Bought a House!

[ccuheartnurse]

Hi All,
I''ve been a bit absent lately & for good reason. We were buying our house.

The house in the pic is actually the house we went to look at then we decided to check with the builder & we''re having ours built. Closing date is late though, July 30th, 2004 if no snags or delays.
Check out www.homesinguelph.ca for the house & a few pics. Its the one on Farley Dr. The house, for all you Ontario people, is in Guelph, south end, 8 min. to the 401. Ok, 10 min. if you stop at Tim Hortons on your way to the 401.

Its build by Reids Heritage & is at the Westminster Woods development.
The house is on a narrow lot, only 36ft wide, but thats at par here in Ontario but our lot is 123ft long facing the greenspace & walking trails.

So no one behind us! Its a 4 br home, 2440 sq.ft & I love that its so big. NO we are NOT planning on loading it up with kids. We are only having ONE child.

I changed the original floorplan a bit like the lady selling her place. The kitchen is really the family room & the living room is really a combined dining/living room (13 x 20 space). I''m not a fan of formal dining/living rooms that never get used, so I''m tiling the family room making it a huge dining area/open concept kitchen & the living room will be more like a great room. So the 2 most used rooms in the house are large & spaceous. Ok, the master bedroom is too, 14 x 19 (roughly).

The interior flooring is: solid 3/4" oak in the living room, solid staircase, & hallway upstairs. The bedrooms will all have carpet (with thicker underpad per my isnistence) & the rest of the house is ceramic tile. I never new about compromising till we started putting this house together! OMG! He insisted on carpet in the bedrooms so he got his freaking carpet! He worries that his feet will get cold. Ok, so slippers wouldnt fix this issue?!

It was too expensive to get heated tiles so we''re forgetting that. Hey, I want my solid staircase! LOL You guys will like this, my fiance insisted on the natural gas hook up on our deck for the grill. LOL I told him I wasnt going anywhere to fill the propane tanks so he better get it.

Well, thats about it. I need a valium now. I have a wedding in 5mths & a new house. OMG!

Judy

 

[ccuheartnurse]

Here's a few more pics.....the entrance....larger than it looks from the outside.

 

[ccuheartnurse]

Some of the Ensuite bathroom.

 

[ccuheartnurse]

We added on the Fireplace to the living room. Its natural gas so a quick flick of the switch & we're good to go! Cozy!

 

[fire&ice]

Exciting news! Congratulations!

 

[winyan]

Congrats Judy, the house is very lovely!




I hope it soon becomes your 'House of Dreams', and you who dwell within it always fill it with love and laughter!




win

 

[valeria101]

What's the HCA score?

Firescsope?

That's a sparkly buy regardless! Congratulations!

 

[diane5006]

HI congrats on the house...I got mine a year ago...and now have to sell

and my hot water heat decides to act up now

I am moving to be with my FH...

Not financially realistic for him to move here...my house is 1/2 the size and twice the price...

You will love your new home

 

[canadiangrrl]

Good job, Judy.

The house looks very nice. I have friends that live in Guelph and love it. I hope you're both really happy there.

Will wave in your direction next time I go west (usually to Ancaster to visit my sis.)

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Congrats Judy,




I like the house..

 

[ringbling17]

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On 12/18/2003 4:50:19 PM diane5006 wrote:



Not financially realistic for him to move here...my house is 1/2 the size and twice the price...

blockquote>


Congrats on the new house Judy!!!
You will truly love it and I am sure it will be beautiful.

Diane,
I was just thinking the same thing. I just bought my house a year and a half ago for almost $400K, and I don't even have a detached house!!! It's a semi-detached! My lot is 25 x 105, and it is 2100 sq. feet. For me to get a house like the one Judy posted, I would have to fork over at least $650K, and it would only come with basic upgrades. Last month my husband and I looked at a open house and they were asking $750K, and with the upgrades, it would have cost us $820K.
I guess it all depends on where you purchase a home. I live in NYC, so prices here are super expensive. Just to rent a one bedroom apartment is $1200 and up.
I can't wait till my husband retires from his job. We have already agreed to sell our house when he does and move to another state. Either Texas, Arizona or Florida, don't know which one yet. Maybe Canada?

