Tara and Mark just built their dream home in James Bay.
“We love this area, its proximity to downtown, the sense of community, the sea breezes — we think it’s one of Victoria’s best-kept secrets,” said Tara.
But there is nothing secret or understated about the design of their new contemporary home, which catches the eye of every passerby.
“We’ve had lots of positive comments about the house and there is a lot of photo taking by tourists who come off the cruise ship,” said Tara with a chuckle. “When we’re out watering the garden, it’s at least a one-and-a-half hour undertaking because of all the chatting.”
The couple, who asked to keep their last name private, originally intended to renovate the 1941 home that stood on the oceanfront road, but found it was full of mould and asbestos.
So Tara, a chartered accountant, and Mark, who recently retired from the Canadian Armed Forces, decided to bite the bullet, tear down the house and build anew.
“We determined that the house had no heritage value and it came down in July 2013,” said Tara, who is treasurer of the Victoria Heritage Foundation, which works to conserve the city’s heritage through house grants, education and public awareness.
“We were more than happy to invest in this area because we love it,” said Mark, adding James Bay is like the heart of the city.
“When you think of Victoria you think of Dallas Road, Beacon Hill, the Inner Harbour and James Bay. This area has a lot to offer and is so often overlooked. I’m surprised there are not a lot of new gems being built along Dallas,” Mark said.
While they enjoy the constant activity outside their home during the day — the kabuki cabs, the cruise ships, the joggers and cyclists — they did want a little privacy, so they created their main living area on the second storey.
At street level, they have a double garage, large den, laundry room, storage, guest room and bathroom. The house is built on a concrete slab, with no basement or crawlspace, and they chose polished concrete floors here, rather than carpet or wood, for a more modern look and low maintenance.
Upstairs, the floors are covered in acacia hardwood laminate, and carpet in the master bedroom. A skim of concrete was poured on the upper floor too, to better radiate the in-floor heat that was installed on both floors.
On the second floor are the master suite, powder room and the great room, which comprises living, dining and kitchen areas as well as two sets of sliding doors onto a large deck.
“We built the house upside down to take advantage of the views,” said Tara.
Architect Michael Moody helped create the stylish home that sits on a lot that measures 13.7 metres by 32 metres.
Inside, guidance came from Sandy Nygaard who helped with kitchen, den and fireplace.
“I got involved with space planning, colours and finishes,” Nygaard said.
For the cabinets, she created a mixture of flavours with some contemporary wood veneer slab doors, and others with traditional painted, recessed panels.
Being this city’s queen of the built-ins she was happy to design the nautically themed wall of shelves and cabinets in the downstairs den.
“The owners were very clear about what they wanted and had a list of requests, which made it very easy to work with them. I designed millwork panels in fir for the ceiling, and the built-in is stained maple. I followed their list and made sure everything would fit, right down to the size of their globe.”
Nygaard also created two workstations, one at the desk and a turnaround for the computer on the back wall, “So they don’t need to have a computer in the middle of the desk.”
She also designed interesting lighting to fit in the overhead panels as well as the bookcase.
The fireplace was something of a challenge because the chimney was entirely inside the house, so she advised them to use several different materials to minimize the look of one big “kerthunk” on the wall.
“A lot of times, the chimney is half in and half out of the wall, but in this case the whole unit was inside.”
The owners said Nygaard was immensely helpful. And they had only praise for the other professionals who worked on the house.
The couple chose Abstract Developments to build their new home, as they had previously lived in one of that company’s townhouses and appreciated the quality construction.
“It was a natural fit,” said Mark.
Tara said Abstract was, “fantastic as they walked us rookies through the process. The hardest thing was the volume of decisions that had to be made. We also really appreciated our site superintendent, Paul Cosgrove.”
They plan to live in the 2,000-square-foot home forever and they love their home’s clean lines and symmetry.
“It’s not palatial, but we think it’s cool,” and Mark added they never tire of watching the changing light, the passing parade of shipping and incoming weather systems.
Mclaren Lighting and Illuminations provided the fixtures and over the dining table they chose a wavy, white kelp-like piece. “We wanted some curvy lines to soften the very linear, interior space,” said Tara, who also chose pendant lights in the kitchen to draw the eye down, from the high ceilings.
“It’s not a huge house, but because it’s very vertical you can really enjoy the volume.”
In the bathroom, they used recycled glass in a countertop made locally by Vittrium Building Products. “We had them include beer bottle flecks in it, from a Phillips growler we drank with friends,” said Mark with a chuckle.
“We enjoyed the beer and then crushed the growler and decided to lock in the memory. It’s a young company and the guys there are doing a great job.”
Tara said they liked the product and wanted to support a local, innovative company doing something environmentally friendly.” The opted not to have a backsplash as there are no children in the family.
When it came to the home’s exterior, because they live so close to the ocean, they used galvalum exterior siding and an acrylic stucco with a velvety smooth texture. They kept wood to a minimum and treated the clear grain fir on soffits and trim with Cetol from Sikkens, which has UV protection.”
“We wanted very durable finishes because we are living in a marine environment,” said Mark.
He added the renters who lived in the old house they tore down, reported they had to clean seaweed out of their gutters after winter storms whipped it onto their roof.
“We haven’t had a big storm since we’ve been here and the new house is 20 feet above high tide, so we’ll see if that happens. We haven’t had to do that yet,” he said with a grin.