W
hen homeowner Val Pattee lost his wife Joan last spring, his 4,000-square-foot home felt like too much. “I had long ago decided that if I was ever on my own, I would have a smaller condo, and I wanted it to be on the water,” says the former Canadian Armed Forces major-general. The two-bedroom apartment his real estate agent soon found in James Bay had the coveted oceanfront view and was in the perfect location. Pattee loved that he could walk along waterfront paths for miles east and west, but the condo itself would need serious work. “It was a shambles,” says Val, of the dated finishings, cramped space and 1970s-era wood cabinets. The closed-in pocket kitchen was blocked off from the ocean view, and an awkwardly converted solarium carved out a whole corner of the living area. Even still, it took Val exactly 10 seconds to make an offer on the unit (he knew there was a lineup of people behind him to look at it), and then he made two calls — the first, to his longtime contractor Tim Agar at Horizon Pacific Contracting, to see if he could squeeze him in, and the second, to local millwork guru David Sheridan at Splinters Millworks.
Before
After removing the final remnants of an old patio, the team added 186 square feet to the living area and was able to seamlessly conceal window blinds behind crown moulding. The room’s feature fireplace was cast in concrete to replicate a more traditional fireplace, like the one the homeowner had in his previous house.
SPRUCE | SUMMER 2020
39