Maybe we'll just buy a condo and use the rest of the money to buy a nice diamond ring!!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Houses are outrageously priced here in Seattle, too! A little bungelow is all we could afford. It's cute though and 1400 square feet is all I need to deal with right now as I'm not much into housework AND simultaneously (sp?) chasing after two toddlers! lol (We are going to add another 600 square feet upstairs, which will be nice to add to our resale value so we can afford a slightly bigger home when the kids are older

Judy, Congratulations! How exciting to have a new house right before getting married!

Michelle

 

[canadiangrrl]

Kayla, don't move to Toronto if you want to live somewhere less expensive.

Homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are priced roughly on par with what you're describing - maybe even a little more $ per square foot in some neighbourhoods. It's equally as bad where we'll be buying next year (Northern VA, DC suburbs.)

 

[Mara]

Girls, don't make me laugh with your ridiculously low house prices.

I'd love to pay $400k for even a townhouse with a yard. It's over half a million here or a shack basically.




Congratulations Judy!! The house looks really amazing, I love the bathroom (I am a huge bathroom person).




We are in the midst of buying a place too...we move in at the end of Jan...YES NEXT MONTH. Insanity. We will be homeowners together before we are legally wed!

A busy year. Our place is brand new as well, being built. We chose all our tile, carpet, granite etc...so much fun. Now I am choosing paints since we are going to have a painter come in and do the walls for us before we move in. I am doing taupes in the living, dining, family, kitchen and then a french blue in the master bedroom with a paler french blue in the walk in closets and master bathroom.




Our place is a new townhouse, 3 bedrooms, 1860 sq ft ....tri-level...no yard but a huge 15x30 patio in the front. They are walk-up so they look very East Coast style, definitely not California, but they are super cute because they look different. Ours is one of the last ones to be built so thankfully we won't have to put up with alot of construction after we move in like the first homes did.




I have pictures of the model of our house as well...I will have to create my own thread at some point, maybe when we get closer to moving and actually have pictures of our new place!

Congrats to all of us new potential homeowners, it's so exciting.

 

[Mara]

Here are a few pix though I hope this doesn't steal your thunder Judy...I couldn't resist!!!




This is the outside at night. We will be the house on the left...corner unit....yay!

 

[Mara]

The kitchen in the model...ours will have similar colored granite tiles but the cabinets will be a honey maple, not cherry. Our floor ceramic tiles are similar but no patterns...more swirls. Also we got all black appliances.

There's Greg off in the left looking out the window, contemplating our huge mortgage payments.

 

[Mara]

Lastly, our other favorite room besides the kitchen...the bedroom!

The master is awesome...it has two walk in closets (his and hers!) and a huge bathroom with a jet tub and separate shower. We can't wait for the jet tub...ahhh relaxation.




This is the model and I am almost identically replicating it in our house down to the shutters on the windows. The model is awesome in person and we both really love this room and the color scheme.




YAY I can't wait.

 

[ringbling17]

Mara, the prices are as high as those you posted.

I signed the contract on my house December 2001, exactly two years ago, but didn't move into it until May 2002, the wait was killing me also.
Since that time, the houses have definitely gone up by a lot.
Another thing that makes homes more expensive is if they are new construction. There are some houses here that are older and would have cost us a lot less, but we would have had to put a lot of work into it, so that wasn't an option.
All I am wondering is, who makes enough money to buy the detached homes in my neighborhood???
I love my house, it is exactly what I wanted. The only thing I regret is that we didn't just go for a detached home when they were less expensive.
We could have afforded it, but we were scared thinking that it was so much money and since this was our first house, this was a great start.
Now they are so expensive, we can't afford them.
I love the way your new house looks. I happen to like lighter colored wood also.
I bought all my furniture from EA, except for my daughter's room and the family room, and I chose the Elements and Horizon collections because they were more modern and on the lighter side.

