From dream to reality | A house enlarged from the inside

Any renovation requires a good deal of planning and crowns a long-term process. Once a month, we will discover projects of various sizes, which could give ideas.

Danielle Bonneau
The Press

Johanne Lebeau and Christian Carrier had very specific criteria in mind when they started looking for a house in Mount Royal in March 2020.

They needed, for example, at least three bedrooms. “My 20-year-old son comes regularly, it was important that he have his place, explains Johanne Lebeau. I also wanted to have my office, in addition to our bedroom. »

Having lived for 20 years in a row house located in the middle of other dwellings, in Mont-Royal, they also really wanted to live in a bright interior. They therefore only looked at properties bathed in sunlight, located on the advantageous side of the streets. This is how they noticed a sign posted in front of a semi-detached house, which had already caught the attention of Ms.^me Lebeau, before she considered selling her home.

“It was a house that I didn’t find beautiful at first, because it needed love,” she explains. But a friend saw its potential and showed it to me. And now the estate of the owner, who was very old, was setting appointments for two days! We had a very tight budget and we couldn’t give more than what was requested. There was an overbidding, except that the people of the estate wanted to sell to a couple who wanted to live in the house and take care of it. We were chosen. On our side, when we entered, we saw ourselves living there. »

They thus became the second official owners of the residence built in 1939, which until then had remained in the hands of members of the same family, who had never renovated it. Everything had to be redone: plumbing, electricity, roof, attic, basement never finished, etc.

“We had to get the house back in shape, because everything was old,” recalls Ms.^me The beautiful. We wanted to make sure it was done properly, by hiring someone who knows about it. We chose Pammax Interior Design because the company offers a turnkey service and works closely with a contractor. »

Sacrifice the garage

Johanne Lebeau and Christian Carrier resisted the temptation to expand their home. They scrupulously respected their budget.

“It was important to have a bathroom on the ground floor, and my boyfriend absolutely wanted a workbench,” explains Ms.^me The beautiful.

“We enlarged from the inside, by appropriating the garage. We have room for four cars outside and we didn’t want to have a garage to put a car in. By doing this, our kitchen is bigger, and we added a bathroom. »

Johanne Lebeau, co-owner of the residence

“I didn’t want our guests to go upstairs to use the bathroom. I was also thinking of my parents, who are 90 years old and have difficulty climbing the stairs. There will also be a workbench, which is not yet finished. »

As she likes to cook a lot, she also wanted a friendly kitchen, open to the dining room, to be able to chat with her guests while they are at the table. Adding an island with a bar was also on the priority list.

To allow as much light as possible to enter, the couple also added two windows on the ground floor, in the dining room, as well as a French window, between the kitchen and the bathroom. When the work is complete, it’s the rich, bold color applied to the fireplace mantel and the entire wall it sits against that gets the most admiring comments.

« Marie-Josee Cousineau [présidente de Pammax] understood that Christian and I are two creative people, emphasizes Johanne Lebeau. She felt she could dare. She was inspired by what we kept from our old house to offer things with texture and color. My kitchen, I wanted it green. She immediately suggested sage green. She grabbed my DNA. »

They rented a small apartment during the works, visiting the site every day and overcoming obstacles, says the owner. “To carry out a big project like that, staying in a 3 and a half, in full confinement, it was not easy. We passed the test of our love! »