A HOME IN WHICH TO DREAM
Single mom with twins knew what she wanted
Eva Sokol was born in Uzbekistan but when she was a child, her family moved to Israel. They lived there for seven years then emigrated to Canada when Sokol was 10. She grew up in Côte-St-Luc. As a young adult, she found that neighbourhood was “too suburban” for her taste and longed to live closer to downtown. That opportunity came about this year, when Sokol, now 33, divorced and the mother of two-year-old twins Jesse and Jodi, found her “dream home” in Shaughnessy Village. Her new home, a two-storey greystone townhouse built in the 1890s, has three bedrooms, three bathrooms (plus a powder room), an open-plan dining/ living room and an open, but separate, kitchen. The living room has a gas fireplace with an eye-catching surround made of wood planking. The stairs to the second storey are flanked by an exposed brick wall. Sokol, whose work experience is in the non-profit sector (she was in charge of a mentoring and training program) is currently a stay-at-home mom, but does a lot of volunteering at the nearby Gilman Pavilion of the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
Q You were explaining why it was important for you to be within easy reach of the hospital.
A My little girl has a heart condition so being close to the Children’s Hospital (Gilman Pavilion) was one of the stipulations I gave to the real-estate agent.
Q Did you have any other specifications?
A I wanted a place that I could just walk into. As a single mom with a couple of young kids and a dog, I didn’t want somewhere that needed to be renovated. Q Looking around your elegant interior, the house has obviously been modernized.
A Like a lot of the greystone townhouses in the area, it’s well over a century old. I visited others in a similar price range, but they all needed a lot of work. In the case of this particular house, the previous owners had taken the building apart and modernized it from the inside out. They opened up the interior space and renovated the bathrooms and the kitchen.
Q I guess all you needed to do was to move in?
A Not quite. When the house came on the market, my divorce hadn’t been finalized. At that point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to rent or buy. When I walked into the house however, I knew right away that I wanted to buy it. The building had such positive energy. Unfortunately, another person had already put in an offer.
Q Quite a predicament. How did you resolve it?
A My real-estate agent was fantastic. She put up a case for me with the sellers, explaining that I was a young, single mom and that I was looking for a “forever” home in which to raise my family. I think that resonated with them because they were looking for somebody who would value their home as much as they had. Also, they weren’t in a hurry to sell. They were an older couple who were moving to their country home, so they waited until I was in a position to purchase the property.
Q And it all turned out OK in the end?
A It did.
Q What about furniture? Did you bring that from the place you lived in when you were married?
A No. I wanted to make a completely fresh start, so most of the stuff you see here is brand new.
Q How did you chose your furnishings? Did you have help from an interior designer?
A I actually took my inspiration from the way the previous owners had furnished the space. I really liked their taste, so I shopped around to find similar things. I bought the coffee table in Mobilia, the main reason being that it looks like a thick chunk of wood and it matches the wood around the fireplace.
Q And your couch and the wingback armchairs?
A The couch is from EQ3 and the chairs came from Ikea.
Q What about your dining table?
A It’s custom-made. I went around several furniture stores and explained what I was looking for. J.C. Perrault came up with exactly what I wanted. (We move into the kitchen. The colour palette is black and white with splashes of turquoise, Sokol’s favourite colour. Above the stove, embedded in the wall, is a metal shield displaying a coat of arms, perhaps the family crest of one of the long-ago owners. To the left of the stove is a wall of blackboard.)
Q Is that for writing down your grocery list?
A It’s more for when I’m cooking. The kids sit on the countertop, drawing as I prepare food.
Q I see you’ve got a Touch-Tone phone. I’ve never seen a turquoise one before!
A (Laughs) I had one like this when I was a child. I need to have a land line so that I can call 911 immediately if my daughter has an emergency.