Stonehurst owners

[erum]

We have just signed in for the lot 43 on chase cresent backing on greenspace and selected the model stonehurst elevation A and our closing will be on April 29, 2010. Any other folks with stonehurst???

[Joanne]

I have elevation A on lot 10 phase 2 (lands court), closes July 7th, 2009. There is another one on that same street (also a member of this forum) and a few close by on Porter cres being built. I know of two that are closed on Baldwin and then there is the one as you come onto Baldwin from Blackbridge. I'm sure there are more but that is all I have seen.

Beautiful Home ;). What made you select that one? I really love the floor plan. There are a lot of changes you can make but I love it the way it is. The only change I made to the floor plan was the addition of the Jack and Jill Bathroom. Oh and some custom plans in the kitchen. The only thing I don't like is that if you want all brick you lose the porch, so we decided to go with the craftstyle exterior of elevation A.

[erum]

Hi Joanne,

Thanks for responding and sharing this information. I have checked some of the homes and I agree stonehurst is the beautiful model. We have a huge family and that was specifically the reason for selecting this models with 3 washrooms in the upper level. With 3 girls(6yrs,3yrs and 6 months old) we sure needed that.

We have selected the following strucural upgrades,
alternate kitchen
alternate fireplace location
next step with open landing option
His and her WIC
Rec Room Ready
Cold Cellar
Energy star

So how is your experrience dealing with Mattamy overall, I have heard horror stories and some good ones also whcih makes me bit nervous.:confused: This is our second home, we currently live on townline just 5 minutes from blackbridge.

[Joanne]

You have 3 girls! We have 3 boys! (12, 4.5, 2.5).

I like the open staircase concept. Very elegant. We choose the rec room ready too.

I have not had any big problems so far. My design consultant Jen has been very helpful. The constuction crew have been generally on top of things if I noticed any problem. They had framed in the ledge on the stairs when I mentioned this it was fixed right away. Our house appears to be ahead of schedule. I think most of the horror stories occur when they rush the house to be closed on time.

[Sunny]

Hi Erum,

I am your future neighbour. Do you remember that I purchase the lot beside you and we chose Stonehurst elevation C. It is nice to meet you here.

Sunny

[Stonehurst on Weir]

Hello,

We are building a Stonehurst elevation A on Weir street.
So far things are going okay.
Waiting on feed back from the design centre to finish planning out the kitchen is our last hurdle.
We closed someones front door the other day there was a big wind blowing filling the house with dirt.
The workmen are not very good at making sure the doors and windows are shut.


T&B
South Cambridge

T & B

[erum]

Hi Erum,

I am your future neighbour. Do you remember that I purchase the lot beside you and we chose Stonehurst elevation C. It is nice to meet you here.

Sunny

Hi Sunny,

Nice to meet you here as well. So what are the structural upgrades you are going with? We are too excited since our first appointment wth design centre will be next week, keeping fingers crossed.

Erum

[erum]

You have 3 girls! We have 3 boys! (12, 4.5, 2.5).

I like the open staircase concept. Very elegant. We choose the rec room ready too.

I have not had any big problems so far. My design consultant Jen has been very helpful. The constuction crew have been generally on top of things if I noticed any problem. They had framed in the ledge on the stairs when I mentioned this it was fixed right away. Our house appears to be ahead of schedule. I think most of the horror stories occur when they rush the house to be closed on time.


Hi Joanne,

We are in midst of planning for the kitchen, and i remember you mentioned that you had some customizations done, do you have alternate kitchen layout? What customizations do you recommend for kitchen? I like taller cabinets so do you know in our model the standard cabinet height?
I noticed in the other house near yrs, there is builtin cooktop and microwave and oven mounted in the cabinet, do you have the similar setup or do you know of the price for this setup.

[Joanne]

Hi Joanne,

We are in midst of planning for the kitchen, and i remember you mentioned that you had some customizations done, do you have alternate kitchen layout? What customizations do you recommend for kitchen? I like taller cabinets so do you know in our model the standard cabinet height?
I noticed in the other house near yrs, there is builtin cooktop and microwave and oven mounted in the cabinet, do you have the similar setup or do you know of the price for this setup.

Hi Erum

Schedule A states that all 50 ft lots are standard with tall (42 in) cabinets. Be careful if you choose to raise/stagger cabinets because they might just shorten the other cabinets instead to achieve the staggered look.

I kept the standard kitchen, because I love the island! We ordered custom built in cabinets. The price I received was for the whole order, rather than by piece.

