THE RIGHT FIT
Town homes at Mosaic’s Bonson offer buyers their own ‘little oasis’
Jenna Maw is a practising architect, so it comes as no surprise that she and her husband Giovanni Armani have dreamed about designing their own home. They considered isolated sites in Washington state, as well as Squamish and Hope in British Columbia.
“And then we got pregnant,” Maw laughed. “We started to imagine our life with children and a growing family. We started to realize that living in the middle of nowhere is probably not the best thing. It’s still a dream but maybe a ‘let’s wait until the kids are in high school dream’ or a retirement dream. We quickly realized that a good sense of community and being able to provide an environment for our children where they can have friends and walk to their school and have that daily interaction with other people is really important.”
Their dreams remain intact at Bonson by Mosaic, a collection of 95 town houses in Pitt Meadows. This July, the couple moved into a three-bedroom, end-unit town house with lots of windows on three walls that face onto leafy green space.
“It was just perfect,” she said. “It felt like our little oasis in the middle of a populated community.”
The end-unit location allows for more windows and extra kitchen space. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms on the top floor and a powder room on the main level. Down below, the garage space has side-by-side parking for two cars and space for seasonal storage and a work space.
Geoff Duyker, senior vice-president of marketing for Mosaic Homes, says Bonson is proving popular with many first-time buyers like Maw and Armani. “What you get in these places are homes that are super-functional for the prices,” he said.
Mosaic, which has been building in the tricities area for the last 20 years, was so certain that Bonson would be attractive to first-time buyers that it began construction last year. Meaning that many homes, including Maw and Armani’s, will be occupied this summer. Despite the COVID -19 pandemic, which pushed back Mosaic’s original plan to launch in March, people are still eager to buy a new home, said Duyker.
“While we put things on hold, the really interesting thing is that we continued to have customers contact us. We were not in a position to have a grand opening and welcome 200 people, but we said if you are really interested we will bring you through on a private basis and tour the model home. Of course, all the safety precautions such as masks and gloves and social distancing will be in place. Just last week we sold four homes on that basis.
“If you look at the market today and historical figures, we are currently sitting at levels that are lower than the 10-year averages. We don’t have a lot of supply. If you are looking around there are not a lot of options. Bonson is an incredible option: It is new, it is by Mosaic, it has a small-town character and community and super access to jobs in Metro Vancouver,” said Duyker.
Within a short distance are schools, shopping and access to recreational opportunities with numerous parks and Pitt Lake.
Within the 10 buildings that house the homes are features that are designed to appeal to first-time buyers who want more space in a development that has a sense of community.
Every home has 10-foot ceilings on the main living level, which provides more volume, ample natural light and more storage.
Home interiors are a contemporary take on Shaker-style kitchens and Scandinavian design. Portico Design chose simple palettes with white on taupe or white on white. Flooring is wood laminate throughout the main in an oak finish, with pile carpeting throughout bedrooms, the upstairs hallway and stairways.
There are recessed LED pot lights in select locations and closets, nooks or dens for storage. The living area has a reinforced TV wall with cord-concealing conduit for a wall-mounted TV. The kitchens are open concept with big islands or peninsula layouts, offering plenty of countertop and storage space. In matte white or taupe, handle-free modern flat-panel upper cabinets sit above lower Shaker cabinets. White backsplash tiles are layered behind a contrasting matte-black faucet and pulls.
Durable laminate countertops have a pendenza finish with an undermount stainless steel sink, and the option to customize with quartz stone countertops. Appliances include a Whirlpool 30-inch french door stainless steel fridge, with an option to customize with a Fisher & Paykel 31-inch stainless steel french door.
Other appliances are an electric slide-in range, a 24-inch stainless steel dishwasher, and a 30-inch microwave-hood fan combination, all by Whirlpool. There is an option to add a Whirlpool 27-inch front-load stacked washer and dryer.
Bathrooms feature matte taupe or white Shaker-style cabinetry, oversized porcelain floor tiles and a deep soaker acrylic tub and a shower. Grohe faucets, shower heads and handle sets in polished chrome and a white dual-flush toilet are standard.
Again, there is an option to have quartz countertops.
Mosaic offers a 1-2-5-10 warranty, with one year materials and labour, two year materials and labour warranty for distribution systems, a five-year building envelope warranty and a 10-year structural warranty.