Minto- Mahogany Phase 2

[CandC2012]

Expect to spend at least an hour or maybe more at the first appointment. We made our color selections but we're sent out to look at houses in phase 2 that have the colors on them already. They give you the locations of the houses that have the color selections once you narrow down the 10 or so choices they initially present in the office. Two of the available options will likely not be available to you (if you have neighbors on both sides who have picked already). We narrowed it down to 4 before selecting it; I will say this, I'm glad March 2 was a sunny day because it really nailed our choice down for us. There were 2 out of the 4 choices that we made that looked ok/good in a inside room but once we saw them in the full sun light they were a big 'no'. Again these were just our preferences.

For the other items, you decide on the colors on the window frame (either comes in white or you upgrade to another available color), and if you would like to fully insulate the garage/ garage doors plus some options on the style of garage doors (with costs). The basic house insulation covers to the internal house wall inside your garage.

They also go over the details of what to expect through the process and highlight certain items on what's included. One item which we feel was pretty decent was a 200 AMP line to the house, which is needed if you plan on charging an electric car (I think you still need to pay a bit extra for the charging outlet in the garage). The phase 1 houses only have a 100 AMP. This probably isn't a huge thing for most people but for us we are considering an electric car in the next 3 years so it is a point of interest for us.

Originally Posted by FrasierM

Congrats. What can we expect for the exterior/garage appointments? I didn't even know they discussed garages at that time. Did you do window frames etc? Do you just choose from the boards in the sales centre or is there any digital drawings with the different options. Any tips for a few newbies?
Saw that listing, I wonder what it will actually sell for.

[Noble_2022]

Originally Posted by FrasierM

Congrats. What can we expect for the exterior/garage appointments? I didn't even know they discussed garages at that time. Did you do window frames etc? Do you just choose from the boards in the sales centre or is there any digital drawings with the different options. Any tips for a few newbies?
Saw that listing, I wonder what it will actually sell for.

At our exterior selections appointment, we were asked to select our exterior colours from the boards at the sales centre. You should know that you can’t select the same colours as the 2 homes on either side of you or opposite to your home.

As well, you will be provided some options that are specific to your home. For us (Noble B) we had the option to upgrade to an insulated garage and garage door, upgrade window colour to black (excludes basement windows), and the option to upgrade the garage doors to a modern look flush panel or accent wood tones embossed panel. Because our model has a balcony and railings we had the option to select colours for these as well.

There are no digital drawings, beyond the renderings on the Mahogany website. Our appointment fell on a day which had a power outage so we had to work off the booklet. Without much light. We were able to figure out a couple of options from Phase 2A ourselves and had a look at them before going in.

I had taken pictures of the boards at the sales centre prior to the appointment and had prioritized my top 3 choices. The ladies are excellent at what they do, and are great with their suggestions. Depending on your elevation some items on the board may not be applicable. For example, the Noble B comes with stone but not brick.

[FrasierM]

Awesome, this is great info thanks. When we were in to sign our agreement they actually said not to take pictures of the boards so that we don't get our hopes up if we can't choose that specific package. Maybe I'll drop in and take a few pictures and have a top 5 choices.
Did you end up insulating the garage wall? I am just worried as we have a bedroom above the garage and I'm assuming it will be colder than all of the other rooms upstairs.

Cheers,

[CandC2012]

We did the insulation for the garage and both garage doors. We didnt upgrade the garage doors to the different finishes. Based on our model we selected, it was about 2100$ (this included both insulated garage doors). We also picked a different color (other than white) for all the ground floor and second floor window frames which was about 1300$ (just looking at the neighborhood, not many houses in the frame 2A have white window frames).

[Noble_2022]

Originally Posted by FrasierM

Awesome, this is great info thanks. When we were in to sign our agreement they actually said not to take pictures of the boards so that we don't get our hopes up if we can't choose that specific package. Maybe I'll drop in and take a few pictures and have a top 5 choices.
Did you end up insulating the garage wall? I am just worried as we have a bedroom above the garage and I'm assuming it will be colder than all of the other rooms upstairs.

