The owner’s tour | The golfers’ house

Owners open the doors of their exceptional homes, offered on the resale market

Few Quebecers have their own golf course just a stone’s throw from home. Among these rare birds are Benoît Durand and his partner Manon, whose ancestral property is next to a private course with eight holes, three fairways and two greens, in a peaceful area of ​​Rawdon.

We can imagine that the owners make at least one departure per day between the 1^er April and November 15, no matter the temperature, but that’s not the case. “I like golf, without being a great player,” explains Benoît Durand. “I play on average about fifteen times a year. I spend more time maintaining the course.”

In fact, he created a golf course mainly to keep out the motorcycles that were driving like crazy behind their property.

That said, the history of this vast estate begins four decades earlier. In 1976, Benoît Durand was attending the Marist Camp in Rawdon and his parents had a second home near Lac Pontbriand. When the widening of Route 125 led to expropriations, a house located at the intersection of Rue Park was put up for sale.

So his parents bought it and moved it. “Since it was expensive to get it across the 125 by lifting electrical wires, they moved it the other way in the spring,” he recalls. “The first time they tried, everything stalled. So they had a bulldozer come and pull the truck.”

The process worked, but not without damaging the balcony. “Honestly, I didn’t understand why my parents had bought this old house that I found very ugly. They saw all its potential.”

The beginning of the transformation

And it had potential! With a huge porch reminiscent of properties in the southern United States, a majestic original staircase, a living room with magnificent blue paneling, a dining room that looks like a collection room filled with ancestral furniture, hardwood on the ground floor and upstairs, original ceilings, wooden beams and windows respecting the period look, the house has character.

It must be said that Benoît Durand’s parents worked hard to improve it in the early 1980s: painting, repairing the roof, finishing the basement, urethane insulation, redoing the plumbing and part of the electricity, renovating the bathroom upstairs, installing another in the basement and a small toilet on the ground floor. Not to mention the development of the land surrounding the house.

Gradual transition

After his wife died in 1987, patriarch Durand lived there alone for five years. “In 1992, he found it costing him a lot. I suggested that we buy it little by little. We started at $200 a month. In 2005, we made the final sale official and he left the house.”

Starting in 2013, the second and third generations of Durands undertook modifications to make the property meet their needs. First step: the creation of a gargantuan garage with two doors, a lift to do mechanics and paneling on the walls.

The space also contains Manon’s workshop.

An office that would make all the teleworkers in the world dream, with a large semi-circular window that offers a view of nature and the golf course.

Then the couple installed a geothermal system, adapted the kitchen to their needs, redid the roof, finished the basement and the entrance.

In love with the house, the couple mentions its geographical location an hour from Montreal. “We already had a house 90 minutes from the city and that discouraged a lot of people from coming to see us,” explains Manon. “An hour away seems like the perfect distance. Plus, we’re far enough from the 125 to not hear the traffic too much and there are few houses on the street.”

The owner also praises the space, which allows for large gatherings. “When our three children had their first parties, we let them have the house. They were free to do whatever they wanted, as long as they stayed on the premises, didn’t drive and slept there,” she says.

The property has met almost all of the family’s needs. Except perhaps private access to a lake. “During the pandemic, we started looking for a three-season cottage less than 30 minutes from our house. Very close by, we found a 5,000-square-foot house on one floor, which will be ideal for our retirement.”

Knowing they couldn’t maintain two huge spaces, the owners gave the house near the golf course to their children, so they could focus on their house near the lake. “Although they were very enthusiastic at first, when it came time to do the maintenance work, it was too much,” says Benoît Durand.

This is why this unique property is now on the market.