A great start to 2015 for Jackson Creek Meadows!

The 2015 building season has started with a bang in our Jackson Creek Meadows Community! Sales of single detached homes and townhomes have been brisk since the middle of January, despite the frigid temperatures. However, the perfect storm of historically low interest rates, limited inventory in the resale market and a desirable West End Peterborough location has made Jackson Creek Meadows the smart choice for many families, first time homeowners and retirees.

Surprisingly we still have a small handful of premium lots ranging from 40’ to 60’ in width, backing onto a heavily treed green belt, adjacent to the Trans Canada Trail. These lots probably won’t last through the spring market, so don’t hesitate and miss out on the opportunity to live in this family friendly conservation community!

We are also pleased to announce that we will be opening a brand new model home this spring! The exciting grand opening of The Charlesworth Executive Model Home is tentatively scheduled to open in the middle of May. A completely new creation from our design department, The Charlesworth Executive showcases an open concept eat in kitchen/great room across the back of the home, with soaring vaulted ceilings and a covered deck.  The plan also features a popular loft master bedroom, two main floor bedrooms, full double car garage and a well-appointed finished lower level.

The Charlesworth Executive

Our design team has also just put the finishing touches on a new fully furnished townhome model, The Berkley. The Berkley townhome boasts 1890 sq. ft. of living space featuring 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, open concept main floor with eat in kitchen, great room and separate living/dining room. The unspoiled lower level offers a full walkout and three piece plumbing rough-in, ready to go for a fourth bathroom.

Executive Townhome Collection

The Jackson Creek Meadows Model Home is temporarily located at 343 Florence Drive.

Model Home Hours:

• Monday - 2pm to 7pm
• Tuesday to Friday - 11am to 7pm
• Saturday & Sunday - 10am to 6pm

Our new Charlesworth Executive Model Home will be located at 105 Chandler Crescent. We invite you to come in and visit us and see our full selection of available lots and home designs.

We look forward to making your new home dream come true in Jackson Creek Meadows!

See you soon!
Paul


Paul Davidson
New Home Specialist
705.748.4665
pauldavidson@parkviewhomes.ca

The First Time Home Buyer Blog: Appliance Selection Process

 Well hello there! :D

Thanks for checking back in with me. I should probably warn you that my excitement level for my new and first home is THROUGH THE ROOF!! The wait has been long but totally worth it! I can’t wait to get into MY new home!! With the weeks until I get my keys now countable on one hand, I can’t wait! Eeeek!!!

I am still playing a little catch up on writing about all the experiences I have had during my experience of buying my first home. In this blog, I am going to talk about my appliance selection process.

If this is the first time you are checking in with me or want to re-read some of my previous entries, here are the links to the previous blogs:

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Personalizing My Floor Plan!

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 1

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 2

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Visiting the Kitchen Designer

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Summer Building Progress

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Plan Review 

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Pre-Drywall Walk-Through 

Appliance Selection:

I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but when I purchased my house many, many months ago I selected a free 5-appliance package as my bonus instead of a free gas fireplace. While the fireplace would have been cozy and warm on those long cold winter days, I figured being able to cook my dinner, keep my groceries cold and do laundry was a much better option ;)

When you choose the 5-appliance package you are given a credit to use at The Brick. You can either use it to select 5 basic white standard appliances (fridge, stove, dishwasher, washer and dryer) or you can use it as a credit towards the purchase of upgraded appliances. I went for the latter option; white appliances were just not my thing. I wanted stainless steel!

I should also mention, that if you don’t want to use your credit towards appliances you also have the option of using it towards furniture and/or mattresses at The Brick. Details on the entire program are available at all Parkview Homes Model Homes.

The advantage of the choosing the appliances when purchasing your new home is that you get to work directly with Rencee at The Brick. She will setup an appointment for you to come in, sit down and discuss what you would like in regards to your appliances, she will show you what comes as standard, she will also show you upgrade options based on your needs and wants and then provide you with pricing.

