THE NEXT STEP HOME
Downsizers drawn to layout, low-maintenance lifestyle at Calais Villas in Quarry Park
Staying close to home is an easy task for Angie Herback and Blaine Gushaty of Quarry Park who epitomize the live, work and play lifestyle.
Before they married and blended their families, each lived at either end of the city before choosing Quarry Park as middle ground. Herback works for Remington Development Corp., a commercial/ residential builder and developer of Quarry Park. Gushaty is a chiropractor who moved his practice in addition to himself and his family to the southeast community six years ago.
They’re members of the Remington YMCA and are frequently seen on the neighbourhood pathway system walking their dog or biking along the river.
Herback and Gushaty lived in a four-bedroom townhome in Quarry Park until the last child flew the coop. With so much space over three levels, the empty-nesters felt their later years could be better spent in a home with fewer stairs.
Remington’s Calais Villas, a product Herback has been selling for several years, was the obvious choice.
“I’ve been working with people in that exact demographic. Empty nesters or soon to be with the same ideas of not wanting to do yard work and snow removal. We kind of looked at each other one day and said, ‘This is us,’ ” she says.
Calais is a collection of 24 bungalow villas located steps from the Bow River. There are four floor plans, with 1,302 square feet to 1,453 square feet on the main floor with a second-floor loft with a further 818 square feet to 829 square feet of space.
The main floor has a large master bedroom, a spacious kitchen and dining area, a den and a mud room leading to a double attached garage. Herback and Gushaty built two bedrooms, a bathroom and a bonus room in the loft.
“Having that gives us the opportunity to age in place. When the day comes when we can’t do stairs anymore, a caregiver could move in if we needed it. Right now, it’s great for guests and in case any kids boomerang back home, which we hope they don’t,” Herback says, smiling.
The Arizona-style villas have no basement and the mechanical room is on the second floor.
“Instead of extra space below grade, it’s above and it’s more useful. There are 12-foot ceilings at the least and big windows so it’s nice and bright,” she says.
The project on Quarry Common S.E. is more than 50 per cent sold with prices starting at $650,000 plus GST.
The villas are constructed on a concrete slab with in-floor glycol heating. Remington residential sales manager Julie Seidel says the system sets Calais apart.
“It’s such an efficient system with nine zones, including the garage, which can be controlled independently by the homeowner. Hot air rises, so the home is heated from the floor up,” she says.
Because the radiant heat system, which is fired by a boiler, uses glycol rather than water, the pipes embedded in the concrete will never freeze. “For our snowbirds, when they’re gone six months out of the year, they can set the temperature low and won’t have to worry,” Seidel says.
Calais is Remington’s fifth project in Quarry Park and a rare villa project along the Bow River in southeast Calgary. It’s not an adult-only development but the maintenance-free nature of the villas appeals to that crowd, with conservative condo fees of $195 per month not including utilities.