MAKING EXTRA ROOM
Couple added space to vintage house
Kimberlie Robert is an expat American who grew up in New York State. She met her husband Rick on a cycling holiday in the Rockies. He is from St. Catharines, Ont., but the two set up house together in Montreal. Rick Robert is in the corporate world. Kimberlie runs a website with tips and information about how to make good cookies. (www. thefinercookie.com) The website is illustrated with “tasty” photographs taken by the couple, both of whom are shutterbugs.
As newlyweds, the Roberts lived in N.D.G., but it wasn’t long before they realized they should buy a place, rather that continue to rent. They were in Montreal for the long haul and it made more economic sense to become owners. To that end, in 1999, the Roberts purchased a two-storey row house in Pointe-St-Charles – an area, which, at the time, they knew nothing about.
Q Given that you didn’t know the neighbourhood what prompted you to move here? A We were looking for somewhere that wasn’t too expensive and Pointe-St-Charles was cheap. We certainly saw our share of “cockroach motels,” but this place caught our interest right away. There were no plastic materials. Everything was wood and stone and metal.
Q So the building had good bones? A Absolutely!
Q Do you know anything about its history? A The building dates to around the turn of the 20th century. This is one of a block of four row houses built by the Grand Truck Railroad.
Q Was your new home a fixerupper? A It was in pretty good shape, so renovating was never part of the plan. We were just getting used to owning a house and getting a feel for what that meant. It wasn’t until 2007/8 that we decided to renovate. We realized we needed more space because when we bought the house there was only one bedroom and an empty area upstairs. In the end we made three bedrooms differently.
(There are now two bedrooms upstairs, plus a home office in the partly finished basement. Next to the home office is a long, narrow room where the couple store their photographic equipment.)
Q Tell me how you created the extra space. A My first idea was to build another room onto the roof, above the second storey. For structural reasons, that wasn’t going to work and it would have contravened the building code. At the end of the day, it would have been too expensive anyway.
We’d hired an architect to help us, and she came up with the clever idea of partly raising the floor in the living room to make the basement ceiling higher and create what is now our home office downstairs. Most people’s instinct is to dig down but that can cause long-term problems, such as water seeping in.
(From the basement, we walk up the stairs, into the split-level living/dining area. The higher level is what was raised to make way for the heightened basement. Two steps lead down into the dining room, which opens up into the kitchen, also part of the couple’s renovations.
The kitchen is a bright, modern space. It looks out over a fencedin backyard through floor-toceiling glass.
The cabinets are white and the surfaces are streamlined, with everything hidden behind doors. A centre island — also white — has a bar sink and a quartz countertop. A wall that used to divide the dining room from the kitchen has been replaced with cupboards and drawers with an opening in the middle. Overall, the kitchen has a clean, contemporary look.)
Q I guess as a baker, having a modern kitchen was a priority? A This used to be a galley kitchen! There was a back door that went out to the garden. I wanted a work area that was practical and easy to keep clean. Everything was custom made. The countertops are granite from South Africa and the one between here and the dining room is Carrara marble. Also, you’ll notice I have a gas stove. That was one of the criteria for me when we bought the house.
My idea was to have no clutter, clean lines, no posters — no nothing. This is fun though!
(She points out a section of one wall covered with blackboard paint. Messages have been scribbled across it in chalk.)
When I have dinner parties, I write out my instructions rather than use a cookbook. But my friends like to leave messages. This one with all the numbers, looks like a mathematic formula, but it’s just silliness! The “solution” to the formula was written by another friend, and it says: “Viva viño!”