We all like to imagine how we would design our dream home. Whether we're flipping through this magazine or clicking through online real estate listings, we find design inspiration and let our minds wander through idealized homes we may never own. Since finding your dream home is a difficult task, it is better to have someone else build it for you.
“This house started as a project for another couple,” he says Sean LeeAssociate, lead architect for Shugarman Architecture, which had this Crestwood home nearly completed when a career opportunity too good to pass up brought previous clients to Vancouver.
“It actually went through full development approval, so all the architectural design work was pretty much complete,” says Lee, adding that the company had never had to change clients so late in the project, so there was a brief moment of concern.
“The interior was about 75 percent complete, the exterior was about 90 percent complete,” he says. “And in our home, the customer really controls everything for us – but suddenly the customer is no longer there. At first you’re a little daunted by the family, but then you realize other people will love it and make it their own.”
The couple who made it their own is The invoice And Ivana Karamouzis. They grew up in Edmonton, met 10 years ago, married, and moved to Los Angeles after Bill's success in tech (chances are you played one of his addictive games on your phone). But they've always been Edmontonians at heart, and when they heard through a family contact that the previous couple wanted to sell, they saw their chance.
“We finally discovered a base in Edmonton,” says Ivana. “Since we are here often with the children and both grew up here, we just wanted our children to have the same connections we have with our families and friends. That's why we thought this was the best opportunity to get something we really like. And they did a phenomenal job.”
As lead architect, Lee's task was to distribute nearly 5,000 square feet across a main floor and a smaller second floor for bedrooms. The challenge, he says, was that “if you have a very large box and you want to bring light into it, you have to find creative ways to do that, other than just having big windows all around, because the light only comes in so far.” . We built a huge skylight above the kitchen island, which I think is the highlight of the entire house.”