 

[diamondlil]

Hey Canadiangrrl,


How far out in the DC suburbs are you willing to go? We have built 3 single-family houses in Maryland in the last 17 years, and each time went a little further away from DC to get more land and bigger house. The house we are in now is still within driving distance of DC (I think the vast majority of the residents out here work in DC) but the housing costs and land prices are good -- relatively speaking. We actually went about our search backwards. We searched for the best schools first, narrowed it down to Howard Co. and Calvert Co. Ended up in Calvert because the schools are excellent and we could get a 1+ acre completely wooded lot and custom-designed house for about $110/sq. foot plus land price (of course that was 4 years ago and prices are going up really fast out here). Out here, you can find a nice wooded acre for about $100,000+.




Diamondlil

 

[Mara]

Kayla....yeah our townhouse is a stepping stone. In 3-4 years we either will move away from here, or sell this place and move into a bigger house which we'd have to struggle to afford now. Our townhouse has already virtually appreciated about 50k and we haven't even moved in, since we got ours for about 30k less than the last ones sold for (ours fell out of financing with the previous buyer so we got it at her price) and the model sold for 50k more than ours. And one of our units re-sold last month and got about 40k over what we are paying. Pretty sweet so far

 

[Arlington]

----------------
On 12/19/2003 1:11:33 AM canadiangrrl wrote:

Kayla, don't move to Toronto if you want to live somewhere less expensive.

Homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are priced roughly on par with what you're describing - maybe even a little more $ per square foot in some neighbourhoods. It's equally as bad where we'll be buying next year (Northern VA, DC suburbs.)----------------

I hear ya Canadiangrrl....fiancee and I met with a realtor last night about buying in Arlington (where I live now, but I rent). We've pretty much been priced out of the market except small condos and the slums. Even in the slums the townhouses are about $300-$350k. A brand new townhouse the size of Mara's looks like about $700k right now at least. We aren't even close to that! I'd love it though....it looks incredible.

 

[canadiangrrl]

Arlington, my fiance works (mostly) in Arlington (Crystal City & the Pentagon.)

Diamondlil, we are looking at detached homes in Fairfax county, around the Herndon/Burke/Alexandria area. Neither of us is especially keen on a new home, we prefer the character of older homes (mine's about 125 years old, badly insulated, and falling apart, but it has the original gumwood, plate rail, leaded glass, and fireplace, dammit.)

We need to be in an area with a relatively easy commute to both Arlington and Andrews Air Force Base. Alexandria & Burke seem to best fit that bill, but Herndon is more to our liking in terms of actual homes. All three cities have excellent schools.

One of the reasons why my fiance is so adamant about living in Fairfax is because of the schools. I'd be interested in knowing where you live (you can pm me if you like) because "excellent school district" is at the top of our list in terms of priorities when deciding where to buy.

 

[canadiangrrl]

And if anyone else has any suggestions about where we should buy that fits the aforementioned parameters (detached, not new, excellent schools, non-heinous commute to AAFB & Arlington) *cough* Fire & Ice *cough* Arlington, I'm all ears. Because I know jack about that area.

 

[Lanee]

I have so many questions, this thread needs a conference call.

Judy and Mara, both places look great! I am wow-ed at RE costs on the coasts and in Canada. I am feeling better about RE in Chicagoland. Though I am assuming we are not as well compensated here as high RE cost states. Does anybody know? I should have gone to college.

 

[canadiangrrl]

Lanee, in short, stuff's just more expensive up here.

And we pay more tax, and have less disposable $$. Dollar to dollar, Toronto's roughly on par with major US cities. But like I said...stuff's just more expensive. Houses, consumer goods, you name it. Here's an example...the stuff I use to wash my face is $15 per bottle, plus 8% GST, plus 7% PST, at your average Canadian drugstore. In the US, at Rite-Aid, it's $5, and the tax varies depending on which state I'm in.

