Behind every home, there’s a story. But behind every infill home, there’s a debate — and it’s not always polite.
“I would say there’s a lot of hate for infill,” says Jesse Soneff, co-owner and project manager for custom infill home builder, ArtHouse Residential. But as we sit in the living room of one of ArtHouse’s recently finished Parkallen homes, Soneff explains that he understands the hate — and sees how people soften. “People expect that the big, bad developer’s going to come in, park their truck on the boulevard and build something that’s spec for sale with no fucking soul.”
But then they meet Soneff, who in this case lives two neighbourhoods north in Garneau, and realize he’s just like them. And whatever animosity remains melts away when he sics his curious kid on them. “One neighbour, across the alley, she researches wildlife. And my six- year-old went over to ask her questions about coyotes and stuff. And I think it was helpful for her to be like, Oh, he’s just another human being. He doesn’t actually have horns.”
Matthew Carr has a bunch of horns. Deer, a Capricorn goat and a bull all intersperse among his tattooed arms, but he jokes that the “only demons are my personal ones.” Six years ago, he and fiancé David Roettger (also inked) moved into the house that stood on this spot since the 1950s, because they liked the neighbourhood, the home’s proximity to Whyte Avenue, transit and the fact they could afford it, even knowing it was the definition of a “fixer upper.”
“In the initial few years, we were like, ‘Oh, we could fix this, or put a bathroom here,’” Roettger says. “But there were constantly wet corners, some asbestos, and the foundation was cracked. Then we found out the lot value was essentially what we paid for the house, so [rebuilding] was kind of like getting a free house.”
On their regular Whyte Avenue walks, the couple noticed other ArtHouse-made homes. And after touching base with a few builders, they were surprised to find that a “soulless” spec house would actually cost more than taking the custom route. “From what I can tell, it’s because they invest a lot in showy things, like expensive countertops, fixtures and siding, that attract you in,” Roettger says. “But what turned us off was that it was all very attractively neutral. Whereas we really like things like pink railings.”
The pink railings enclose the split-level home’s living room landing, which sits above the very custom — and instructive — front-entrance atrium. “I use their atrium as an example now whenever I talk to new clients,” Soneff explains. “There are always the standard questions, like ‘How many bedrooms do you want? Do you have a dog?’ But then I say, ‘What do you want to do more of in your life? What are your hobbies? And how can we make it easier for you to do that every single day?’ So obviously, for [Roettger], it was: Let’s make it so that he can kill plants!”
“It’s cold out, and they’re dormant,” Roettger retorts. But Soneff’s point remains that in a custom build, “each square foot does something” — which in this home means no hallways. The closest thing to an empty walkway is the space between Roettger’s main-floor bedroom and the interior kitchen wall, which only exists on Roettger’s request because “I cook a lot and we have people over often, and I don’t like the mess being where everyone is enjoying themselves.”
Carr’s bedroom is upstairs, above the split-level landing, steps away from the cozy TV room (it heats up quick with the sliding door closed), open-air office, and without a hallway in sight. The basement has no hallways either (stairs don’t count) and is really another series of well-thought-out, separate spaces: a projection TV room, spare bedroom, cold storage, a workout room and the craft shop, which is lit by oversized windows with plant-filled sills, and whose ownership is not currently up for debate.
“It’s mostly [Roettger’s],” Carr concedes. “I do design and build stuff for work, so when I get home I’m like, ugh, I just wanna play video games. So it’s mostly his quilting studio for now, but we’ll see what the next hobby is.”
“Printmaking, eventually,” Roettger offers.
And that’s the beauty of working with a custom builder: making space to do what you want, whatever that ends up being. You can make a spec-for-sale home your own, once you’re in it. But customizing the bones and body of a house exactly how you want takes it from something personal to something intimate, like your own lived-in piece of art.
“I approached the house the same way I approach my tattoos,” Carr says. “I’ve learned now, from my tattoo experience, that when I find a design style I like, I don’t go to a tattoo artist and say, ‘Do this design style,’ because you’re not gonna get quite what you want. What you’ve got to do is find a tattoo artist who already does this style, and go to that artist.”
This article appears in the May 2024 issue of Edify