For me I went with the standard white washer and dryer, as long as my clothes come out clean and dry then they are doing their job! I did however want to upgrade my kitchen appliances. As I mentioned before, I wanted stainless steel, but I also wanted to make sure my fridge had a large freezer. As a single person, I don’t want to be cooking everyday, so the ability to cook large amounts of food and then freeze small portions was important to me. Also, in my kitchen I wanted to make sure I had a stove/oven that suited my needs. I have a large family and I wanted to make sure that when they came over I am going to have a large capacity oven, so I can cook up huge feasts. In addition to the large family I love to bake, so I wanted to make sure I picked something that catered to this as well. Lastly, because my fridge and stove/oven were now stainless steel, I wanted to make sure that my dishwasher didn’t stand out like a sore thumb, so for a minimal amount I upgraded it to stainless steel as well.

Rencee was able to listen to my needs and wants and showed my many options that fit into what I was looking for but also fit my budget. She was patient with me as I carefully and thoroughly reviewed each of the options that worked for me. I should probably mention, this was a huge decision and I am pretty indecisive! ;)

At the end of my appointment I selected a beautiful stainless steel french door fridge with a huge freezer draw and a large capacity convection oven. I know both will suit my needs perfectly and I can rest assured knowing that I was shown all the options and I didn’t go over my budget.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures at this stage. So stay tuned for pictures after I move in of my beautiful kitchen!!

Talk to you soon,

Alyssa :)

PS. If you want to be my neighbour (& get some fresh baked goods ;) ) check out Jackson Creek Meadows!

The First Time Home Buyer Blog: Plan Review

Hey! Thanks for checking in! In this blog I will be talking to you about my Plan Review!

If this is the first time you are checking in with me or want to re-read some of my previous entries, here are the links to the previous blogs:

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Personalizing My Floor Plan!

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 1

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 2

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Visiting the Kitchen Designer

·       First Time Home Buyer Blog – Summer Building Progress

My Plan Review:

Now that the construction on my home is coming along swimmingly! It was time for me to sit down and go over the detailed plans of my home at my Plan Review. For this meeting I once again got to sit down with Susan (whose, yes, is also our Design Studio Manager), to review my home and make sure all the changes and selections I had made were included in the construction plans.

A Plan Review is one of the many touch points provided to all Parkview homebuyers during the construction process. It is a great time to ask questions about your home and to make sure that certain items you selected have been included.

To start my Plan Review Susan walked me through my plans, showing me all the upgrades and changes that I had made at the time of my purchase. So anything that shows up in my Agreement of Purchase and Sale, on the document known as the Schedule Z. For me this included all the floor plan changes and my garage to foyer man door. While reviewing these changes she also went through and showed me all of my windows, describe what kind of window it would be (casement, slider, combo slider, etc.), and let me know if they were operating or non-operating and went over the sizes of each one. As well, she pointed out where all my smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, attic hatch and phone and cable outlets would be located.

Second, she went back through the plans and double-checked that all my flooring selections were correct. She showed me where I selected tile, carpet and hardwood and where my flooring breaks would be.

It is during this appointment that you are offered the peace of mind that everything you selected in regards to floor plans changes, windows, decks, flooring, etc. have all been accounted for and that your home is being built just the way you wanted. If you have any questions about the construction of your new home the Plan Review is a great time to ask them while you are sitting one on one with Susan.

Sitting down for my plan review was very exciting! It brings the reality that in only a few more short months the home on paper will be a reality and I will move from being a homebuyer to a HOMEOWNER!!

It has become come practice for me to drive by each week and take pictures of the progress! I get extremely excited when I see big developments happening, like window installation, roofing and the masonry work just started!!

I will be checking back soon to give another update so stay tuned!!

Talk to you soon,

Alyssa :)

PS. If you want to be my neighbour, check out Jackson Creek Meadows here!

The First Time Home Buyer Blog: Summer Building Progress!

Hello again! It’s been awhile! I apologize for the delay, if you have been following along! It has been an extremely busy summer and I just never found the time! But now that fall is unfortunately here I will try and give updates more often.

If this is the first time you are checking in with me, here are the links to the previous blogs you have missed:

• First Time Home Buyer Blog
• First Time Home Buyer Blog – Personalizing My Floor Plan!
• First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 1
• First Time Home Buyer Blog – Design Studio – Part 2
• First Time Home Buyer Blog – Visiting the Kitchen Designer

While I was off being busy with work and summer activities a lot has been happening with my new home! So I thought for this blog I would let you relive the summer of building activity in pictures!

