FAMILY-FRIENDLY SETTING WITH MID-CENTURY STYLE
Newcomers to Canada wanted a home with lots of green space, so they chose a semi-detached property in N.D.G. with a design that’s right up their alley
Amelia Keenan, a New Zealander, and Thomas Monaghan, who’s from Northern Ireland, are newcomers to Montreal. At the beginning of this year, they were living in Monaghan’s homeland, where he worked for a customer experience company. They then learned he was being transferred to the company’s Quebec office.
The couple weren’t sure when they would be heading for Montreal other than it would be in the spring, so they came over last January to check out the housing market. Mid-winter perhaps wasn’t the most auspicious time to visit, but they loved the city and figured they would love it even more when summer rolled around.
Back in Montreal a couple of months later, they found a broker — Shereen Quraeshi of M Real Estate — who had them “out and about,” homing in on neighbourhoods she thought they would enjoy.
Keenan and Monaghan had certain criteria. Their family includes Abel, a four-year-old boy, two cats and a dog; and they wanted to find somewhere on the ground floor that had a sizable garden.
They focused on Notre-Damede-Grâce — a natural choice for a family — but a number of the properties they visited, especially in and around Monkland Village, required a large down payment. (Their house in the U.K. is still on the market, so they had to be careful with their funds.)
As well, some of the places were co-owned. In order to obtain a mortgage, they were told they would have to use the same bank as everyone else in the property. That was a hiccup that Keenan and Monaghan hadn’t bargained for.
They stuck with N.D.G. because they liked the area; in the end they settled on a 1960s, three-bedroom, semi-detached bungalow. It has a finished basement, part of which serves as a home office, and a garage. West of Monkland Village, it has a large, fenced-in backyard – ideal for their son and the family pets.
Moreover, they needed a down payment of only 10 per cent of the purchase price ($660,000).
The design of the semidetached house is right up their alley. They love its mid-century look — clean, modern lines and large windows that let in loads of
light. They moved into their new abode in May. Q: Since you didn’t move to Montreal until the spring, did you have plenty of time between your first visit and the final move? Keenan: Actually, no. We had only 24 hours’ notice! We were told we were going on a Thursday and headed out the following day. Q: Heavens! That must have been quite a challenge? Monaghan: It wasn’t too bad. My company works with a relocation firm, so that was all covered. They packed up everything in two days and loaded it into a shipping container. Q: It usually takes around three months for freight to arrive from Europe. Did you have to live for a while without furniture? Keenan: We had the opposite problem. Our furniture actually arrived quickly, in just over a month, but that was a couple of weeks before we’d bought the house! We had to put our things in storage — but again, that was covered by the relocation package. Q: Did anything need to be done to the house before you moved in? Monaghan: Nothing. Last summer, the previous owner renovated it from top to bottom. Apparently, he specialized in heritage work and he has really kept the mid-century look.
(The all-white interior has an open dining/kitchen/living area and pale grey ceramic flooring. The galley kitchen, which is open at one end, has attractive wood shelving and parallel butcher block countertops, one of which has a built-in induction cooktop.) Q: Was the cooktop here or did you have to buy that? Keenan: The hob, the oven and the dishwasher were all here, but there was no fridge or washing machine. Those we had to buy. The cooktop is very fast, but we had to get new pots and pans. Q: So the ones you had in the U.K. wouldn’t have been suitable for this type of cooktop? Keenan: Exactly.
(Induction cookware has to be made of a magnetic-based material such as cast iron or stainless steel.)
(As we walk around the house, Amelia points out all the pieces that were transported across the pond, most of them reflecting the couple’s penchant for 1960s design – the dining table and chairs, which have tapered legs, as does the beige sofa and matching loveseat in the living room, a teak sideboard. A burgundy-coloured “sunburst” wall clock, which is typical of 1960s decor.) Q: Do you have everything in place now? Keenan: We still have a few things to hang on the wall, but the house and the neighbourhood have finally started to feel like home. If you would like your home to be considered for Shelter, please contact hloverseed@sympatico.ca