The owner’s tour | Enhanced and resuscitated from top to bottom

Owners open the doors of their exceptional home to us, offered on the resale market

Sylvain Sarrazin
Press

Be the founder of a rental and sales company of vans arranged for long getaways does not necessarily imply neglecting one’s fixed abode. The owner of this house in LaSalle put as much heart into the work in the total restoration of its Montreal walls as in its nomadic vans.

Even though he spent most of his early twenties in a Ford Econoline, David Vachon doesn’t just swear by road. This former general contractor and project builder, who among other things founded VanLife MTL in 2017, has put his expertise as a renovator and cabinetmaker at the service of the rebirth of this house, proudly standing between the St.Lawrence River and the Canal de China.

The cabin of his dreams? Not while she was on paper. In all fairness, he immediately confesses that the original intention was to make a buy-resale (flip).

Over more than two years of extreme renovation, while walls and floors were being restored, the idea of flip, it has crumbled: the new face of the place and the months of work invested have created an attachment with the building, which Mr. Vachon has finally kept as his permanent home.

“It was more than a simple renovation, we almost completely rebuilt everything,” he explains. Roofs, floors, slabs, electricity, plumbing, insulation, extensions… almost everything is there. Including an enhancement, which made it possible to rebalance the floors and to add a glass tower on the courtyard side. “A lot of people dig in the basement to save space. Me, I wanted to gain height and brightness. We ripped off all the floors, re-consolidated the structure, raised the floors and the roof. In the end, the house was raised by 50 inches, ”explains the man who carried out the work himself, with the help of collaborators. Same treatment for the outer casing, covered with a new brick skin, straightened and resealed. “It’s as if we had built a cabin on top of the house,” explains the owner. Everything was insulated with urethane and equipped with hydronic heated floors.

The second life of woodwork

Having hollowed out the old shell, David Vachon was able to play with volumes and materials to his liking. Eloquent illustration: the impressive fully glazed staircase, with two landings constituting so many luminous oases. The one on the ground floor, very convivial, takes on the air of a veranda and extension of the courtyard; the one upstairs is intended to be more contemplative, ideal for a Sunday nap, topped with an asymmetrical wooden cathedral ceiling.

In addition to this glass fireplace, the beautiful integration of the woodwork attracts attention, particularly in the living room and the kitchen (beams, island, floating staircase steps, furniture, etc.), giving them a modern touch. and rustic. The success of these developments is easily explained: the owner having worked in a cabinetmaking and planning-decoration company, he was able to recover prototypes of furniture and unsaleable and unusable wood materials to give them a second life and integrate them with the most beautiful effect. “We recycled everything that could not be installed at customers’ premises or that was broken. The fun thing about old wood is that it can’t be damaged: it already is! He says.

Cure of youth

If the area is not gigantic, the distribution of space has been well thought out and optimized. Could it be otherwise for this recreational vehicle professional? “The house is not too large and requires little maintenance. It is fairly well divided and very functional, ”he emphasizes. Upstairs is the master bedroom, originally designed on an open concept with wardrobe and bathroom … until a happy event changes the situation a little: a small child’s bedroom has was added to the decor, with the addition of two partitions.

In the basement, there is another bedroom, intended for visitors, as well as a relaxation room, which is accessed by a sliding wooden door. Everything has been modulated according to the needs of the occupants and remains, of course, flexible for new vocations.

The courtyard also had its makeover, with the installation of a very large terrace and a spa. The shed? Completely redone, from the roofs to the walls, again with reclaimed barn wood. “He was too hackneyed to make tables, so it’s barn wood … which is turned over to a barn,” Vachon points out.

Mini housing revolutions

The immense success of VanLife MTL, which develops, rents and sells vans, did not quench David Vachon’s thirst for entrepreneurship, quite the contrary. This nautical enthusiast has certainly been scalded by the closure of the local marina, but if he is leaving his townhouse, it is above all to get closer to the roots of his new projects, including the one he wants to grow. on the lands of the Eastern Townships. “We are trying to start a new kind of bed and breakfast, in the Sutton area, with local products, tree houses, a spa, and so on. », He reveals.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg, since his team is working hard to adapt the modularity of VanLife to other plans, such as small houses on the water or mobile, isolated and furnished extra sheds, that can serve as a temporary teleworking office, for example. “We want to revolutionize the container by creating modular spaces 100% made in Quebec and equipped with autonomous technology,” he explains. In short, while waiting to settle elsewhere, he thinks of accommodating the others at all the brands. To be continued.