DOWNSIZING AND UPGRADING TO A ‘CONDALOW’ OF YOUR DREAMS
Empty nesters love their home — a bungalow configured as a condominium from inside
Angela Dennett Rice recalls that when she came to Canada in 1976, it was more or less by accident. She had suffered a broken romance and knew she had to get away from her native Dorset, England, where she lived in a “little country town.” She was prepared to “do anything ” and “go anywhere.” Among the options she considered was moving to South Africa or working on a cruise ship. In the end, she got a job as a nanny in Montreal.
She landed in the West Island, where she married and raised two children. Widowed, she remarried 14 years ago, to Malcolm Bullock, a widower with two children of his own who is one year her senior, now 54. They settled their blended family of six in a “massive home” in Beaconsfield.
Fast forward to 2017.
With their four adult children having flown the nest, the couple decided it was time to downsize. The real estate broker and chartered accountant couldn’t find what they wanted on the West Island at the price they were willing to pay, so they looked further afield, settling for a home off island, in Notre-Dame-de-L’îlePerrot.
The couple’s house has an open dining/kitchen area, an open but separate living room with a propane fireplace, two bedrooms on the main floor, two more in the basement and two bathrooms. There is a sizable backyard. Rice, a bubbly woman with a pixie cut who has an impish sense of humour, refers to their home as a “condalow.”
Q: What on Earth is that?
A: (Laughs.) It’s just my word for a house that looks like an ordinary bungalow from the outside, but is configured like a condominium inside.
Q: Why didn’t you just buy a condo?
A: We could have, I suppose, but we needed more space than the average condo. We’ve got grandchildren now who come to stay and we wanted a family room and a garden.
(The family room is in the basement. Two of the bedrooms serve as home offices — one for Rice and the other for her husband.)
Q: Was it your idea to turn the interior into a look-alike condo?
A: It was. I’m pretty good at visualizing what a space can become with a bit of imagination and the right kind of furnishings. I’ve repurposed a lot of things, like the curtains, from our previous home. Most of the furniture came from there as well — though we did have to get rid of a lot.
I repainted some of the furniture, like the chandelier above the dining table and the Queen Anne chairs. I used black chalk paint to give them a matte finish.
Q: What was the interior like before?
A: There were walls everywhere and the decor was not to our taste. The previous owners had different types of flooring — wood, parquet, tiles down the hallway — all in one small area. The kitchen was old-fashioned. It had oak cupboards and a square island with a black granite top.
(The offending walls were taken down or moved, to open up the space. The kitchen is now bright and modern with white cabinets, stainless steel appliances and a multi-hued grey backsplash of honeycombshaped tiles.)
Q : The backsplash is very attractive.
A: I actually designed the whole kitchen around those tiles. The grey countertops are faux marble. They’re quartz. That’s more durable than marble, which is porous.
Q: You’re obviously fond of neutral colours and I see you like touches of black.
A: Yes, but I also like turquoise. (Rice has applied pale turquoise paint in the master bedroom and the larger of the two bathrooms. The latter has a soaking tub, a glassed-in shower and underfloor heating. The vanity is fitted with twin circular sinks.
The grey/ black combination carries through to the living room, which is at the front of the “condalow.”)
Q: Did your black leather sofa and beige rug in the living room both come from your previous home?
A: They did. There was already a fireplace here but it was really ugly. The only thing we kept was the sill. We had something similar in our old house so my son built a smaller version of it, as well as the oak shelves on each side of the fireplace.
Q: You mentioned your son was the contractor? A: He was. We probably wouldn’t have done quite as much if we’d been working with an outsider. He’s also an engineer so he was able to give us structural advice as well.
Q : It sounds as if your “condalow” ended up being just the way you envisioned it?
A: Not quite. We haven’t finished the outside. Come the summer, the next thing on the agenda will be constructing a new deck and I can’t wait to get into the garden!