High above the sugar-white, log-strewn beaches and paddleboard-traced waters of Cordova Bay, a house stands on a cliff framed by vast evergreens and a view that seems lifted from a Tom Thomson painting.
It’s the home of Ernie and Yvonne, who found a forested and pristine two-hectare property 25 years ago and decided to build a forever home there.
Inspired by French country-style estates that they had admired while travelling in Europe, the waterfront home’s landscape also has the flavour of Tuscany and the English countryside. In the hot months, it is pungent with the scent of white roses, lavender and rosemary.
A descending drive leads to the front door and opens onto a large circle, edged on one side by a high stone retaining wall and on the other by a porte-cochère.
In the middle, surrounded by creamy hydrangeas, flowering cherry trees and scarlet begonias, is a pond and fountain with three giant, spouting, bronze carp.
On the far side of the circle, the driveway leads round a corner, opening onto a spacious, hidden courtyard bounded by a high privacy hedge.
The owners originally built three garages as part of the house, but several years later added a coach house across the square with room for a future caretaker suite above. Below are four garage doors leading into a large workshop, double-deep parking spaces and lifts for Ernie’s collection of rare cars.
The 8,000-square-foot house is oriented toward the rising sun, the San Juans and Sidney Island, and just under a hectare is landscaped with lawns, hedges (tall and boxwood), herbaceous borders, a network of stone paver pathways, patios, a gazebo, viewing deck, vegetable and cutting gardens, fountains and more. The Mediterranean micro climate allows them to grow palm trees and exotics as well as West Coast favourites.
It was their fourth home, so they knew exactly what they wanted.
Light floods into almost all the rooms, which have been gradually redecorated and redesigned in a series of renovations over the years. The couple planned to build a home with good “bones” and add embellishments and finishing details as time went by.
They designed the home themselves, in collaboration with interior designer Glenn Oliphant, after geotechnical engineers assessed the bank and advised where to place the house. Many of the trees felled for the project were converted into lumber for the building.
“When we built the house, to start with, we kept it simple and within a budget,” said Ernie.
“We were economizing, although we put in good millwork and mouldings, good windows and forever doors that are as nice today as they were then.”
A decade ago, they did a major renovation in the living room, dining room, entry and powder room, but didn’t make any structural changes.
Enhancements included adding beams to the living room’s vaulted cathedral ceiling, Venetian plaster to the main entertaining areas and a coffered ceiling in the dining room with silver glazing and a crackle finish, for a subtly glowing patina.
The husband and wife team of fine-furniture maker Bruce Ketterer and faux-painter Kathleen McPhail did much of the work.
The two artisans both studied decorative arts in Florence, and while he focused on woodwork, she added Italian-style painting and ornamentation.
The powder room became a glowing jewel box, with a vanity built by Ketterer and faux-painting by McPhail.
Ketterer made a credenza to match the existing dining-room table and meticulously reproduced four chairs that are virtually indistinguishable from the originals.
“When he was finished and all the seats were recovered, our designer came over to see the new ones and picked the wrong ones. That’s how good Bruce is,” said Yvonne.
The master craftsman also made the morning-room table and chairs, a large Chinese-style cabinet, coffee table and hand-carved nesting end tables for the living room.
A recent kitchen and great-room renovation took six months and included replacing all the tile floors with hardwood to match those that run through the rest of the main floor.
The reno started when Yvonne, who had designed the original kitchen, decided they needed to replace the appliances soon. The great room was mainly open-concept already, but she decided to enhance it by removing a counter that divided the space.
“I wanted to make the whole area larger and add a bigger island. The butler’s pantry was also a bit cramped, so we moved one wall back a bit.”
She loves to cook and is super-organized, so all the cabinets were custom-designed for the products and utensils she uses every day. She said she worked on the design for a couple of months before the couple hired GT Mann Contracting.
“That was the best decision we ever made,” she said. “They did all the tearing out and reconstruction. They are a fabulous outfit to work with, conscientious, honest, polite, qualified, very good people. The whole family is highly respected and we didn’t have one complaint. In any construction job, there are always issues from time to time, but they were on the spot, [and] put everything right.”
A recent and extensive garden redesign included a new gazebo, reconfigured pathways, less grass and creation of some new beds — with the help of Steve McLeish at Acacia Landscape.
“He is a very talented guy,” said Ernie, “although the cost got just unbelievable … partly because we did change our plans. But the end result is fabulous.
“We originally thought of having an open firepit patio, but decided to put a roof on, and we’re so glad we did. It looks great now, although at first the copper roof looked like a flying saucer….”
Ernie has always loved cars, and has a separate workshop and display garage for his collection.
“I started racing as my mid-life crisis,” he recalled with a chuckle, and began building his first race car in the 1990s. “I started auto crossing and progressed to road racing, on a track.”
His pride and joy is a high-performance Porsche GT2RS, which he calls the fastest production road car made. “It holds the record at the Nurburgring,” a German motor racing circuit, and accelerates from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds.
Their sentimental favourite, however, is the cherry red Pontiac he restored.
“It was the first car I had at high school and the car I had when Yvonne and I met in 1959. I restored it as close to the original as I could,” said Ernie, who founded the Queen Alexandra European and Classic Car Picnic, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over several years.
For decades, Ernie and Yvonne have been generous philanthropists in this city.
It started with the FireFighters Burn Fund and Victoria Hospice, said Yvonne, and went on to include heart and stroke research, cancer research, the kids’ Variety Charity and more.
Recently, the two have continued financial support for the Yakimovich Wellness Centre for the Victoria Eldercare Foundation and donated funds to help build the new Pacific Christian School gymnasium.
The couple also purchased a much-needed Prodigy instrument — a cutting-edge machine for CAR T-cell cancer therapy, a type of cellular immunotherapy — for the Victoria Cancer Clinic Research Centre.
“We looked at the program and decided it was so important, it was the thing to do.”
