Caroline St-Hilaire and Maka Kotto | “Fortunately, our couple was already solid”

In Renovate your house without destroying your relationship, Caroline St-Hilaire and Maka Kotto talk about the major renovation of their chalet which turned into an incredible adventure. They give some advice so as not to lose your skin or your couple.

Olivia Levy
The Press

They say it straight away, they knew nothing about renovations and are absolutely not manual. They also have very different temperaments. The former deputy and former mayor of Longueuil favors action, while the actor and former Minister of Culture and Communications of Quebec prefers reflection. She is a morning woman, he is a night man. She is a ball of energy, he is calm and can chat for hours. She keeps nothing, he keeps everything—he keeps 200 boxes of archives in their garage!

Caroline St-Hilaire and Maka Kotto have decided to renovate their country house in Estrie, which has become their main residence. They hesitated between selling or renovating, but this chalet had, in their eyes, a sentimental value. It has always been the blended family’s vacation spot, a place filled with memories for the six children. It was also in the garden of this house that the couple got married, but this time it was the chalet that needed love. Major renovations were needed.

The owners say that the hassle began when they decided to do the move themselves between Longueuil and Estrie, in the middle of February, in a rented truck that had no winter tires… And he had to carry the 200 “cursed boxes” of Maka Kotto! “I have a sorting to do, he admits. There are archives of my political years in Ottawa and Quebec, and a quarter of a century of artistic life in Europe and Africa. I only remember that, so if tomorrow I disappear, my children and grandchildren will have access to my archives. Caroline St-Hilaire bursts out laughing when she talks about her husband’s legendary boxes. “I have nothing. I have three boxes, one box for me, the others for my two children. »

First lesson learned from this move: hire professionals. That’s what the couple did for their renovations. When the site began, there was the shock of demolition with the arrival of the excavator when the couple had not yet emptied certain rooms of the house. Landscaping also suffered. In addition to constant noise and dust everywhere. The couple left home, first finding refuge with friends in the region, then in their small condo in Quebec occupied by the eldest son of Caroline St-Hilaire. This is where the pandemic arrived. The work stopped, a storm did a lot of damage to the house which was without windows. “I went to see on the spot and it was a spectacle of the end of the world, it was very distressing. I even wondered if we were going to find our house one day, ”says Maka Kotto.

Another big lesson: you also have to follow the work very closely. “It’s fundamental not to stray from the site. There is a paradox, because if we had stayed in the house, I think we would have died! said Caroline St-Hilaire laughing. We went to Quebec, but we would have had to rent something in the region to supervise the construction site. »

What lessons?

What did they learn from this adventure? “We see Maka as an artist, an intellectual, it still surprises me to see him working with his hands and being very good, but you mustn’t be in a hurry! “says the former mayor of Longueuil. “A bit like in the theater and in the cinema, everything is in the preparation. If everything is well prepared, the execution is faster. I discover hidden talents,” says Maka Kotto.

And she ? “I’m more patient than I thought,” she says, as her husband bursts out laughing.

“Within our couple, there were already solid foundations, which helped to hold. We had prepared. Fortunately, because otherwise we would have had couple problems, ”says Maka Kotto.

“We are ready for anything! “, launch the lovers.

The most amazing anecdote: the meeting with Charly, the painter allergic to paint. “It was surreal! I can see us having our coffee, the painter coughing like crazy, in the middle of a pandemic, not wearing a mask and not believing in the pandemic, and telling us that he is allergic to paint. I said to myself: “I am in a film, it is impossible, a painter allergic to paint.” It was really this painter who made me realize that we had to write about the subject,” says Caroline St-Hilaire. “In addition, he cleaned his brushes in our flowerbeds. In our flowers! And he dumped his paint residues in the lake! And he told us: “My painting is ecological”, adds Maka Kotto, who still can’t believe it.

If we had to redo it ?

“We would renovate, but with new paradigms, because it was an incredible adventure, but very instructive. We would organize ourselves to find an entrepreneur friend whom we would trust completely,” concludes Maka Kotto.

Renovate your house without destroying your relationship

Caroline St-Hilaire and Maka Kotto

Editions de L’Homme

216 pages