ENJOY!

EXCITING NEWS!!

I will be officially a First Time Home OWNER on Friday, February 6, 2015! I am super excited and can’t wait to start using all the fun home accessories I have been buying :)

Stay tuned for my next blog; I will be talking about my plan review!

Talk to you soon,

Alyssa :)

PS. If you want to be my neighbour, check out Jackson Creek Meadows!

The First Time Home Buyer Blog: Personalizing My Floor Plan to Suit Me!

Welcome back or welcome if you didn’t read the first blog in this series!

As promised, in this blog I am going to explain how very exciting it was for me to have the ability to personalize my floor plan to the way I wanted it.

To start I needed to figure out which townhome plan it was that I could afford. Parkview Homes offers three different designs; The Kenton II, The Berkley and The Arundel. While they were all very affordable, my budget is very small so I went with the least expensive design, The Arundel! It is super cute on the inside and out, I must add! I am very excited to move in this fall! In fact, I just bought a roasting pan! I know your probably thinking what a nerd, but hey! I get excited by the simple things in life – like a new roasting pan :)

Now on to the floor plan personalization… It wasn’t that I didn’t like the original design; I did, it was beautiful! It just didn’t fit my lifestyle. The original Arundel design had a separate dining room that wasn’t going to work for me. As I mentioned in my previous blog I come from a large family, and a separate dining room with no where to expand wasn’t going to be able to accommodate me hosting family dinners. I wanted to have the flexibility to stretch out my dining room table, to allow for my family to have lots of room, and for any extended family or friends to join us. So I moved it over and attached it to my great room and took down the middle wall to open everything up (I had to stretch the budget a little bit with the removal of the supporting wall, but it will be all worth it to have my home the way I want it!).

Another change I wanted to make was moving the powder room from the front entrance to just behind the kitchen. I wanted it to be more accessible from the main living area.

With these two changes I was able to create a more open concept layout for my new home! I now have an awesome dining room/great room, a perfectly placed kitchen that is open to my dining room/great room, my spacious breakfast area and a conveniently located powder room!

I should also note that when I made the changes on main floor, they did effect more than just the main floor (you may have already noticed), by moving the powder room, the location of the stairs had to change, which meant that my upstairs layout had to change slightly. My master bedroom configuration got altered and the locations of my main bath and ensuite also changed. I am elated with the final layout!

Just looking at the floor plan that I personalized with the help of the fantastic designer at Parkview Homes, it gives my butterflies and goose bumps of excitement for when I move in and host that first family dinner! And use that shining new roasting pan ;). Also, did you see the size of the walk-in closet in my master bedroom?! I could live in that thing!

As I mentioned in my first blog, I have the advantage of knowing A LOT about the new home building industry, because I do work for Parkview Homes. I know what you might be thinking; this blog is a marketing ploy to get you to buy a new home. Well it may be a little bit, but it’s more importantly a chance for me, a first time homebuyer, to share the knowledge that I have gained over the last two years of working here, as well as share my first home buying experience!

Here are a few tips that might be helpful that I wouldn’t have known two years ago:

1.  If you are not familiar with new home builders, changing floor plans is usually something that they will NOT accommodate. Usually, you pick a floor plan and that is exactly how your home is going to be built.

I am very lucky that Parkview will make changes to meet my personal and lifestyle needs. This isn’t just a special service for me – they do it for everyone! However, like I mentioned before you should be aware there may be some costs involved depending on the changes/modifications that you would like to make.

2.  You get to pick your own design selections! Flooring, Trim, Doors, Exterior Colours, etc. This is something you get to learn more about in my next blog. I think picking colours was the most nerve racking and exciting part!! Stay tuned :)!

I hope this has been helpful! I look forward to writing about my Design Studio Selection process!

Talk to you soon,

Alyssa

Here are a few resources if you are thinking about buying your first home or a new home or you just really want to be my neighbour!

Jackson Creek Meadows – Townhomes

Jackson Creek Meadows – Community