It's like that for almost everything. Don't even get me started on how much more airline tickets cost up here.

 

[Mara]

Most of the time a higher cost of living is accompanied by a similar increase in salary as compared to the rest of the states....however I am not so sure about VA and the like. Greg's sis was employed there as a mid-level sales chick for a pharm company and she was amazed at what we could pull in terms of salary out here...? When in reality it isn't anything astounding, for this area.




Two most expensive areas of the US in terms of cost of living are 1) NYC and 2) SF Bayarea respectively. Sometimes SF trumps NYC but it fluctuates.

 

[Mara]

Pulled this from an article earlier this month....btw Redding is like the armpit of California, you couldn't PAY ME to live there much less pay a mortgage.

"In the 12 months ending Sept. 30, Rhode Island had the nation's fastest rate of home price appreciation, at 12.35 percent, according to the agency. Rhode Island was followed by California (9.7 percent), the District of Columbia (9.1 percent), Maryland (8.65 percent) and Florida (8.64 percent).

The slowest pace of price appreciation in the past year was in Utah (1.8 percent), Colorado (1.88 percent), Texas (2.36 percent), Indiana (2.6 percent) and North Carolina and Nebraska (2.72 percent for both).

Areas in California and Florida had the fastest price growth. Prices in Fresno, Calif., had the fastest pace over the last 12 months, at 16.05 percent. Fresno was followed by Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Redding, Calif.; Chico-Paradise, Calif., and Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif."

 

[Lanee]

Wow, so we (Chicago)are some where in between!

 

[fire&ice]

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On 12/19/2003 4:23:39 PM canadiangrrl wrote:

Neither of us is especially keen on a new home, we prefer the character of older homes (mine's about 125 years old, badly insulated, and falling apart, but it has the original gumwood, plate rail, leaded glass, and fireplace, dammit.) ---

Yeah, an old home girl here too. We built our main house w/ 10' ceiling (a must in old southern homes), pilaster trim, paneled wood doors & just about every old detail hubby could think of. Our second home is a tiny bungalow ca 1925 - all built in bookcase & great moldings - hardwoods & tile floor - great cross breeze & separation of private & public spaces - all in 1500 sq. ft.! Unfortunatley, the older areas around DC tend to be very pricey. Real estate has really changed in that area. The people I know live in either Alexandria or Dupont Circle/Kalorama (DC). They bought years ago when real estate was much less. I will put my thinking cap on. Sounds like you want to stay fairly close in. Around those areas may be some really great mid-century modern homes. Just like Arts & Crafts/Bungalow homes were cast aways years back, people don't see the potential in those homes. Truly, a home for the modern family of the time. Maybe worth a look for homes/ neighborhoods built in the early to mid 60's. Just brainstorming here!

Judy, not to hijack your thread. Your house is beautiful! But, I love to hear real estate stories, etc. Hubby & I are one of those crazy people who drive around and go to open houses. Every Architect has "home" as being an interest regardless of what they design in the world.

 

[Mara]

we love older houses as well with all the great old architecture that comes with them....but because neither of us has the time right now nor the inclination to be beholden to our home every weekend working on it....we decided to get something new in order to have the luxury and not have to worry about anything in this home. also since we don't plan to stay here for more than 5 years, it doesn't pay for us to put all this work into it only to leave it. that would make us very sad. so the idea is that we do this new townhouse with cool luxuries for a while and then when we decide where we want to be/what we want to do longer term, we can invest in an older place with all the trimmings and old pipes then.




plus to be honest, right now at this point in our lives, paying out the nose for a mortgage AND spending our weekends fixing up our old beautiful home just did not seem appealing. we're so busy that we'd end up living in the house without doing the work and being bitter each time we paid the huge mortgage check. older beautiful architecture homes that still need work are just as expensive around here as the brand new townhouses, so it's not as though you save anything by going older fixer-upper.....seemed more fitting our dollars go into the sure thing that would give us happiness for the short term (e.g. working jet tub...hee hee).