Well, the latest development in our Upgrades saga is over our Kitchen. K and I had decided that we wanted under valance lighting, as well as a fridge build out/Gable. I had been emailing back and forth with our Interior Decorator at Terra View to get pricing for things (I have a crazy spreadsheet that tabulates all of our costs, tells us the 5% deposit cost, mortgage cost and even the CMHC fees we’d need to pay), and casually mentioned that we wanted these two items.
We were almost too late to get the valance lighting because our electrical rough ins start on Monday. I quickly got a change order signed for that and then asked about the gable. Apparently we were already too late for that because framing had been done on the bulk heads.
This was now almost the third time we’ve been told that we were too late to get things/didn’t know what was standard vs. optional (Shower, Hardwood Stairs, Pot Lights) so I was starting to get angry. I sent a “strongly worded” email that basically said I wasn’t impressed with how things were going because we had been finding out about things by luck. The interior decorator was awesome, and spoke to the site supervisor for us so that we could have our useful cupboards above the fridge. Needless to say, i was very excited for the rest of the day.
If you’re in the market to buy a new build home, make sure you ask for someone to walk you through the model homes and tell you what is standard, what is optional and WHEN you need to decide on these things. It’s probably much easier with a house that isn’t under construction yet! Don’t be afraid to ask questions either! For the longest time K would make me email the Sales Agent every day and I was getting upset because I didn’t want to annoy her. We’re giving these people a crap ton of money, so they should be able to put up with a few months of me being a pain in the ass.
On Saturday I’m going to head over to the model home and try and pick out all the things I want come colour selection time!
