HOUSE HITS THE HIGH NOTES
Baie-d’Urfé home has space, privacy
Amanda Fritz and David Campeau grew up on the West Island but, like many young professionals, they lived in Montreal while they were studying and forging their careers. Fritz works in fundraising at McGill University, and Campeau is in the admissions department at John Abbott College.
The couple enjoyed everything the city had to offer, but a couple of years ago, they decided it was time to buy rather than continue to rent. At the time, they lived in a small apartment in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce where they had to “trek up and down stairs” just to do the laundry.
Fritz and Campeau sat down together and drew up a list of criteria. They wanted more space, a basement, a driveway, at least two bathrooms and a backyard — a tall order, given that their budget was $400,000. They looked long and hard, but in the end, their new abode came via a referral from one of Campeau’s colleagues.
The home in question was not in N.D.G. as they had hoped, but in Baie-d’Urfé. It is a two-storey, 1980s-era semi-detached house with three bedrooms, an open living/dining room and kitchen, a finished basement with a small laundry room and an inside garage/workshop.
Q Why did you decide to move back to your old stomping grounds? Fritz: Affordability!
Campeau: This was much further out of downtown Montreal than we’d planned, but I’m actually more of a suburb person than a city person. N.D.G. would have been a compromise for both of us, but when we started looking around, we realized we couldn’t get anything like this for the amount of money we had to spend.
F We could probably have gotten an upper or a lower duplex, but we’d be living over someone or under someone, and we’d been doing that for years.
Q What made you fall in love with this particular place?
C It was pretty much in walk-in condition. It had been renovated by a couple around our age, and they had very good taste. The husband was in construction, and he’d used quality materials like granite for the countertops in the kitchen and wrought iron for the banister. He’d also installed unusual light fixtures. Lots of little details like that.
F: Our biggest challenge after living in a small apartment was finding furniture to fill the house.
Q How did you go about that?
C It was gradual. We did a lot of IKEA runs to find cute little things. There were some happy coincidences as well. My mom had a dining table and chairs and a mirror she wanted to get rid of. We also found stuff online.
(The dining area is beside the kitchen. Toward the large window at the other end of the room — it takes up almost the entire wall — is a pale grey sectional sofa, sourced from Brault & Martineau. In front of it is a white coffee table with four glass panes. Opposite the seating area is a wood-burning, fieldstone fireplace. The colour palate is caramel and white, and the wood flooring has been stained a rich dark brown.)
Q Were the colours like this when you moved in?
F They were all like this. The only painting we did — I did — was the coffee table and some chairs. We found the table on varagesale.com.
Q What’s that?
C It’s a kind of local version of Kijiji. It stands for ‘virtual garage sale.’
(As we walk toward the kitchen to the backyard, I spot a 1950s-era radiogram.)
Q Does that still work?
C (Laughs.) No, but I’ve rigged it up so I can play music through it. We’ve got a couple of turntables downstairs in the basement where we play our vinyl albums and keep our musical instruments. We both play the ukulele, guitar here and there and a little bit of keyboard. The old radio is just a decoration, but we’ve got the original instructions. Unfortunately, they’re in German, which we don’t understand.
(Fritz pulls out the leaflet to show me, then we walk out to the backyard. On the way, we pass another dining area in the corner of the kitchen. It has a circular, natural wood table surrounded by three turquoise, spindle-back painted chairs.)
Q Are those another of your paint jobs?
F They are. The white coffee table was my first DIY project, and then I painted these. The table belonged to my grandfather. We had lots of family meals around it and, when he passed away, I asked if I could have it.
Q Wow! This is a nice backyard.
C It’s the perfect size for us. Since we’re new to all this, we didn’t want too much to maintain.
Q And your deck is great — like having an extra room.
F We’re out here nearly all the time. We’ve even done movie screenings for friends. We just rig up a sheet and line up some chairs.