A family affair
Space, pricing among the draws of Clayton Walk townhouses
Anthem Properties’ new Clayton Walk townhouse development in Surrey has come as a godsend for two different families with a challenge shared by many: Finding enough space at an affordable price in a housing market seen as one of the most expensive in North America.
For Sharlini and Richard Lal, the new four-bedroom townhouse they moved into earlier this month is a welcome relief because their daughter, 11, and five-year-old son now have their own bedrooms.
“My kids are ecstatic,” said Sharlini.
“It’s like having their own treehouse.”
For Mieke and Ross Morrison and their three-month old daughter, the three- bedroom townhouse they plan to move into next spring will mean ample space for their family’s future expansion.
With pricing from the low $600,000s, the homes at Clayton Walk worked for both families. For the Lals, their first home follows 16 years of living with Richard’s parents in Burnaby’s Brentwood area and a frustrating search around their neighbourhood for affordable homes.
“Burnaby townhouses are a lot older and not built for today’s family of four,” said Sharlini. “We looked hard, including in New Westminster and Delta, but just couldn’t find something ”
While each now faces somewhat of a longer daily commute — Sharlini to her office job in Coal Harbour and Richard to his welding work in Richmond — they say it’s worth it.
“To come home to something that is an investment in your lifestyle, what makes you happy, and what makes your children happy, there is no better feeling than that,” she said.
Mieke Morrison says she and Ross considered either buying a townhome or a small detached house with her parents, but opted for Clayton Walk because they could not have afforded a singlefamily house any closer than Abbotsford.
The two families are typical buyers at Anthem’s 143-home development, the firm’s second this fall in Surrey and the fourth townhouse project in its Neighbourhood Series, says Elva Kim, Anthem’s vice-president of sales and marketing.
“Clayton Walk offers spacious floor plans that appeal to growing families and downsizers moving from a single-family home,” she said.
With the three-level homes ranging from 1,223 to 1,615 square feet, she says “the spacious design is the ‘wow’ factor. The homes at Clayton Walk have large kitchens that have a grand island and pantry for storage, side-by-side garages and open-concept floor plans with families in mind.”
Designed by Ekistics Architecture, the homes will be arranged in 24 separate clusters throughout the site, intersected by welllit landscaped paths and roadways with visitor parking. The development is done in a classic “prairie school architecture,” with shingle siding, defining window elements, and flat roofs with overhangs designed for West Coast weather.
Both the purchasing families were particularly impressed with the side-by-side garages, instead of the tandem-style parking commonly found in this price bracket.
Mieke Morrison said the doublewide garage makes the overall layout of their new 1,500-square-foot home “just a little bit wider than most townhouses in the Cloverdale-Clayton area.”
“A lot of my friends have a tandem garage in their townhouses, and we didn’t want that. Now we can drive out and not constantly have to switch our vehicles.”
The wider design also made for an expansive deck area off the main level, something else they appreciated, she said. While the Morrisons’ new home doesn’t come with a backyard, Mieke noted she’ll happily accompany her kids to Clayton Park just steps away. Unlike her experience growing up in Cloverdale and playing on her family’s cul-de-sac, parents now invariably supervise their kids’ play environments.
Anthem has built three show homes for potential buyers to tour, including its largest model with four bedrooms and three bathrooms and a master-bedroom-onthe-main level, the model the Lal family purchased.
All homes feature nine-foot ceilings on the main level, and in most homes oversized stairwell windows allow lots of light to stream in. There is wide-plank laminate flooring on the main living level and carpeting in bedrooms. Most homes have side-by-side frontloading washers and dryers.
Most models have a spacious kitchen island with breakfast bar for entertaining and a full-sized pantry. All homes feature polished quartz countertops, and an oversized stainless steel sink with Grohe kitchen faucet, soft-close Shaker or flat-panel cabinetry, stainless steel Whirlpool appliances, including a dishwasher, combination microwave and hood fan, french door fridge and a fiveburner ceramic glass cooktop.
Most homes feature a powder room on the main floor, while ensuites have showers with semiframeless doors, soaker tubs, and dual-flush Duravit toilets to reduce water consumption. The tub surround and main shower wall have easy-to-clean tile, soft-close doors and drawers and porcelain sinks. Many homes come with spacious walk-in master bedroom closets.
The complex also has a 2,000-square-foot amenity area that includes a fitness studio, great room, entertainment lounge, kitchenette and landscaped barbecue terrace.