back splashes or rounded corners. Go and talk with Ani at Buche, she is a pleasure to deal with and I'm sure you'll save a lot of cash.


Last edited by Magellan on Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 9:24 pm 
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Location: Greensburg Elev B, Robson Cres
Hi Rick,

I know our house models are different but we are having our garage foam insulated. ($1100)

We were not going to go for the "cold room" syndrome in our house especially that it will be one of our kids room. It is not an option we were going to pass by.

By the way, the garage is insulated but depending on how it is done, it might still leave alot of room for improvement.
On our model, the portion of the garage which is facing the porch on the side of the house is left without insulation and unfinished with the drywall. In other word, this will keep the garage very cold in the winter. We will have to close that off after we move in. (how hard would it be for Mattamy to completely close that.

oh well, that's our few words about garage insulation!
Sandra


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 10:36 pm 
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Location: Lot 309, Hearst Blvd - Lyndhurst
Re: #6

When we visited the Aya showroom, we were told that the agreement between Aya & Mattamy prevents Aya design consultants from discussing after market design upgrades & pricing. What wasn't clear was whether Aya is also held to the Mattamy pricing even if done after close.

On another note, our neighbour added mouldings and valences to the cabinets - he got them from a different supplier than the oringinal cabinet company (in this case, Canac) and they look great / match perfectly. No doubt for a fraction of the cost, too.

Jen E.


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:59 am 
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Hi Rick,

A few comments

For the granite counters, we also chose Level 3, and compared the exact level/colour to the big box stores. Surprisingly, the price was very close without including the taxes and installation costs - factors to keep in mind when comparing prices.

For the earthtone stain, best to let Mattamy complete this as it is a nightmare to do afterwards.

You definitely want to open the staircase to the basement, that makes the Tothburg what it is...:) and makes a huge difference in the look of the house.

I plan on doing the kitchen valance, crown moulding & under cabinet lighting and replacing all trim throughout the house myself after moving in. That saved me a bit of money.

Our design consultant told us there was no additional R factor with the different insulation above the garage. It is just different. Not sure how accurate that statement was...By code, the garage MUST be insulated, and have no openings into the living space (i.e., completely sealed off). We actually inquiried about heating the floors in the ensuite, but were told that Mattamy no longer does that.

Derek


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PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 10:38 am 
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Rick I just wanted to add that for the granite counters according to the sheet I have the price does not include backsplash or undermounting the sink. Those alone will push your price over 10000 and maybe more depending on the size of the backsplash you want.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:04 pm 
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Location: Tothburg, Winter Cres.
Derek, you posted...

"I plan on doing the kitchen valance, crown moulding & under cabinet lighting and replacing all trim throughout the house myself after moving in. That saved me a bit of money. "

Are you going to be buying these pieces from Aya, home depot? other places? Are you actually doing the work yourself or through a contractor?

Yes, I like the staircase open to above in the Tothburg. But it's too $$$ for us. Look at .... http://www.rick.dilorenzo.com/stairs_files/image007.jpg & http://www.rick.dilorenzo.com/stairs7.jpg Pictures of 2 Tothburgs that didn't have the stairs open to below, and still looked nice to us. Granted that examples of open-to-below looked nicer (http://www.rick.dilorenzo.com/stairs.html)

I Am Sam do you know how much the low e-argon windows cost through mattamy?

Thanks to everyone for all the great replies!!


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 1:07 pm 
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Hi Rick

I actually plan on doing all moulding work myself. I will purchase the materials through home depot or some other company and match the stain on the cabinets. I have extensive experience with installing crown moulding and woodworking in general so it should be fairly easy.

Regarding the stairs, yes, definitely extremely expensive option but it was one of the "must haves" for us. What I would recommend is that you try to get a look at some of the Tothburg resales that are out there, the standard staircase is quite steep and narrow.

Derek


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 3:09 pm 
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Yep, I've seen some pictures of mattamy's standard basement stairs. But it's still the basement, we're not planning on using that space for anything but storage for several years. We still have to "grow" our family to use the bedrooms in the 2nd floor. ;-)

For us the open stairs to basement is a cosmetic/aesthetic item. I can understand that if you are going to be using the basement (i.e. for a rec-room, future bedroom, etc...) then the standard basement stairs sucks.

We're over-budget and looking for sissors on what we can cut :-(

Problem is I'm not as handy around the house to be able to do some of the upgrades myself. So we'd have to contract any items we don't do with Mattamy out to others.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:54 pm 
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Hi Rick

Guess we are at different stages in life, we have 2 young kids so the 2nd floor is pretty much filled up. We are planning on finishing the basement within 5 years, so our thinking was that opening the staircase afterward would be very difficult.

I can definitely understand the need to cut, we certainly left out some of the nice-to-haves, such as 45 degree tiles and full height mirrors. The was we approached it is that anything that could be done after the fact was eligible to be cut.

Derek


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:56 pm 
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HI Kelly

The cost to open the staircase is approximately 10,500 + the cost of the staircase itself. You can ue the pricing sheet to determine the cost of the staircase. For us, the total to open it with upgraded pickets (like the model) was approx $17,500.

Derek


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