Post your Comments here! Say Hello to the new friends you made & your future neighbors. Join the discussion forum!

It's been one crazy week. Although the Phase 12 homes weren't officially to be released until June 26, a line-up started on Monday, June 21st. People literally camped outside the sales office using folding chairs, tents, sleeping bags and other gear. We found out about the line-up on Monday afternoon, when I received an email from Frank, who's family was the second group in line. I quickly enlisted help from friends and family to stand in line 24/7 for us in shifts/rotations. I spent the nights, my wife the days, and our Mom, Dad and an uncle gave us additional time during the week so we could take breaks. The line grew fairly quickly, and by Friday it was over a 100 strong.

We had a fantastic time. We spent time meeting and getting to know our future neighbors. People spent the time talking, getting to know each other, giving home-buying advice and sharing past experiences. We even met many past Mattamy buyers looking to move-up from their first Mattamy home into a new one.

First, I can't go further without mentioning Frank, the first "line captain", and JR, the second "line captain" for the amazing job they did. As people entered the line, they'd have their info added to the list showing where they were in line, their names, lot size of interest, and an emergency contact phone number. Fair rules were created so a relative or friend could stand-in for you in line, as long as someone was always in line for you. There was lee-way for calls-of-nature and other such things in that when random line roll-calls occured you had about 15 minutes to make yourself known before losing your place in the line. Some people did lose their place in line and were crossed off the list, but this was rare. After spending 1 night or more in line most people didn't want to wander too far away and risk having their name crossed off.

The first night was the most difficult, but by the second night Mattamy provided some outside portapotties and was also sending a coffee truck each morning to provide the brave (or crazy depending how you look at it) people in line free coffee & donuts. Most people's diets suffered in the 5 days in line as you ate mostly fast food when you could. It started to feel like a "mini-survivor" but it really brought everyone closer together and some lasting friendships were made while in line.

My wife would spend the days in line, while I spent the nights. This was because she was able to get days off work on short notice while I couldn't. We rented a second car for this so we could get around easily on our own during the week. She had a great time and met and talked to a great number of people during the days.

Some important information for people who weren't in line prior to Saturday.
Because by Friday the line was already over a 100 people, Mattamy started letting people in to reserve their lots on Friday afternoon instead of waiting until Saturday. This is because it would have been impossible otherwise for anyone coming on Saturday to get in the building. The line was just that big. Because we entered the line on Tuesday, 9 AM and never left, we had position 19 in line. We got in I think just before 3 PM on Friday and reserved lot #329 for our future Tothburg Elevation C home.

Another important fact is that people who stayed in line over-night saved themselves big bucks. Mattamy raised the prices of the homes TWICE these past 5 days. The people who waited in line before Saturday got one price, and the people who didn't show up until Saturday got a different price. There were different prices given out on Saturday than the price sheets people were getting during the previous days. For example, the 56' wide lot prices on June 22nd to June 25th were $12,000 more than the previous Jan 19, 2004 prices. But the 56' wide lot prices on June 26th were $22,000 more than the Jan 19, 2004 prices. So people who joined the line early on in the week saved themselves $10,000 !!!

One other change everyone noticed is that they raised the deposit requirements. For 56's they added on an additional $5,000 deposit needed at the 90 day after-offer point which didn't exist before.

I'm changing the website to allow people to post comments. If you just reserved a lot in Hawthorne Village Phase 12 please post your first name(s), line #, and lot number you picked along with any other comments or hello's to friends you made while in line. You can also post your email address in the message as well. Anything you post will be public on the website. So if you aren't comfortable with giving out your lot number you don't have too.

I'm also adding some pictures taken in the line-up. If you took pictures while in line, and I know many people did have digital cameras that they used, email them to me if you don't mind having them online. Don't email me too many, as I only have about 6 to 8 megs of room on my email account.

We also took a picture of our lot 329!! Basically it's a picture of dirt. But it's "our" dirt. There's no road yet, and it's just dirt with a wooden stick in the ground that shows the lot 329/330 border.

