VILLAS OFFER COMFORT IN A SMALLER PACKAGE
Single-floor living still provides plenty of space for active adults
Downsizing to a smaller home doesn’t need to mean it’s time to slow down.
Longtime Brooks residents Ed and Debbie Sweep certainly won’t be.
They wanted to be a shorter distance to their children and grandchildren while also shifting to a smaller home, making it easier to spend time at their place in Palm Springs, Calif.
On top of travelling, the Sweeps wanted the ability to maintain their energetic lifestyle close to home, making the community of Harmony a match.
They play golf and tennis, and Debbie’s a runner training for a half-marathon in Kelowna, B.C., this October.
Those interests mesh with the multi-faceted plan for Harmony, where the couple bought a villa through NuVista Homes.
“It just fit our lifestyle because we’re very active people,” Ed says.
Along with villas, Harmony offers a range of single-family homes.
“We wanted to be in a community with a really good mix of ages and lots of young families because we just think that makes a vibrant community and wanted to be part of that,” Debbie says.
Under development by Bordeaux Developments and Qualico Communities, Harmony won both New Community of the Year and Community of the Year — Calgary Region at the recent Calgary Region SAM (Sales and Marketing) Awards.
“We were really impressed with the planning and foresight in this community,” Debbie says. “I know it’s in the beginning, but once this community develops, it’s just going to have everything that you need. It’s going to be like a small town.
“Whoever thought this up had a brilliant idea around what people want to live in.”
For Debbie’s runs and the couple’s casual bicycle rides, the community is planned to include about 25 kilometres of pathways.
“The trails were pretty important because we can walk out our back door and be right on the trail,” Debbie says.
They’ll hold their tennis rallies on courts planned for an outdoor activity area in the community, and when they feel like an afternoon of 18 holes, the Sweeps will turn to the 97-hectare Mickelson National Golf Club, now under construction in Harmony.
“The course was a huge draw for us,” Debbie says.
They also liked Harmony’s twopart lake, the first of which is now open to residents and their guests. Ed says they’ll use it to kayak, learn to paddle board and “just enjoy the sun and some relaxation.”
Harmony is planned for extensive retail development, too, put- ting the convenience of shopping and dining a walkable distance away.
Relocating to Harmony puts the couple closer to their adult children and their families: one who lives in northwest Calgary, while the other is in Edson but spends time in the Calgary area.
“The location of Harmony fits us perfectly,” Debbie says.
Like many people looking for less space than what they had in their single-family home, to the Sweeps, the villa segment was appealing.
They’re moving from a 4,500-square-foot home with a five-car garage to a home that with the developed basement reaches about 3,000 square feet and has a two-car garage.
And the garage made a difference.
“It had a beautiful garage, a much larger double garage than most homes we looked at,” says Ed, adding they spent about two years looking at options in the Calgary area.
“We had some that we looked at that I couldn’t even put my vehicle in. It wouldn’t fit. The driveway wasn’t big enough to park the vehicle on,” Ed says. “This one is large enough, has a large driveway, so it’s big enough to park vehicles on. We can have guests over for dinner without worrying about where they have to park.”
Another item on their wish list was the ability to open the window blinds and take in something special.
“That was really important to us,” Debbie says. “And if we could have a view of the mountains, we’re going to think that we had died and gone to heaven.”
That’s what they have. “Being at the front end of it (the community’s development) gave us the opportunity to buy something with a view,” Ed says.
“We look out on green space and the mountains and that won’t be taken away from us so we were very excited about that.”
They bought NuVista’s Lavender floor plan. Debbie says they were pleased with the open-concept design and space for handy lifestyle areas, such as a spot for working out and a games room for a pool table.
As a bungalow-style home, all of the necessities are on one level. While the Sweeps don’t need to worry about mobility, it’s a home they see themselves in for at least the next 15 years, so Ed says it was a “consideration for the future.”
NuVista will have 28 villas in Harmony, and 25 per cent have been sold. The current starting price is $699,900.
Villas are also being built in other ends of the Calgary area. Homes by Avi has a development planned for Elbow Valley that is set to open in 2018.
These will start from the $800,000s and have oversized double garages, feature a stone and timber exterior, and range from 2,400 to 2,800 square feet.
One of the existing villa developments in the Calgary area is the Parkhouses by Lifestyle Homes in Drake Landing, which is in Okotoks.
There are 27 villas available. They range from 1,369 to 2,600 square feet and have an attached double car garage. They start from $519,000 including the tax.
Calbridge Homes has villa sites in Artesia at Heritage Pointe, just south of Calgary, Cranston’s Riverstone and Fireside in Cochrane. All come with a two-car garage.
There are three remaining in Artesia, measuring 1,698 square feet, and starting from the $ 760,000s, including GST. In Riverstone, there are 15 remaining, ranging from 1,510 to 1,704 square feet and starting in the $750,000s, including GST.
The Fireside development has 19 left, all 1,152 square feet and starting from the mid-$400,000s, before GST.
In all cases, for Calbridge, the developed lower level is not included in the respective square footage figures mentioned above, but it is part of the price.
Ted and Coreene Dupilka bought at Calbridge’s Cochrane development dubbed the Clearbook Meadows of Fireside. They’re coming from a third-generation cattle and grain farm in Athabasca County.
Like the Sweeps, being closer to family in the Calgary area was what motivated the Dupilkas to move south.
Scenery mattered, too. “The great room, master bedroom and the deck will face the ranch that is south of us,” Coreene says. “And there’s a mountain view.”
And while they wanted a smaller square footage than what they were working with at their farmhouse, it was important for the couple to not lose the spaces they cherished.
“We had most of the amenities of any home, except it wasn’t grandiose,” says Ted, 71. “So when we came here, we wanted all of those things, but we understood that we didn’t want the floor space.”
The villa’s developed lower level helped accomplish that. The standard basement for the Clearbrook villas includes a second bedroom and media/games area. There are options for a third bedroom, hobby room and wet bar.
“With the finished basement, we have a craft room for Coreene ... we have my business area, a media room, storage downstairs,” he says. “We have everything we wanted, just with a smaller footprint.”