The owner’s tour | Family cottage in an (almost) secret oasis

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

Marie-Andrée Amiot
Press

We have not finished knocking on the door of the house with gray stones that already its owner welcomes us by opening wide his arms to us, metaphorically speaking, of course. Warm and cheerful, Virginie Constant is a veritable bomb of joyful energy. “Here is the house of happiness. We don’t doubt that for a second.

In less time than it takes to thank her for having us, she has already listed some of the hundreds of details that shape the renovated family home from top to bottom. The cottage with high ceilings (almost 15 feet) and large bright spaces is an urban oasis where modernity does honor to the traditional.

Virginia and her husband Ron Mofford’s row property is located in Shaughnessy Village *, in a low-key area known to residents … and those who would like to become. No wonder: we are a stone’s throw from Atwater Street, just south of René-Lévesque, close to dozens of restaurants and several schools. The small dead end street where traffic can only go one way guarantees peace. However, the neighborhood is in turmoil. Especially since the construction of the high apartment buildings all around.

The couple – she is 56 and he is 62 – bought the house in 1995. It was owned by Grandpa Mofford, who bought it himself when Ron was 16. “At that time, the neighborhood attracted large middle-class families. There were kids out in the street, ”Ron remembers. The couple have two adult sons, one of whom lives at home.

The twenty greystones en row had been built at the beginning of the century for a certain Montreal bourgeoisie. The architectural details that have survived are proof of the meticulous work of the craftsmen who built them: elaborate plaster moldings, stained glass windows, woodwork, wrought iron around the fireplaces, etc.

Beautiful homes lost their luster during the 1950s and 1960s. In recent decades, buyers, who grasped their value, gradually migrated to the neighborhood and restored the buildings.

Extreme renovations

“When we arrived, there was paint everywhere. So we stripped, explains Virginie. I wanted to go back to a more natural look. »Major renovations followed, from the parquet floors to the ceilings, including the redevelopment of common rooms such as the kitchen, the dining room and the bathrooms. In all, the couple remodeled in parts for 20 years, but most of it was done 8 years ago.

“Each room has been redesigned, evaluated, demolished or rebuilt,” notes Virginie who, in life, is a designer and co-owner of Caméléon Vert, a business specializing in outdoor furniture, which she designs. Her creations are made in Java, where she stays regularly.

It took a lot of energy and arm oil to achieve the result. For example, the beams in the dining room did not exist before the renovations. “When we installed the tilt-and-turn door to the dining room, the beautiful plaster moldings collapsed. The replacement costs were prohibitive, but I couldn’t leave the white ceiling unadorned! So she brought in some wood from Saint-Lazare, cut and sanded it, then fixed the beams to the ceiling with the help of a carpenter.

The new frame adds warmth to the large room and recalls a European side. It harmonizes with the antique or custom-made furniture that occupies the spaces of the house. These elements, as well as the decorative objects, constitute the common thread of the design of the property. “My leitmotif? I like to create houses from my objects. ”

Because there are objects. “I find them in flea markets or on online sites. When traveling or browsing the web, when she sees an accessory or a material that could be suitable for a project, she buys it and has it delivered. Examples ? Virginie brought in the gravel from the rear parking lot on a trip to Indonesia. The bleached wooden slats installed horizontally in the kitchen and in the entrance are from Finland.

Speaking of the kitchen, the couple’s is large, airy and uncluttered. Ron, a caterer and event specialist’s favorite spot is the island next to the gas stove. Covered with a piece of suar, an exotic wood from Java, it is perfectly suited to the needs of the family cook.

Virginie comes from a universe where renovations and restoration are part of the family’s DNA. His parents bought neglected castles in France and restored them and then resold them.

We are therefore not surprised to listen to the couple talk about their new project, namely to renovate a house in Lanaudière on the edge of a lake where the family will live. And as if that weren’t enough, a second extreme renovation project has just popped up. You only have to see the couple’s eyes light up to capture their enthusiasm. Renovations are definitely an incurable condition.

* The district is so called after Thomas Shaughnessy, who had built his mansion there in 1876. The former residence of the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway has been occupied since the end of the 1980s by the Canadian Center for Architecture, an initiative which has contributed to the revitalization of the neighborhood.