House sought for non-standard needs

Finding the perfect home with a specific, rare and non-negotiable feature can be like a quest for the Holy Grail. It’s not easy to find a home capable of accommodating an office worthy of a presbytery or a large refectory table. Four owners tell their real estate epic.

Amélie Tremblay’s search for a house is a double love story. After meeting her lover in Manitoba in 2019, and after many round trips from Montreal to Winnipeg, this public relations specialist set out to find the perfect residence to convince him to come and join her.

“I asked him what it took him to come to Quebec. As he prepares cars for the cinema, he answered me: ‘a garage’,” says the young woman who, by her own admission, has no interest in cars. “I wasn’t even driving when I met him. »

After sending Winnipeg a few MLS listings of Montreal duplexes, she quickly realized that a simple, low, narrow space with a large door would never appeal to her boyfriend. “He said to me, ‘I can’t work there. It’s too small”, continues M^me Tremblay. She then extended her search outside Montreal. First criterion: a garage worthy of the name.

“For two months, we visited houses that were not suitable. But when we arrived in Rawdon, I saw my boyfriend’s face fall as soon as he saw the garage. I knew right away that he would come to Quebec,” she says with a laugh.

Amélie and Ryan now own a large house in Lanaudière, but also, and above all, a double garage, insulated, with high ceiling and heated floor. And they got married last summer.

A family legacy

Marie-Paule Lebel traveled the roads and villages around Sherbrooke for a year to find a house capable of housing the magnificent notary office of her great-uncle Stanislas. This immense secretary all in oak, surmounted by a glazed library, dating from the beginning of the XX^e century, reminds him of his happy youth in Valcourt, in the Eastern Townships.

“My great-uncle lived with us. When my mother sold the house in 1969, my sister France first got the writing desk, but she didn’t have the space to place the bookcase on it. So she gave it to me,” she says.

Indeed, the dimensions of the mastodon – almost 3 m high – command a room to its measure. M^me Lebel and her husband Jacques had to lower part of the ground floor of their new home in Sherbrooke in the 1980s to make this exceptional piece of furniture the focal point of the family room.

Circumstances of life, however, forced a move. This is when the long quest began. “I spent months walking from North Hatley to Stoke, all around Sherbrooke, to find the place to put the office,” says Marie-Paule Lebel.

Her research led her to the Canton of Hatley, where her magnificent secretary has been enthroned in a large country house for 32 years now. “It’s his place. He won’t go anywhere else,” she said with satisfaction.

A matter of sound

Music is an essential part of Yves Trottier’s life, so his ideal home had to be able to accommodate his valuable audio system first and foremost.

“I didn’t want a listening room where I would never go. I needed a ground floor with open areas so that I could listen to my music, whatever I was doing in the house,” explains this grocery store manager in Kiamika, in the Laurentians.

He didn’t just need an open concept residence. His future home also had to offer a symmetrical room to position the powerful loudspeakers, weighing 90 kg each, in an optimal way. “In my old house, the left wall was too far. It sounded weird. There, the walls are exactly where they should be,” continues the hard rock enthusiast.

“I’m not sure a woman would be thrilled to see my devices taking up so much space, with all my vinyl hanging on the wall and wires running all over the floor. But at the price they cost me, I want to see them, my sons! “said the bachelor laughing.

If his search for a home was only a matter of a few weeks, Mr. Trottier still had to make concessions in terms of the prestige of the residence. “It’s a lot less luxurious than before, but that’s fine with me. I’m 61, I’ve been working since I was 16, and with this house, I can retire listening to my music the way I want. »

Table and couch

Maxence Élie and Sylvain Cousineau also had to be patient to find a condo large enough to accommodate their five-seater sofa, their presentation pantry and their large reception table. As the couple like to receive their guests in complete comfort, these exceptional pieces of furniture are essential to them.

“My husband had this table for 25 years. He did not want to part with it, ”explains Mr. Cousineau, who lived in the heart of Montreal before the need to move appeared in 2019. A long search then began in the neighborhoods around the city center of the metropolis.

“We visited lots of new condo projects that we could have divided to our liking so as to give all the necessary space for our furniture,” says Mr. Cousineau, himself an architect. But with the pandemic, the delivery times for a condo were suddenly counted in years. We therefore turned to existing buildings, with a classic or contemporary character. »

The couple finally found the perfect setting for their furniture in the Le Château building on Sherbrooke Street West. Completed in 1926, this building resembling a French palace and a Scottish fortress was commissioned by Pamphile Réal du Tremblay, owner of The Press at the time. “Our furniture can breathe,” concludes Mr. Cousineau.