I had the chance to take a hard hat tour at Ruby today and checked out some of their offerings. The building is located next to Tramonti condos on the eastside of Eastlake Ave E .
The 4-story building has a nice courtyard facing the lake; many units have a partial lake view. The long corridor on the eastside of the building definitely helps in reducing the highway noise for most of the homes (with the exception of the north homes which get more noise).
Specifically, I'm not a big fan of the north 03, 04 and 05 floor plans as they get the highest noise exposure from the highway. However, according to Tanya, the sale manager, those homes will be priced at the more affordable price point from mid to high $200,000's. If that is the case, then I guess it will be a fair trade off for buyers.
My favorite floor plans are the courtyard level homes. They are set back away from the road and you can also step out from your living room to your own courtyard space. The homes in Ruby have fairly typical layouts with a couple of them having slightly smaller bedrooms. If you have visited Gallery or the Klee, you will probably see some similarity in the open one bedroom homes. Slider doors are available as upgrades to close up the bedroom if you prefer more privacy. This is something that I would probably do if I were purchasing one of those units.
Parking and storage are included. The storage units are located on the same level as the homes. Most of their homes are also AC ready. The finishes were better than I expected, pretty modern and clean lines. Hardwood floors are also used in the homes. I wasn't expecting that level of finishes since this project is targetting first-time home buyers.
Pricing will be firmed up by mid January. A $5,000 deposit is required if you are interested in purchasing a unit. Ruby will be having their grand opening on the 7th and 8th of February 2009.
Overall, Ruby is an attractive project, nothing fancy. If they price it as competitively as they said they will, budget conscious first-time homebuyers may want to check this property out.
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