house shopping update
July 19th, 2008 -- Posted in family, future / dreams / goals, hill to haven, life as a mom | 4 Comments »So last week I was in touch with a mortgage broker and I sent in an application to be pre-approved for a mortgage with CIBC. Both went just fine – CIBC pre-approved us and is sending a certificate in the mail, and the mortgage broker told us we would be able to still look for a house in the size/price range we want, even though right now my income is a little less because I’m on car accident insurance coverage instead of a full salary. So I can hopefully stop feeling like I need to rush myself back to work before I’m ready, we can still build our “dream home” with what we have right now.
So today we took a look at Chapman Mills, and the area is just perfect. 6 mins drive away from the new RCMP HQ, but only 25 mins from the old one (33 if you don’t take the highway, a bit more with traffic, of course). Great neighbourhood and wow is it ever growing fast! There’s a school right up the road from the little area where lots are currently available but it’s a Catholic elementary. There’s another one close by as well but it hasn’t been built yet. So we’re not sure where Harmony will be for grade 6. However, we do know where she will likely be for grades 7 all the way up to 12!! A brand new middle school/high school (OCDSB’s first serving that range of students)! Which will be a 4 mins drive away. Also near lots of great shopping and parks and things like that.
Looking at the models was really busy with the kids (omg they were awful, I’m glad the windows were all much to pretty to break by throwing small children through!), but we made it through the 5 single-family homes within our general range of what we were looking for. We saw the Fraser but it was definitely too small. The Chelsea 4 was next and was very nice and a much more comfortable size. We saw the MacPherson, which we knew we weren’t a fan of because of the layout of the bedrooms.
Then we got to see our top choice, the Sutherland, and the layout was just as fantastic in person as it was in the floor plans. And they had this neat little extra window you could cut through the wall between the hall and the kitchen so you can see the front hall and doors right from the kitchen, very neat. The kids ran up and down the stairs while Paul and I sat in the living room comparing the floor plans to the real thing. Very nice feel to it, it really felt comfortable but also spacious. The family room was very open concept with the kitchen, but those two areas were separated from the rest of the house in a way that made it feel like a “just the family” relaxed area. The floor plans had shown a regular closet in the laundry room / mud room, but the model home had the upgrade of a little built-in with cupboards and hooks and storage nooks, perfect for kids!
Then, while we were there, we went to check out the last house in that row, the Westminster.
