The bathroom floor is covered with royal blue rugs. Brown curtains feature orange flower patterns. The kitchen cupboards are a pastel that approaches the salmon… The decoration of this house has no common measure.
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
The more I scroll through the photos of the house for sale on my screen, the more I consider moving to Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie. I too want to live in a place which, as a colleague so rightly pointed out, resembles the house of the caïd in That’s how I love you…
Who can live in this setting frozen in another era? I called the sellers of the property.
Natasha and Eric have been married for 10 years. They prefer not to mention their surname, for the sake of discretion. He works in television, she transforms things picked in the forest into soaps, wreaths and candles. They are in their fifties and they collect retro objects.
“We’ve loved vintage since we were teenagers, but there’s more to it than the look,” Natasha explains to me… By avoiding buying new, we ensure that our house is unique. Each object has a story! And when things break, you can fix them, since they’re not electronic. You know, it’s easy to fix an eight track! »
PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
The bathroom
Behind this refusal to adhere to the consumerism of our time also hides a good background of nostalgia. By adopting retro universes, Natasha has the impression of living in the setting of the TV shows she loved as a child. When she puts a cassette in her eight-track player, it’s the rides she used to do in her father’s Trans-Am that come to mind. She likes her nest to be reassuring.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that the day she saw an old house in Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie on a real estate sales site, she immediately showed it to her husband.
“I said, ‘Eric, it’s screwed up! There is carpet in the toilet, in the kitchen and even on the walls,” she recalls. Finding a time capsule is rare… The decor of this house hadn’t been touched since the 1960s. The owners hadn’t seen fit to change it over time. »
The next day, the couple visited the house. Thunderbolt.
It was over the top ! When I opened the cabinets, I saw that the interior was covered in flowery lace. I asked the sellers to leave anything they didn’t want!
Natasha
Éric and Natasha therefore left Montreal for the edge of a lake in Lanaudière. In the corner, the house had attracted attention. The residents of the region were curious to know who had dared to acquire it… One day, two of them came to find out.
“Did you buy it? You had to do a lot of work because it was ugly in there!
– No … We others, we like it ugly hostage! »
Natasha bursts out laughing as she tells me the story. In fact, the “flyé”, her husband and she wanted even more. They scoured online stores for quirky 1970s wallpaper rolls to hang on the walls.
“Our neighbor told us that it was starting to get a bit intense, our business… But we always wanted more reasons! We are very maximalists. »
Natasha goes on to list the many treasures unearthed at flea markets and flea markets. His best catch? The old orange fireplace that sits in the living room.
PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
The living room and its orange fireplace
Then a long silence…
” Hello ? There is someone ? (No, nobody.)
I call my interlocutor.
“Excuse me, my roller phone drops a lot these days!
“Sweetheart, this chronicle writes itself, Natasha…”
Why are the couple now selling their time capsule, four years after moving in? The craftswoman explains to me that it was by settling in the countryside that she grasped the importance of natural resources.
“When you have a well, you realize how much water you use; when you have a septic tank, you think a lot more about what you put in your toilet; when you have a lake, you don’t want chemicals in it, etc. »
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PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
Natasha and Éric’s house in Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie
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PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
The decor from another era of Natasha and Éric’s house in Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie
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PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
The decor from another era of Natasha and Éric’s house in Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie
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PHOTO ÉMILIE SABA, PROVIDED BY MÉLANIE JETTÉ FROM PROPRIO DIRECT
The decor from another era of Natasha and Éric’s house in Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie
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Éric and Natasha gradually began a process towards self-sufficiency. They built a greenhouse for their seeds, a garden, a henhouse… And they took a liking to it.
If they once wanted more grounds, now they want more land. They just happened to find a pretty Victorian house surrounded by 10 acres of land. In a few weeks, they will therefore leave to live in Prince Edward Island.
“What’s funny is that we’ve never been to Prince Edward Island,” Natasha tells me… But hey, we like the house! »
Me, it’s this couple that I love. I don’t have a tenth of his spontaneity.
When I ask her if her new home will be as atypical as the one she currently lives in, Natasha replies that it remains to be seen. “We’re going to let the house do the talking!” Take the time to discover its character and adapt to it. For me, it is important to decorate it according to its personality. »
Speaking of personality, that of the Sainte-Émélie-de-l’Énergie house has attracted many retro enthusiasts. Among the potential buyers who came to visit it in the last month, most were charmed by the decor. Those who will soon take possession of the residence intend to preserve several elements, while modernizing some of them.
“Because we agree that a carpet in a toilet is not for everyone,” summarizes Natasha.