So for $17 757 here is what I ordered:
Built-in Appliance Accommodation: Relocate included pantry
to rear elevation wall. Increase width of pantry to approx.
36" wide. Relocate fridge opening and fridge niche approx.
18" and install approx.12" wide x 24" deep pantry to the
left hand side of fridge. Install cabinet for built in
microwave/wall oven combo with two doors above and one 6"
tall pot and pan drawer & one 12" total pot & pan drawer
below to be located adjacent to revised fridge location.
Install base cabinet unit with pot & pan drawers to
accommodate for 36" cook top in former freestanding stove
location. Install traditional decorative wood canopy
approx. 36" wide in lieu of the included hood fan in
kitchen. Hood Fan to be supplied by Aya (Fan installation
by electrician). Top of canopy to be raised approx. 6"
above top of upper cabinets. (Deletion of bulkhead to be
ordered separately if applicable). 9'-0" ceilings. Aya.
Series 7 excluding the island, canopy, & pot & pan drawers
below cook top in Series 4. Standard cabinet interior.
Standard laminate counter top. (Structural, Mechanical and
electrical requirements ordered separately). Sketch and
specs required for site and sign off. This item includes
Line upgrade.(136.2-0010-P-0001-12)[Room Notes: NOTE : Oven
cabinet will have (1) 6" OR (1) 12" bottom drawer need app.
specs.]

The series 4 is maple new haven clove
The series 7 is maple charleston glazed latte

The reason for the 12 inch pantry to the left of the fridge is so that the fridge door does not hit the wall while open.

I also ordered large crown moulding, top drawer construction, sink front trays, upper corner angled cabinet prices as per guide, but more costly due to ordering upgraded series.

For $2789, I ordered a deeper cooktop with capital posts (so cooktop is bumped out like the Northridge Model)

After closing I will be dressing up the island, with faux panels, corbels and a glass cabinet at the end of the island that faces the great room. Granite and valance will be bought after closing.

After closing I also might add lower and upper cabinets all along the wall facing the window in the breakfast area to accomodate a beverage fridge and a wine rack.

The custom order is depicted in the 3D diagrams I attached, all except the crown moulding is sketched.

Planning the kitchen was my favourite and most expensive part of the design process. I will be living in this home until I retire so I thought it was important to go all out with the kitchen. It was now or never! I can't wait to see the result!

[erum]

Joanne, you are simply an angel, I am extremly happy to see your email. I am sure Joanne, your kitchen will look awesome, I really appreciate the extensive detail that you have provided, answered so many of my questions in mind. I 100% agree to invest more in kitchen customizations specially when one plan to live in there forever. We plan on living in the same house until my gals get married :) I am also planning to go with series 7 but its costly with alternate kitchen 16604.

However, i definteily like the idea of the puting a lower series in less noticable areas. However, with peninsula i am not sure how much i will gain out of it. I will be deleting the chef's desk and replacing it with built in microwave/oven combo cabinet. I am planning on putting the stainless steel chimney hood fan so i will be getting rid of upper cabinets above the cooktop, what kind of cooktop are you going with. We went to Goemans and i liked the fisher paykel 36" with 5 burners. Did you provide the measurements of cooktop, mircorwave and oven in the first appt.

Also, i plan to do the valence and crownmoulding after closing since we checked with aya and it is possible to do such afterwards. We plan on putting the granite and backsplash after closing as well since Mattamy charges alot for these. So when are they installing cabinets in your kitchen?

Our first appoinmtment with design consultant is next week and i am not sure if i am ready for it specially b/c of the changes i like to do in kitchen. I am also taking the top drawer construction, 2 upper angled cabinets, 2 base piano hingge cabinets, 1 angled end shelf , deeper fridge upper, pot drawers beneath the cooktop and oven/micro combo. I know it will be trouble for you but wondering if you have the breakdown of the cost, it will be easier for me to make a decision. And if you can think of any other innovative ideas for alternative kitchen, please feel free to share.

[Joanne]

no problem Erum, very happy to help! Unfortunatley I cannot provide a breakdown of the costs item by item because they priced this out as a single custom order (minus the small extras for which the prices are in the guide), so I only quoted a whole cost.

Going with the series 7 will make all the itemized costs in the guide much more expensive. For example the piano hinge is $454 for standard series, but in series 7 it is $1077. Upper angled cabinet goes from $351 to $854. The deep fridge upper is $365 for series 7, but will cost more if you need the gables.

