SLEEK, CLEAN AND CONTEMPORARY
Builder’s own home on Vancouver Island maximizes views
This Vancouver Island house is not right on the ocean. But it’s only a pebble’s throw away, just across Beach Drive in Oak Bay, and the sun-splashed property offers wide-angle views across an attractive broad bay and easy access to the waterfront scene.
Its silhouette is sleek, clean and contemporary and the colours, both inside and out, are a combination of bleached-beach tones that play off the nearby waterfront palette.
“We wanted a house that would have a modern feel, but we still wanted a bit of a transitional look inside, not that cold and modern feeling. So it’s a mix of both,” said Gunnu Gill, who built the house and is co-owner of Seba Construction.
He said the traditional flavour inside was achieved through numerous millwork details, such as wainscotting and coffered ceilings in the living and dining areas, where he took the same hardwood used on the floors and applied it to the ceilings for a warm glow and added texture.
“The whitewashed cedar board siding outside was selected for its weathering properties, and we are looking forward to the colour turning to silver as the wood ages naturally,” said Gill, who interspersed that siding with stone veneer highlights and a stucco that was specially coated to prevent salt spray from eroding the finish.
“My dad built a house in 1985 with these same three elements — rock, cedar and stucco — so this is a flashback to my childhood,” he explained with a chuckle, although in this instance, Gill decided not to use an excessive amount of wood on the ocean side because of potential damage due to the elements.
The building is oriented to the south, an exposure that allows for passive solar heating on sunny days, which means major cost savings.
“I wanted to maximize the wonderful views and basically, we have that from every room now, with very large floor-to-ceiling windows,” Gill said. “And because it’s slab-on-grade with radiant heat, it stays really warm. We also have a heat-recovery system and gain passive solar reflection off the ocean.
“It’s always windy here and can be cool, which is why I also used a lot of spray foam insulation.”
He explained that all the joist ends, where joists meet exterior walls, were generously sprayed with foam, as was the whole upper ceiling and some exterior walls, too.
“You never get a complete seal if you only use bats of insulation. You will always have heat loss on the joist ends, for sure.”
Gill said he has long wanted to live on this attractive bay.
A few years ago, he was sitting on a bench directly across from this property, taking in the gorgeous setting and noticing an older house that then stood on the site and was up for sale.
“I was thinking about how much I wanted to live in this area ... because the view is so amazing ... of the mountains, and at night, when you can see Port Angeles. It’s really a lovely area ... and I like to jog a lot and there are good schools nearby.”
Proximity to the water on a low-lying lot is always a concern, “and Oak Bay requires geotechnical planning and elevation calculations for a potential 100-year flood. So we did that and we have extra drainage at the front, extra provisions,” Gill said.
The 3,450-square-foot home, which stands more than two metres above the high-tide line, was designed by Seba’s in-house designer, Tim Rodier of Outline Home Design.
His primary concern was to highlight the water and mountain views: “Our whole goal was about how to make it feel connected to those views and the ocean.
“On the main floor, the owners can see some cars coming and going, and they have some visibility themselves from the road, so we made a conscious effort to push the house forward on the lot and create a private, outdoor living space at the rear,” Gill said.
Along with an outdoor entertaining area, the property includes a separate office at the back of the house, which also helps enclose and define the private outdoor living space.
Rodier said the central floating staircase, built by Bradshaw Woodworking, reflects a concept he really believes in, because it helps a family stay connected.
“It’s a way to stay close together, while also joining the upstairs and downstairs. It’s about integration and ensuring all the living spaces flow well.”
The previous home had a partial basement, but the new owners — bearing in mind the potential of rising water levels due to global warming and more intense storms — decided not to have one, and to build above grade on slab instead.
“The home is a fair bit higher than the original one, probably two to three feet higher than the previous one, but it is not noticeable. We brought the home up nicely to just street level,” Rodier said.
The older house was salvaged and moved to a farm property in the Comox area of Vancouver Island.
The flat roof helps the home strike a contemporary pose and the moderate slope leads water to an integrated gutter that sits invisibly behind a clean edge at the top of the roof, Rodier said.
Gill said one of the things he likes most about the house is his separate, detached, office-studio.
“It’s perpendicular to the garage and helps create an outdoor space for the fireplace, barbecue, builtin patio and outdoor kitchen.”
He said jokingly that his daughter has her playroom and he has a playroom for himself too, in the back garden.
Other attractive features include an easy-on-the-feet cork floor in the laundry room, livingroom wainscotting that runs two-thirds of the way up the wall behind the sofa, a coffered ceiling and built-in bar and wine fridge.
A glass railing runs along the catwalk that leads to the master suite and creates a separation from the guest and daughter’s bedrooms, which each have their own bathroom.
Gill also loves the master bathroom, with its white marble floors. It offers loads of storage behind wooden cabinets and white lacquered drawers.
“One my favourite places is the steam shower,” he said, noting the home uses natural gas for all its heating, from clothes dryer and range to fireplace and outdoor barbecue.
“So our hydro bills in the summer are like nothing, and only about $100 in the winter, while the gas bill is about $100 a month, too.”