FAMILIES MOVING INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN
Elbow room between homes, an easy connection to Calgary and amenities that made sense for a young family was a winning combination for the Ksenaks.
Michael, Shannon and their twin three-year-olds, Nicolette and Lincoln, are moving from a home on the city’s southeast side to Drake Landing in Okotoks. They take possession of their new home by Lifestyle Homes this month. Drake Landing is a community now in its 10th phase of development by United Communities, which is the company behind Sage Hill and Nolan Hill in northwest Calgary.
The Ksenaks look forward to the larger space between homes, which will be a refreshing change from their previous community where “you’re on top of each other,” says Shannon.
“I’m all for meeting your neigh- bours and that sort of thing, but it’s a little bit too close,” she says, adding at Drake Landing “the houses are spaced a little bit further apart from each other, so that was kind of a draw.”
Gail Massey and her husband Gordon Hardy, who are building a house through Prominent Homes and moving within town to Drake Landing, echoed Shannon’s sentiment.
“It’s not condensed housing out there,” says Massey, adding the couple also opted for a corner lot. “I didn’t want to feel cramped.”
In Drake Landing, move- up homes are on 42-foot-wide lots and laned homes come on lots that are 34 and 36 feet wide.
“It all comes down to the value proposition,” says United’s marketing director Steve LePan. “You get more for less in Okotoks — there’s no way around it.”
Both families also pointed out the appeal of living by the pond and nature reserve nearby.
“There are lots of walking paths, which I liked,” says Gail.
“It didn’t feel so condensed. Being at the end of Drake Landing, we weren’t in the middle of everything.”
Prominent Homes and Lifestyle Homes along with Sterling Homes have models showcased in a new show home parade that’s set to be unveiled during an event May 30.
Sterling’s model is the Montego 2, which is 2,377 square feet with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.
Prominent’s show home is the 2,450-square-foot Henko model, with five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms.
For Lifestyles, it’s the 1,984-square-foot Weatherby with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms.
Show homes are located at the corner of Milligan and Drake Landing Boulevard. They’re open 2-8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Along with move-up homes in Drake Landing’s 10th phase, there are also laned homes with a front porch, catering to the starter segment of the market.
“We’ve got the full gamut,” says LePan. “We also have some nice wide walkout lots on the pond as the backyards face south. So you’ve got starter, move-up and estate.”
There are 68 lots in the current phase and prices start from the $400,000s.
Another upside to Drake Landing is its connectivity. The Ksenaks say the community is close to shops and services, which was one of their considerations when deciding where to buy and so was its access to Calgary.
“I work close to downtown Calgary so I liked that it was on the northern end of Okotoks and I could get on to either highway very quickly in the mornings,” says Michael.
While the family is moving from Calgary, the transition to a smaller centre won’t be much of an adjustment, says Shannon, who grew up in Okotoks. She remembers when Okotoks had one stop light and the choice of places to eat consisted of McDonald’s and Dairy Queen.
“Okotoks is so large now that it’s practically a city in itself,” says Shannon. “You don’t really need to come to the city anymore, so it’s perfect.”