PICTURE PERFECT IN RANCHERS’ RISE
As a veteran commercial photographer, Joel Klassen and his cameras have been in many striking homes.
Some of his work includes photo shoots for interior designers, architects, and builders that help showcase what these companies can do.
Homebuyers looking to drum up design ideas will often turn to magazines or websites like Pinterest. For Klassen, the same sources of inspiration are a perk of his day job.
“It’s been really nice to get the exposure that I have. The only downside is that I have very expensive taste now,” jokes Klassen.
Nevertheless, some of the concepts he’s seen while photographing homes are coming in handy. He and his wife, Crystal, a registered nurse, have two young children and recently bought a new house through Baywest Homes in the Okotoks community of Ranchers’ Rise. The family is moving up from the smaller single-family home with a detached garage that they’ve had in New Brighton for the past eight years.
At the time of the interview, they had not yet made interior selections for their home. But they’re enjoying mulling over the possibilities.
“(I’m) taking ideas out of every project that I go to, and then my wife and I look at the photos at home the next night and analyze and think, ‘Oh, that would be a nice thing to do,’ and ‘ What about this?’”
“I just love drawing inspiration from all of the stuff that I see and trying to find a way to make it fit within our budget.”
Attributes Klassen looks to highlight in the spaces of the homes he photographs hold just as much weight in his own.
“I really try to work with natural light when I’m shooting, so the first thing that I’m always doing is finding where the windows are, which direction is the light coming in, and then I look for texture after I’ve identified that,” Klassen says.
“We’ve decided to do a two-storey vaulted living room and we’re trying to figure out the best way to finish the fireplace,” he adds. While it’s not finalized, “one of the ideas we had is floor-to-ceiling tile and making it textured. I love the way it looks when the sun comes across the tile and it creates all these little shadows.”
They chose Baywest’s Morgan II model, which has a triple-car garage, and have made use of the builder’s flexibility for allowing custom changes.
Beyond the great room, the kitchen and spacious mudroom resonated with the couple.
“Running my business out of the home, I need a space for my equipment,” says Klassen.
He currently has an office in the basement and has to make multiple trips lugging heavy photography gear down a stairway.
Through a floor plan modification, the couple was able to bump out the mudroom for a locked storage area off the interior entrance to the garage.
“So the moment I walk in, there will be all of my storage right there,” Klassen says.
The mudroom itself was a positive. Their current place doesn’t have one and with their children’s footwear, it’s easy for mud and snow to spread, adds Klassen.
He and Crystal will make good use of the kitchen, which is well-sized and in an L-shaped design.
“I’m into slow-cooking meats,” says Klassen, who upgraded the appliances.
“So I’m into taking a really tough, not really desirable cut of meat and then I’ll cook it in a sous-vide for like 24 hours and then finish it over a really high heat in a castiron pan.”
The couple was impressed by the large kitchen island, which will come in handy for Crystal, who is an avid baker and enjoys canning.
“Often, after she’s cooked a large batch of something, she’ll need a lot of surface area to spread it out and cool,” Klassen says. “So that really spoke to us.”
When it comes to canning, salsa’s a family favourite, and can be a two-day-long project.
“We are going to try using the oven for sealing the cans this year, which we’ve never done, but will be interesting,” says Klassen. “It will be nice to have two ovens for that.”
Their new home will have a freezer in the pantry, which will come in handy.
“We usually have food that we preserve in the freezer, so having a freezer in the pantry on the main floor, right beside the kitchen, is going to be a huge time-saver and really convenient for us, as well,” Klassen says.
With the value the couple saw in Okotoks and relatives already living there, the town south of Calgary made sense.
They were impressed by the planning of the community of Ranchers’ Rise by Bordeaux Developments.
Its builder group features, along with Baywest, Sterling Homes and Broadview Homes. All three have two show homes displayed in the community’s current show home parade.
Prices on homes in the community start from the mid-$500,000s, including the lot and GST. A nice show home parade, with one model each, will mark the next phase of development for Ranchers’ Rise and is slated to be unveiled in early April.
“Ranchers’ Rise may very well be one of Okotoks’ best kept secrets,” says Ryan Hall, vice-president of marketing and communications at Bordeaux Developments.
“It truly offers a breath of fresh air, with big skies, mountain views and does so without a lot of congestion that you find in other parts of Okotoks,” he adds. “It is still very accessible to the town centre and all sorts of amenities, and offers an easy commute into south Calgary, without having to travel through the town.
“Pair that with some high quality homes, the abundance of paths and ponds, and the new francophone school, we think we have a very appealing offer for a family to plant roots.”