I have a mixture because I like the two-tone kitchen. The cabinets are light, but the island, canopy and cooktop cabinet are all dark - so I was able to get away with the lower series on those - but they will stand out.

I had planned much of the kitchen design via email with my design consultant well in advance of the appointment, who had put in requests for pricing to the AYA kitchen rep. We had 4 slightly different plans worded out for pricing because their were a few options I was unsure of. It took some time for the pricing to determined as the design consultants rely on the kitchen rep to work out custom orders.

As far as appliances go, they will need the specs before ordering the kitchen, so you won't need them at the design appt, but you should let them know the width of the cooktop as that will effect the cost of the pot and pan drawers below. We are buying a GE profile 36 inch induction cooktop.

I think my kitchen should be ready within the next 2 - 4 weeks. We close in 8 weeks. A neighbour who closes in 6 weeks had their cabinets 2 weeks ago. Feel free to take a look, but they may lock us up soon. I will post pictures for sure!

[Joanne]

Picture of walloven and island. The glazed latte is very nice, the pictures don't do it justice

[Joanne]

Whole view of kitchen

[Joanne]

espresso oak stairs

[Stonehurst on Weir]

Hi Joanne:
Thanks for sharing the pics. Your selections, are beautiful, nice idea with the 2 tone kitchen. I love the dark stain on the staircase. Thanks for your update. T/B, stonehurst on weir.

[erum]

Hi Joaane,

THanks for sharing the pics, your kitchen looks awesome. I had a chance to peek through your patio over the weekend since your house was locked. It definitely a very nice touch, paid off for the hard work you did in desigining. I am quite excited since we have our first structural appointment today, keeping fingers crossed :)

[erum]

Hi Joaane,

I noticed that you have 2 windows on the side in your basement, however in our plan we just have one small window on the side. It was quite wierd that few stonehurst with elevation B or C have 2 side windows and probably you are the only elevation A with 2 windows. Wondering if you have asked mattamy for additonal windows? We are also paying for larger windows in basement but our design consultant has told us that it is not possible to have another window on the side, isnt it strange some stonehurst have them and some dont:confused:. Well i did not buy the answer and have insisted the design consultant to check with corporate. Let see what i hear from her.

Also, our structure appointment went great and no surprises for any cost, thanks for you guys on the post who has been posting the prices for each upgrade so the new homeowners are not shocked in the first appointment. :cool:

I am also deleting the wall between parlour and den from mattamy thereby making into one room. I got this approved from sales before signing any papers and that is what my design consultant was telling me that if we have not done that beforehand then they would have not approve this customization on the design appointments.

[Joanne]

Hi Joaane,

I noticed that you have 2 windows on the side in your basement, however in our plan we just have one small window on the side. It was quite wierd that few stonehurst with elevation B or C have 2 side windows and probably you are the only elevation A with 2 windows. Wondering if you have asked mattamy for additonal windows?


We didn't order extra windows, the floor plan of the stonehurst on the website shows two windows on the side for the basement level, so I am surprised to hear this. We did order deeper windows and were told only two would be deeper but have been given all deeper windows. Could it be due to the grading of the lot that some have only one window?

[erum]

I got a reply from design consultant and apparently the standard stonehurst model have 2 side windows. However, with lookout and walkout basements, there will be only one side window and ours is a walkout. That is the reason lot 8 does not have 2 side windows as it is walkout. The confusion was that lot 5 whcih is also walkout have 2 side windows and according to the design consultant this was a mistake by head office and they have fixed the drawings now. I wish they would have done that mistake with us :) since we plan on making the basemnet as inlaw suite and my father in law loves sunlight. Another problem is that since ours is the alternate kitchen so we we can not have the big sliding door in the basement, only the standard one. That is why we were so keen of having another window but i guess its not happening anymore.

Also since you mentioned about your kids, do you know how the silverheight school and day care are? My kids presently are going to woodland which rates one of the best in cambridge, even its daycare is awesome.I am not sure what the process is for transfering from one school to another. I am sure you probably already did this homework, thought to check with you. We plan on visitng the school plus daycare this week to get more information.

[Joanne]

. I am sure you probably already did this homework, thought to check with you.

haha, no, that is something I have not done yet. I've had to deal with transfer before but not within the same region, I'm not sure if there is any difference. I plan to register my children sometime in the next two weeks or so, they currently attend a school in Milton. I did not know that Silverheights PS has a daycare with it. I won't need that service since I will be long gone before that opens in the morning and I have already arranged home daycare.

