A PERFECT FIT IN THE PLATEAU
Personal trainer at home in his condo
Jason Boivin grew up on the West Island, but when it was time for him to go to McGill University, he moved into town.
During his student years, he lived in a number of Montreal neighbourhoods, including the McGill Ghetto and Mile End. Boivin graduated with a BA in Civil Engineering, but became a personal trainer at his alma mater and runs his own company — JB Fitness and Swimming — whose slogan, appropriately enough given his expertise, is “Engineering Your Fitness.”
Fitness has been a passion of Boivin’s since he was young. As long as he can remember he has been teaching kids to swim. After getting a degree under his belt, he decided to pick up where he left off.
By the end of last year, the fitness expert also reckoned that rather than continue to rent, he would start to look for a place of his own.
That happened quicker than anticipated.
According to Boivin, there were an increasing number of issues with the building he was living in and so, “rather quickly” he decided to move out.
He purchased his home — a renovated condo in the Plateau — in December 2016 and by January he was moved in.
Boivin has 760 square feet of living space with an open living/ dining area (it has an exposed brick wall) and kitchen (divided from the living room by a breakfast bar), a den/home office (previously a second bedroom) and a master bedroom.
There is also a small patio with a storage cupboard and enough room for a gas barbecue.
Q How did you find your condo? A Online, at Realtor.ca. I saw this place, came to visit, liked it, came to visit a second time with my parents, they liked it, hired a realtor and that was that.
Q But you said it needed some renovations? A The previous owner had done quite a bit back in 2012. He’d modernized the kitchen and the bathroom, so the condo was in pretty good condition, but I wanted to change a few things in line with my own taste.
Q What kind of things? A I redid the floors, the mouldings, the lights, the baseboard heaters, a couple of doors — they’d been hung upside down — all the paintwork.
Q What colour was the paintwork before? A Grey. Q And what about your exposed brick wall? I see you’ve painted it white, like the rest of the interior. A The bricks were partly white before, but for some reason the previous owner had outlined the grouting in grey, so I painted the whole wall to make it match the other walls.
Q Did your furniture come with the condo? A Only the appliances. They weren’t very old because he had replaced those. Ninety-five per cent of the furniture is new. It nearly all comes from IKEA. I must be one of their best customers. (The appliances are stainless steel and the kitchen is outfitted with smart, white cabinets and a backsplash of subway tiles, also white. The countertop is quartz and the floors are greige ceramic. Boivin points out various pieces of IKEA furniture in the living room — an L-shaped grey couch, a black coffee table and the rug on which it stands, which has a multi-coloured diamond motif.)
Q Does your couch pull into a spare bed? A Not this one, but I have another one in the den that does.
(We walk to the back of the condo
to the den/home office, where he shows me the couch in question. He explains his theme for this room is “Montreal.” Above the couch hangs a large, nocturnal photograph of the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the city skyline. I notice one of the orange-coloured scatter pillows bears the message “Rue barrée.” Clearly, Boivin has a sense of humour.
(In the opposite corner of the den is a work area with a desk. One of Boivin’s two bikes leans against the wall. This room is separated from the master bedroom with pocket doors.)
Q So this is what was originally the second bedroom? A Yes. There was a wall along one side and a long narrow hallway. That was wasted space and I wanted to open it up. The wall was demolished and that left space for a home office.
Q Did you do your own renovations? A Only some. Most of the work was done by a family friend.
Q Uh-oh. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. A In this case, I was super lucky. He’s a professional and he took only four weeks to do all the work. Altogether my renovations cost around $15,000. That was probably a better price than somebody else would have given me.