Patrick and Sandy Slobodian’s new home shows how socially and environmentally engaged they are, from the ground up.
It measures under 2,000 square feet of finished space, is heated by geothermal technology, includes a beautiful suite with private outdoor patio for Sandy’s mother, and has a play area for their three grandchildren.
It’s a sandwich-generation house — or as some might say, a clubhouse — and for builder Dusty Delain, it represents the upside to downsizing.
“This couple is at the forefront of what we builders are going to be facing in the next few years,” he said.
Sandy and Patrick, a family physician, bought the large lot in Esquimalt several years ago and decided to demolish an old home there and create a new multi-generation residence. They subdivided the lot and built two eco-smart homes, selling one as a spec house just 14 days after putting it on the market.
Both homes have heating systems installed by GeoTility, experts in the field since 1990, with offices in Vancouver, Kelowna and Seattle. “They are no strangers to geothermal work,” said Delain, who noted two 340-foot holes had to be drilled for the completely separate systems.
“Yes it is expensive, especially per foot in smaller homes like these, but it will pay back in about 15 years. The cost was roughly $40,000, but Sandy and Pat are very conscious of the world their grandchildren will live in and inherit. They had the capability to build a home like that. It’s part of their mission.”
The owners have a simple mantra.
“If we don’t do it, who will?” said Patrick, adding both homes were the first single-family residences in Esquimalt to use geothermal heat.
The Slobodians moved to the Saxe Point area from a large heritage house in James Bay, where they raised their kids and lived for 22 years. That home, a century-old Edwardian house on a big lot, had all the “original woodwork, original flooring, and all the original no-insulation,” joked Patrick, saying their new house is more comfortable and bright.
“We loved the old place but felt the need to downsize in this global crisis with climate warming. We felt it was our responsibility to live more sustainably and reduce our eco-footprint.”
Their daughter and son-in-law have a young family nearby, and Sandy not only provides daycare for the grandchildren (ages three, five and seven) but decided to combine homes with her mother, too. Stella Edgar is an artist who used to run a fishing lodge in the Northwest Territories, then sold real estate, ran a restaurant and was a companion for sculptor Elza Mayhew, before her death.
Edgar said the move was stressful, but she loves her new digs: “It was traumatic because I had lived in Sidney for so long, but I can close my door here, enjoy my own TV, computer and painting on the private patio.”
Upstairs, the home has two bedrooms, one with an ensuite, as well as an office nook and covered patio.
Sandy says it was emotionally challenging to move away from the family home in James Bay. “And doing this was much harder than we thought, because we were not just building a house, but subdividing. The rules and restrictions caught us by surprise as we moved through concept to realization and finished project. The municipality did not recognize what we were doing in a very constructive way,” she said.
“It was a learning experience for them, too, these being the first geothermal residences in Esquimalt.”
But in the end, with the help of their builder (who is their nephew) and designer Cindy Pfleger, it all came together. They moved in last fall and uncrated their collection of international art.
The family used to live in Alert Bay (Patrick still does locums there) and also in Lesotho, a kingdom completely surrounded by South Africa.
“We wanted to give our children a different perspective on life, a different cultural experience,” Patrick said. “We wanted to experience the larger world ourselves, and have our kids explore and experience more, too. We had met an educator early in our lives who told us how important it is for children to explore other cultures.
“We hope they are world citizens, not just Canadians,” added Patrick, who was born in Manitoba and raised in Dawson Creek. “We didn’t stay in Africa as long as we’d have liked, just three years, but it was long enough for them to learn their way isn’t the only way, or the best way, or the right way.”
Their children obviously benefited from their upbringing: One is a history professor in Boston, another a nurse adjudicator, and the youngest is doing her PhD in criminology and social justice.
Thanks to the family’s broad travels and interests, their home is filled with paintings — some by Stella, as well as unique artworks they collected over the decades, including baskets from Natal, gifts from friends in Kyoto, sculpture from Zimbabwe, pieces picked up at auction and works by Beau Dick, George Hunt, Silas Mountain, Richard White Eagle and Bill Skuce.
The house also includes many interesting architectural features, such as several low windows — “Our inspiration was to see a little garden, bonsai, ferns” — and high ones for light combined with privacy, since the house next door is just 12 feet away.
Sandy enjoys being able to walk outside at ground level instead of having to climb a long flight of stairs, as in their heritage house. “We wanted a more natural life and this is such an interesting area. A lot of the people who built these homes are still living here in their 70s, 80s and 90s. And there are young families, too.”
One of the outdoor features they most appreciate are the attractive blue quartz stone walls created by Victoria landscaping and the generous curved patio that spans the entire width of the back of the house, with a post-and-beam overhang that includes two four-by-six-foot skylights, matching two in the kitchen.
Inside, they wanted an open-concept living area and that required a 22-foot steel I-beam to span the main floor and tie in with a large steel frame around a picture window.
Both floors have radiant heat, laid out in six independent zones, and the delivery system is encased in 1.5-inch concrete on both levels. The main floor is covered in tile for durability, while upstairs, the concrete is covered in hardwood for a softer feel.
Delain, who specializes in custom residential buildings, said the Slobodians had a few challenges on the lot.
For one thing, during the initial excavation they found the soil was full of clay and lacked bearing strength.
Delain solved the problem by bringing in boulders ranging in size from one to three feet in circumference and had them rammed down to a depth of 2 1/2 feet under each foundation, before adding gravel topping. “It took many, many, many truckloads, but Patrick and Sandy are very committed, as you can tell.”