A walkout basement is nice for having an in law suite. Will you be finishing the basement as soon as you close? My parents will be with us for 6 months of the year, they will be using the parlour and bedroom 2. My parents would not like being down in our basement, maybe if we had a walkout... but we bought on our lot before we invited them to stay with us.

[Stonehurst on Weir]

Joanne:
Do you know when your shutters are being installed? We keep checking on our house, and have noticed the 2 Stonehurst craft syle around us don't have their shutters yet, and the one guy is already moved in. Any news?
Thanks Barb
Lot 130 Weir St.

[Joanne]

Joanne:
Do you know when your shutters are being installed? We keep checking on our house, and have noticed the 2 Stonehurst craft syle around us don't have their shutters yet, and the one guy is already moved in. Any news?
Thanks Barb
Lot 130 Weir St.


No idea! I have yet to see a craftstyle stonehurst with shutters. Where I live right now it was months after my neighbour moved in before they got the shutters (different builder though)

[Stonehurst on Weir]

Hi Joanne:

We were told my the girls in the office, Elevation A is just lilke the picture in the book, I double checked it comes with shutters. Are you presently in
a Mattamy sub division? How has your house build been coming along? We have certainly had a few situations already, and our house has just begun, not too long ago.:rolleyes:
Talk to you soon Barb

[Joanne]

We close on July 7th and move in July 8th. We just need carpet now really. We have had problems with the kitchen where most of the upgrades are. The quality of installation is disapointing. It seems like they are in no hurry to fix the defects.

[K.C.]

We have had problems with the kitchen where most of the upgrades are. The quality of installation is disapointing. It seems like they are in no hurry to fix the defects.

Joanne, I don't think you would have quality problems if you dealt directly with Aya. Quality issues exist because Mattamy gives them such a short window to install your stuff and because they've given them too much new business to make up for Canac closing. They figure they have all the time in the world after you close and they've got your money to fix all the defects. Sad.

Considering that they make most of their profit from upgrades since construction is such a competitive business you'd think they'd try not to drop the ball here. If customers aren't happy with your highest profit margin upgrades you aren't going to get alot of new business. It's like Mattamy is drowning and trying to take down the people who could save them, the existing homeowners. It's going to show up in their bottom line as time goes on because new home buyers will get a clue and realize they're better off dealing direct with Aya after closing. If you could have all your upgrades properly installed before closing you might be able to justify Mattamy's outrageous prices but if you have to wait several months to get everything sorted out anyways why not save your money and get a better quality installation direct from Aya. They put alot of pressure on Aya to take on additional business ... I can see some people reaching for each other's throats in the board room.

[Joanne]

Joanne, I don't think you would have quality problems if you dealt directly with Aya.
If you could have all your upgrades properly installed before closing you might be able to justify Mattamy's outrageous prices but if you have to wait several months to get everything sorted out anyways why not save your money and get a better quality installation direct from Aya.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have bridge loaned for 1 month or so after closing and have AYA tear out the standard kitchen and then upgrade it so that it was installed to perfection before I move in. For sure I would have saved money even with a bridge loan. Hindsight is 20/20. Anyone considering extensive and expensive upgrades to their kitchen should consider this. What upsets me even more is that I have informed them of the problems and they don't seem to care to fix the issues before I move in. Not only have I overpaid for upgrades I will have to live in a construction zone for who knows how long!

[K.C.]

What upsets me even more is that I have informed them of the problems and they don't seem to care to fix the issues before I move in. Not only have I overpaid for upgrades I will have to live in a construction zone for who knows how long!

At first glance, you might think this is an employee specific problem but it seems Mattamy is doing this on purpose. The idea is to close as many people as possible on time or even early to get their money and deal with customer service issues later. Since I've been here I've seen an incredible lack of caring just as homeowners are about to close on their homes. There are issues that some might say makes the home unlivable ... much more serious problems than cabinetry defects.

I've also seen how quickly Mattamy reacts when a homeowner decides to play hardball and refuse to close. They suddenly become capable of solving problems they weren't willing to solve the day before. I witnessed this up close because my office faces Baldwin. From the second story I can see alot with these monster windows. I couldn't stop laughing at the about face they did! They have the resources to do the right thing ... they just choose not to until you push their backs against the wall.

We've been here since April 1st and I won't be able to really start unpacking until middle of July because that's when all the painting will be done. Three and a half months to unpack ... not very good customer service. I run a business from home which means alot of my business stuff can't be unpacked either. Even the insides of the closets need serious work so I have to pull everything out and put it in the middle of the room.