Cheers,

We didn’t insulate the garage doors. We have a loft above the garage, but no bedrooms so that was not really a consideration. Given the choice, we chose to spend the $2100 on an upgrade inside the home.

The sales staff said they had taken the insulation for their own home but found issues with condensation and icing due to said insulation. The walls and ceiling touching the home are already insulated so the upgrade is really the garage door and the wall that is not attached to the home. The sales staff told us it’s easy enough to buy insulation packs for garage doors after the closing if we really find we need them.

We also took the black exterior windows. Didn’t like the look of white window frames with our exterior package. We didn’t upgrade the garage door style.

I still have pics of all the boards at Mahogany, so if you want to save yourself a trip, let me know and I can DM you.

[cl_utch]

Originally Posted by FrasierM

I guess not many people in this thread have actually moved in yet so haven't seen if these additional fees have been charged or not. More so wondering if people have actually paid them.

Hey all,

Just chiming in with regards to those additional fees mentioned on the APS -- I've moved in as of Dec 2020, and there were no additional fees charged during my closing. Hope this helps.

[FrasierM]

Originally Posted by Noble_2022

We didn’t insulate the garage doors. We have a loft above the garage, but no bedrooms so that was not really a consideration. Given the choice, we chose to spend the $2100 on an upgrade inside the home.

The sales staff said they had taken the insulation for their own home but found issues with condensation and icing due to said insulation. The walls and ceiling touching the home are already insulated so the upgrade is really the garage door and the wall that is not attached to the home. The sales staff told us it’s easy enough to buy insulation packs for garage doors after the closing if we really find we need them.

We also took the black exterior windows. Didn’t like the look of white window frames with our exterior package. We didn’t upgrade the garage door style.

I still have pics of all the boards at Mahogany, so if you want to save yourself a trip, let me know and I can DM you.

Awesome thanks again all the info is much appreciated. It's our first time doing a new build. If you don't mind sending the boards that would definitely save me a trip. We have a bedroom above the garage so definitely considering the insulation for the side wall but likely pass on upgrading the door or insulating it as that's something I could take care of if needed. Wish they'd spray foam the garage ceiling so it locks in the garage.

[homers]

Originally Posted by FrasierM

Awesome, this is great info thanks. When we were in to sign our agreement they actually said not to take pictures of the boards so that we don't get our hopes up if we can't choose that specific package. Maybe I'll drop in and take a few pictures and have a top 5 choices.
Did you end up insulating the garage wall? I am just worried as we have a bedroom above the garage and I'm assuming it will be colder than all of the other rooms upstairs.

Cheers,

regardless of whether you insulate the garage wall or not, the ceiling of the garage and any wall between the garage and the rest of the house will be insulated as standard. They will have to insulate as per code. The ladies in sales centre did try to tell me differently but that would go against code as I verified multiple times so I am pretty confident that your garage ceiling will be insulated regardless. i would love to know if anyone thinks differently.

[bpsmicro]

Originally Posted by homers

regardless of whether you insulate the garage wall or not, the ceiling of the garage and any wall between the garage and the rest of the house will be insulated as standard. They will have to insulate as per code. The ladies in sales centre did try to tell me differently but that would go against code as I verified multiple times so I am pretty confident that your garage ceiling will be insulated regardless. i would love to know if anyone thinks differently.

If you Google "Ontario building code insulation garage" one of the top links is to a Markham PDF that talks about this.
It's not so much that the ceiling over the garage needs to be insulated, but more the floor of any room over the garage must be.
The weaselly part of this that a builder may try to "cheat" on is any part of the garage ceiling not directly under a room technically doesn't need to be insulated. The picture in the PDF is an example.

[erexa]

MInto's lots are 95' deep, i wonder on 52' larger models (Redwood, Elderberry) how deep your backyard would be? And if no sidewalk would driveway still fit two cars back to back? Basically it seems to me 95 is bit tight...
Also on 52' models what is a spacing on each sides? 8 ft on each sides wall to wall?