Spacious home in the Uplands at Riverview suits new phase of life

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Dreams are made of this: a new home, a new community and a wedding — all in short order.

George and Hailey Samia got married in July, and if that wasn’t a big enough step, they recently moved into a new home in the western part of the city in the Uplands at Riverview.

“I was living in Rosenthal, in west Edmonton, and my girlfriend and I got engaged,” said George, prior to their wedding. “We thought we would eventually need a bigger house.”

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So the couple set out a while back to find their dream home. With the help of realtor Edward Gebran (George’s cousin), they ended up at Parkwood Master Builder, and in turn, found out about the Uplands, bordered by Maskekosihk Trail on its southern portion and a slight distance from Winterburn Road on one end and the Anthony Henday on the other.

“This is our dream home — 100 per cent,” said George. “We put a lot of time into designing it and making it the way we wanted. That’s part of the reason why we went with Parkwood.”

Another reason, said George, was the price point, noting the home is an excellent value given that it’s on a larger, ravine lot.

They moved in at the end of May. They opted for Parkwood’s Westport 32, which starts at 2,765 square feet and includes an open-to-above great room, a triple-car attached garage, has three bedrooms and 2½ bathrooms. There’s also an also an optional bedroom and full bathroom upgrade available for the main floor.

“It’s a very spacious home that features all the functional aspects you would expect from an estate home. Everything is generously sized, and many of the luxury finishes that come standard in the Westport 32 may otherwise be considered as upgrades,” said Sunny Kang, Parkwood’s area sales manager.

“They allowed us to customize honestly everything we wanted in the home whereas other builders gave you a colour scheme you could pick from,” said Hailey. “They allowed us to pick exactly what we wanted, which was so fun.”

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Among the changes they made, the couple enlarged the kitchen island, they had the appliances hidden by having them panelled to match the kitchen cabinets, they upgraded to add a butler’s pantry, added more windows to the home and made others bigger, had the basement done to 10-feet high — they plan to add a home theatre and a golf simulator — and upgraded the stairs and railing, among other items.

“The floor plan for the home for Parkwood was certainly our favourite,” said George. “We talked to so many builders and nothing really sparked our interest and then we found a model Parkwood had that had almost everything we had been looking for, and they were super willing to even change things … so it didn’t feel so much like you were buying any cookie cutter home that they were building.”

The Westport 32, said Parkwood, is one of its most sought after choices.

“It’s our most popular home for the size — the extra width allows for a lot of space to play with in making it your own,” said Kang. “All of our optional layouts also target all of the demands we are requested (for) on a daily basis.”

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For George and Hailey, building in Uplands made sense.

George liked living in the western part of the city and wanted to stay there. Easy access to Anthony Henday and even Whitemud Drive were also taken into account. Then there was its overall feel as well as some of Uplands’ amenities struck a chord with them: the walking paths and the ravine lots.

“We love it, I feel like we’re at home,” said Hailey, adding that she is from Lethbridge and that Uplands reminds her of being back there. “Here you feel like you’re in nature, and I like that it’s on the outskirts of town because I’m from a small town.”

Trails, Ravine

Parkwood has been building new homes in the Uplands for more than two years.

“Our favorite features of the Uplands are all of the trails — seven kilometres — connected to various parts of the community and ravine,” said Kang. “People love the lots that back on to the Wedgewood Creek Ravine as well as all of the parks and ponds the community offers. There’s lots of commercial amenities that are now under construction contributing to the overall demand in the already busy area.”

Parkwood is building a number of different single-family home models in Uplands with pricing starting from the low $600,000 level. Pricing for the Westport 32 starts from the low to mid-$800,000 range.

Did You Know?

The Uplands at Riverview was the winner for Best Show Home Parade at the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Edmonton Region 2024 Awards of Excellence in Housing.

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