Caveat Emptor
This website may not be updated until after Saturday. Please call the Mattamy, Milton sales office for what the current situation is as I no longer have time to update this site until after Saturday.

Good luck to everyone! Thanks to all who have given me great advice and emails!

It's Official !! This is the link to Mattamy's announcement on the new release for June 26th.

FYI, the Milton Sales office stopped handing out the black-n-white lot plan photocopies for Phase 12 because they've been informed by headoffice that there are some potential changes being made. So if you already picked up a copy of these last week, realize that the lot locations may now be changed. They suggest calling back next tuesday or wednesday to see if they have new lot maps. They also suggest they may know the new prices a couple days before the 26th.

Good News!

A date has been announced for new releases. On Saturday, June 26th, Mattamy in Milton will be releasing new semis, towns, 36', 46' and 56' widelot homes as part of their Hawthorne Village, Phase 12. They haven't said what the new prices will be yet, they may not announce the prices until the actual release date. The 50' widelot homes will not be released on this day. They hope to have the 50's released near mid/end July. They also do not yet show what the floor plans for the 50s, or the exterior elevation changes for the 36's will be.

P.S. Frank Michlick has a great weblog which includes a section about his Mattamy (Oakville) home buying experience. I just realized that I haven't yet posted a link to his site yet, so here it is now.

There will be some changes to front exteriors ("elevations") of the 36' and 46' Hawthorne Village models. The 46' and 56' models are supposed to have no changes.

If you visit the Mattamy Sales center now, you can get a map of Phase 12 showing where the new 36',46',50' and 56' lots will be exactly.

There are a lot of new 50' lots! No, you can't see/look at 50' plans yet. They may (very small chance) have 50' plans a few days before the new release. But it is more likely that during the day of the new releases will be the first time you'll be able to see the plans.

As you'll see on the map, phase 12 is west of fourth line, south of Derry. It's referred as "Mattamy Brownridge Farms (24T-02001/M)" by the town of milton on their Bristol Park Phase 1 documents. If you compare the "current school locations" and "Mattamy subdivisions in Milton" PDF maps on my website under April 3rd with the new Phase 12 Map you can pick up in the sales office you'll have a good idea of the community layout in and around the new releases.

The phase 12 maps mattamy can give out today is not an original, and is a poor quality black-n-white photocopy. Closer to the new release date they should have nicer colour maps to give out. There is a colour map on the glass island in the sales room showing exactly where the new lots will be and which footages (36/46/50/56) they'll be.

The date of the new Hawthorne Village releases may be June 19th or June 26th. They may not release all the single elevations on the same day.

I'm hoping someone knows more about this than me.

http://www.town.milton.on.ca/plandev/Phase_1_Status_Draft_Plans.pdf shows a map of "Phase 1 Bristol Survey" for Milton which is where Mattamy has/is building their homes.

The Town of Milton council has been talking about how the cost of growth in Milton will put a strain on current infrastructure. There was an article in the Milton Champion newspaper on May 28th talking about how Property Taxes will be increasing slightly. There was also some discussion on and off about increasing property development fees. But now on June 3rd, there's a new report from Milton Council talking about how they just negotiated a financial agreement with the Phase 1b landowners to increase development charges of single detached homes to be about $8,067.00

Here's the link to the report...

http://www.milton.ca/execserv/rpts2004/CS-054-04%20Bristol%20Survey-Phase1BFinancial%20Agreement.pdf

All the Mattamy Milton homes now and future are in the Bristol Survey Phase 1. Question being is the new releases of singles that will hopefully occur this month, have these already had building permits issued on Phase 1-A ?? Or are they Phase 1-B ?? If B, then Mattamy's going to be charged an extra $8067 per single detached house?!?! If so you can be darn sure that cost will be passed on to the price of the house (i.e. to buyers). Mattamy was already going to increase the prices slightly in the new releases, so if my assumptions are correct. This means an extra $8k or so in addition to whatever price increase mattamy had already planned to do?

Anyone else been following this in the local milton newspapers? Is what I'm reading correct? Are my conclusions valid or am I missing something?