I was leaving a meeting. Since it was a perfect spring morning, I decided to walk home. I took a detour to the dog park (free source of joy) and came across a house with the cutest of ledges.
My series on intriguing mansions gives me the right to ring the bell wherever I want, but does it give me the right to do so at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning? I was hesitating when I saw movement at the window.
Julien Lacheré opened the door ajar and asked his wife if she was comfortable seeing me in pajamas… Their almost 1-year-old daughter waved enthusiastically at me.
“Come in, it makes us happy! »
Immediately, two surprises: 1) Dailys Iglesias was brighter in pajamas than I will ever be in a ball gown; 2) the interior was very modern for a building built in 1900. It has had good renovations, Julien Lacheré explained to me while going to get a photo album relating the transformations of the place.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY JULIEN LACHERÉ
The cornice, before its restoration
If there were once three apartments there, the house was converted into a single-family home in 1996. It had been so lacking in love that it had almost been razed… Intense structural work was necessary to preserve this beauty of the last century. And it was in 2010 that new owners restored the cornice which is now its signature.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
The cornice, signature of this Plateau house
Like me, Dailys Iglesias noticed her while she was walking a few years ago. The building has become his favorite in the neighborhood: “I saw the light coming in through the windows and I thought it was magnificent… I come from the Caribbean, it’s an important criterion for me! »
Dailys is from Cuba. There, she was a psychologist. She is now completing a master’s degree in psychoeducation. Julien is French and has been established in Quebec for over a decade. He works in technology law. Together they often discuss what kept them here.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Julien Lacheré and Dailys Iglesias in front of their house on rue Marie-Anne with the dog Togo, watching us through the window of the front door.
“Me, it’s a feeling of freedom that I don’t find elsewhere,” Dailys Iglesias told me. Quebec is a meritocratic society. If you put in the effort, you can do things. It’s true in Cuba too, but the situation is much more precarious… It’s difficult to plan for the future. »
Julien Lacheré, for his part, flinched for the Montreal daily: “It’s not a city that surprises you like Barcelona or Paris. It’s when we live it every day that we understand how soothing it is. »
Then, Dailys went there with a concrete example: “People don’t care what other people are wearing. It’s like everyone lives their life the way they want. We feel connected with people rather than things. »
We enter a house thinking that we will know more about its history, but we are finally entitled to a reminder of why it is good to live at home…
A sound interrupted our conversation. Togo had just thrown his ball against the glass door of the kitchen. The dog was in the yard, but he certainly didn’t want to let a wall stop him from playing with us…
A film featuring the perfect family.
” How did you meet each-other ? »
The couple laughed nervously before spitting it out: Tinder.
“Don’t be shy, you’re going to give hope to so many people!” »
Their story began in 2018, then things quickly followed: house, dog, baby.
“I got pregnant during my studies, but we thought: ‘Why not?'” Dailys Iglesias told me. Someone who chooses to leave a country is someone who dares to take risks… Even if we like to plan, that’s not the way we live; we always say to ourselves: ‟Why not try?” »
Fearing that she might convince me to start a family, I redirected the discussion to real estate… How did they get their hands on Dailys’ favorite house?
A nice coincidence! The couple had been looking for and making purchase offers that were systematically refused for a year. Then the house was put up for sale.
As soon as they entered it, their love at first sight was confirmed.
“There was a sense of peace here,” Dailys told me. It was warm. By discovering the story of the owners, I said to myself that it was their energy that we felt. »
One was a university graduate specializing in history, the other an executive at the City of Montreal. Both were deceased.
“There was a story here, added Julien. We felt it right away. »
It was even witty, according to Dailys: “When we found out that our purchase offer had been accepted, we couldn’t believe it! It’s as if it had to be that house. »
At the notary, the couple learned that the former owners bequeathed the income generated by the sale to an important cultural organization in the metropolis… A gift to the adopted city of Dailys and Julien.
Another nice coincidence.
And if they fell in love with a house thanks to the energy left behind by those who lived in it before them, what do they hope future buyers will feel when they enter it?
“That we tried to put love, spontaneously replied Julien. Both in the house and in our daily lives… I’ve never been so happy to go home since we’ve been here. »
Speaking of the banality of days and happy coincidences, this is how our meeting ended:
“You came at the right time! We had just come back from the dog park.
– It’s funny, I noticed your house because I just decided to make a detour to the dog park, before returning home.
“What’s funny is that on our way back, we made a detour to buy this…”
Julien smiled, he got up, then he placed a jar of rose jam in front of me.