Fully, completely home
All it took was merging a WC and bathroom, flipping the kitchen, reconfiguring the bedroom
Jasmin Uhthoff spent most of her childhood in Ottawa, her summers in the Townships and university years in Halifax but there was always “an affinity” with Montreal.
The child of doctors who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War, Uhthoff and her sister and brother were born in Montreal, but the family headed to the capital after her father was offered a position at the Ottawa General Hospital.
The Quebec links were maintained by a country place in the Eastern Townships that’s still in the family and regular stops to eat at Schwartz’s or to load up on other food supplies at the Atwater Market. (“My parents, being German, loved their sausages,” recalls Uhthoff.)
When it was time to go to college, the trilingual communications consultant chose Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations and met Andrew Robb, the man who became her husband. Robb, an engineer with Bombardier, happened to be from Montreal so it was inevitable that the couple would end up living in her hometown.
In 1994, they married and bought an old home in Lower Westmount, a two-storey, semidetached townhouse. They’ve been there ever since.
Their 1914 semi is large, with 1,200 square feet on each level. It has four bedrooms (one serves as Uhthoff ’s home office), three bathrooms (plus a powder room), a roomy kitchen and a dining room and living room across the hall from one another. There’s also a partly finished basement and a backyard.
Q Your home must have been ideal for a growing family?
A It was. We needed a lot of space when the two boys were younger.
Michael, home. Our who other is 17, son, still Stefan, lives at is in so his he comes second back year only of university, for the holidays.
Q You mentioned you thought the house was expensive?
A At the time, yes, and of course, we were newlyweds. We paid $279,000 but the house next door recently went on the market for over $1 million!
Q I gather you’ve done some renovating over the years?
A We have, but the house was in reasonably good condition when we bought it. It just needed to be modernized.
Q What did you change? A The area that absolutely needed to be upgraded was the upstairs bathroom. The water closet and bathroom were in separate rooms. The water closet was so narrow you had to back into it!
Q And after that?
A The next big renovation was the kitchen. We had some help. Not so much for the decorating — I chose most of the colours — but the layout. We literally flipped it around and demolished a big pantry that was in the corner.
(The cabinets are wood and the floors are maple. Touches of blue from the backsplash, a row of spice containers and a decorative Delft china plate hanging on the wall contrast beautifully with the warmth of the wood.)
Q What a cosy kitchen!
A To create more space, we made the powder room a little smaller. The kitchen is really the hub of the family.
(We walk to the dining room, which has olive green walls, across the hallway into the living room. This room also has a lot of wood, around the door frame and a wall unit, in the middle of which is a fireplace. A Persian carpet, one of several throughout Uhthoff ’s home, lends a dash of colour, as does a large triptych — the work of an artist friend — hanging above the ivory, modular sofa.)
Q I’m curious about the wall unit. Is that original?
A No. There was nothing at all along that wall, so we had it custom built. It’s oak, to match the original door frames. We added the fireplace because we felt the room needed a focal point. A friend, Peter Tucker, designed it.
Q You said a designer also helped you with the upstairs master bedroom?
(As we climb the stairs, Uhthoff remarks that the banister was the only wood that hadn’t been painted over by previous owners.)
A At one time, our bedroom was a balcony. It had been converted into a room but it was poorly insulated. We needed some expert advice on how to reconfigure it.
Q I love your bay window with the built-in seat and the blue and white drapes.
A Me too. That was one of the new additions, but let me show you a little hidden gem that came to light during the renovations. (Uhthoff opens a door to reveal a tall, narrow closet, filled with rows and rows of shoes.) There was a radiator here before and the wall had been boarded up.
Q Were the shoe racks designed for this particular space?
A No. They’re just ordinary Rubbermaid racks but the contractor installed them upside down, so the metal lip would prevent the shoes from falling out.
Q What a clever idea! If you would like your home to be considered for Shelter, please contact hloverseed@sympatico.ca.