Dom Piluso refers to his latest new home project as a "spec" house, but what he doesn't say is that the "spec" stands for spectacular view.
Piluso, owner of Piluso Construction, teamed with interior designer Dale Morrison, owner of Dale Morrison Interiors to create a West Coast contemporary home that lives up to its panoramic views over the Juan de Fuca Strait.
Built along a ridge in The Woods at Royal Bay, the house's main foyer signals a trend shift in "spec" construction.
Spec homes are known for their generic, one-size-fits-all style, but Piluso and Morrison dismissed that standard and called in tile artist Brett Soberg to craft a slate mural that echoes the house's coastal views. Cut in intricate curves and jogs, the tiling features a copper-trunked arbutus, its boughs outstretched to a sun that radiates beams that continue even behind the closet doors. Soberg hand-selected each tile and cut them on-site to fit.
Gary McInnis, Victoria realtor and former builder, says that Piluso came to him when he was still thinking about putting in the mural.
"He asked if I thought he was way off the beam," recalls McInnis.
"I mean, it's a slate floor and it probably cost more than $5,000 to put it in. That's a lot of money just for a foyer. But look at the payback. Anybody who walks into that house is going to look at that and say, 'I want that builder to build my home.' "
Incorporating artwork in the finishings of a spec home may become more commonplace in a market where consumers expect high-end touches to come with Victoria's high-end price tags. Priced at $749,000, the house recently sold.
"There'll be other builders who are going to try to top Dom now," says McInnis.
The tiling gives way to old-school oak hardwood that was also finished on-site. Deep white baseboards and crown moulding accent toasted umber- and walnut-coloured walls. The dining area is lit with an elegant chandelier with a rubbed brass finish and antique ambered glass, a style that reappears elsewhere in the home.
The living room is partially bordered with columns that imply walls to create a sense of enclosure. Framed glass block cut-outs in the walls also allow the light to filter from all four compass points.
A double-sided gas fireplace is faced in black granite tiles surrounded by ivory-coloured mantle. The leg of the mantle is cut in a shaker style that pairs up with the clean straight lines of the crown moulding.
A wide opening on the south side opens to an expansive family room and kitchen. Morrison changed the maple shaker style, adding an eyebrow top in the upper cabinetry. An aged-fir finish gives the maple a burnt sienna glow. An island with fluted wings and a raised cabinet conceals the kitchen work zone from the gathering space. Spanish engineered stone tops the cabinets.
"It's very similar to silestone inasmuch as it's real rock, chopped up and reconstituted," says Piluso.
"The advantage is that you have more of a colour choice. It doesn't have the disadvantages of real stone which can be very porous and needs to be resealed every couple of years. You spill wine on stone, and it's very hard to get out. That's when we say it has 'achieved character.' "
The kitchen includes a built-in desk unit, hutch and pantry. A turn around another door leads to a hall that connects to the main-level laundry room on the south side and on the north returns the visitor to the foyer.
The bedroom wing stands on the north side of the home. The longer portion of the hallway is cut to resemble pilaster columns. "It's a detail that breaks up the long wall," says Morrison.
The master bedroom looks out over water and mountain views. A hall leads past flanking his and her closets.
The hall opens up to a sunlit ensuite with soaker tub, walk-in shower and aged fir-stained cabinets with wrought-iron look arts-and-crafts style light fixtures. Motion sensors flick on toekick lighting, a handy feature that prevents stubbed toes during those nocturnal visits.
Downstairs leads to two more bedrooms and a large media room with sliders to a large aggregate covered deck. A winding path was sculpted into the steep east-facing portion of the lot, which features low-maintenance landscaping.
The Woods at Royal Bay seem to fly in the face of high-density developments that are all the rage in urban planning, but Lee King of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation notes that developments like Royal Bay are "all part of the mix."
"Victoria's real estate market is really a tale of two cities," notes King. "There's urban renewal in the core, for the lifestyle that it affords. It's the same in suburban areas such as Royal Bay or Bear Mountain where people aren't just buying into a house; they're buying into a neighbourhood.
"They look at all it has to offer, and in the case of these communities, it's about ocean views, access to trails and parks and having more space in their homes to create home offices."
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HOUSE DETAILS
What: Luxury home at 3534 Promenade Cres. in The Woods at Royal Bay in Colwood
Developer: Royal Bay Developments
Builder: Piluso Construction. Dom Piluso, owner, was honoured in 2004 with a lifetime achievement award by Victoria's Canadian Homebuilders Association. He has been in renovation, residential and commercial construction for 27 years.
Architect: Mike Nixon
Size: 3,000 square feet, four bedrooms, three bathrooms
Price: $749,000 (recently sold)
Interior design: Dale Morrison Interiors
Landscape: Victoria Landscaping
Slate mural: Wavewalker Slate Creations
Title: Fee simple
High-tech options: Cat-5 wiring
Schools: Sangster Elementary, Dunsmuir Middle School and Belmont High School
Information: Gary McInnis or Terri Foster at 384-3124
Website: www.royalbaybuilders.com
The Project: The Woods at Royal Bay is being developed by a team of 12 building firms. With an expected 20-year build-out, the project will eventually include about 2,800 single family houses and townhouses. Plans call for 40 hectares of parkland, greenways and a waterfront village centre.