WEST SIDE WATER FRONT HOUSE

The clients, a multi-generational family whose children had grown up summers in a very old waterfront house on this site, asked me to design a new legacy house that their four sons, wives, and grandchildren, all living in the Lower mainland, could use for Island retreats for years to come. They required a straight forward, functional and low maintenance house ( "We do not want a WOW house” “ We do not want to spend time maintaining the house”) to replace the old somewhat dilapidated house on the site. So the approach was to design a house where the clients themselves could comfortably live on the ground floor level with a water view sitting area and covered porch, a south oriented large dining area and kitchen, and a master bedroom and bath plus entry porch, mudroom-storage room. Upstairs would include 2 bedrooms, a flex room, an under roof kids sleeping loft and a compartmentalized bath. (Toilet in its own room, bath/shower in its own room, and double sink separately). Provisions were made by the owners for a personal storage system so when various members of the greater family were visiting, their stuff was accessible and not room specific. A future two bedroom bunk house was considered and the septic system sized accordingly. Other features included a large kitchen island for serving family buffet meals and working on children’s art projects, an air tight wood fireplace in the sitting area, a lawn lawn area suitable for informal sports or tents at over flow weekends, and a kayak etc. storage space accessible to the water front under the sitting room and covered porch. During the first year of use, the owners sent me a picture of a sit down Thanksgiving Dinner for 24 !