That’s where a custom home builder like Habitat Studio comes in. “We figured we went to med school to be doctors, they’ve learned to be architects and designers — let’s let them do their jobs and then it’ll be ready,” the mother says of the building process, shortly before heading up to the office to get back to work.
This isn’t to say the self-described perfectionist and her husband took a hands-off approach. While still up north, they looked at the initial floor plans but couldn’t get a feel for the designs, so they went to the nearby basketball court and brought the pages to life.
“We got chalk and a really giant measuring tape, then drew out the whole main floor to scale. Then we invited our friends over. We were sitting on fake couches and walking down hallways being like, ‘Does this feel right? Does this flow?’ It was really kind of fun.”
Today, the people having the most fun in the finished home are the three kids, who have the upstairs bedrooms (coated with durable, scrubbable paint from Benjamin Moore) to themselves, as well as the intentionally unfinished (for now) basement, where they’ve chalked an accurately scaled-down version of our solar system (for now) on the concrete floor. But the best place to play is probably the spacious backyard, which backs directly on to Ramsay Ravine through the chain link fence — a big reason they wanted the lot.
“It would’ve been weird for [the kids] to go from a very open place [up north] to the middle of a big city, on a skinny lot, landlocked, as we call it, by sidewalks. They have a range they’re allowed to go, and they just build forts and explore.”
Ballet Edmonton’s Home Tour takes place on September 17 & 18, 2022. This annual fundraiser allows patrons to see inside beautifully curated homes while supporting the arts in Edmonton.
This article appears in the September 2022 issue of Edify
This content was produced in partnership with the advertiser by Odvod Publishing for commercial purposes.
