this house on quesnel drive is nicely hidden from the street with heavy landscaping and tall hedges, which ensure great privacy. the views from the north-east side of the house are nice, just like on my last post. nnfortunately since the lot is oriented that same way, it may have similar solar gain issues as discussed previously, though i think this is a more modest and clever solution to the issue by not over-glazing the north side of the house.

i like the way they brought the exterior ledgestone details into the house, thereby connecting the outside with the inside and vise-versa.

check out the realtors listing here.

here are also a few elements of design worth noting:

1. the way they bring in the light on the main floor. a very clever way of getting indirect light along the edges of the house by using either skylights or clerestory windows. it looks like in this case they used clerestory windows which are located just above the ceiling line of the main floor. this creates a nice effect of soft light washing over the walls. also means that there is sufficient natural light during the day in most of the space. one great thing about this is that you have more wall space and you don’t have a direct view into neighbour’s side yard or side of house which is mostly unpleasing to look at.

2. roof deck and flat roof. if you have taken a look at the floor plan you will notice a bit odd shape for the roof deck. what the designer did is provide lots of light into the upper flor once again, using clerestory windows and wrapped the roof deck around the clerestory window wall areas. Sure it creates a smaller roof deck, but the benefit of natural indirect light into the main bedroom and bathroom greatly outweighs the benefit of a larger roof deck to me. the roof deck will probably only be used during the summer anyway, while getting as much natural light all year long is way more important.

3. great floorplan. this floor plan just works great. on the main floor, there is really only the space one family needs that that functions as a multiple of spaces all open to each other. the dining, kitchen and living room are in the back of the house and a den in the front by the entry makes total sense, in that the most private functions of the house are farthest away from the street. the living room is sunken by 2 steps to allow for a greater ceiling height which is a very nice feature.

also the partition wall between the living space and the kitchen is not just an ordinary blank wall but with the use of some clever mill work, is turned into a bookcase. nice thing is that the stairs are not along an outside wall where one would like to have more windows. on the upstairs plan, maybe 2 bedrooms in this price range might turn some buyers away, but I think the basement makes up for it. the master bedroom looks very generous with a great size ensuite bathroom. i would be interested in maybe having the ensuite bathroom more open to the bedroom, but the argument could be that during the night if someone goes to the bathroom and turns the lights on, it may wake the other person sleeping the master bedroom. the laundry on the top floor is also very convenient, not needing to travel up/down flights of stairs with clothes.

also for the sake of easy venting to outside (if needed), is better. on the bottom floor is one large rec room. unfortunately it doesn’t seem like this could be easily converted to a basement suite, but I don’t think that was the intention. this is where the kids can have their noisy video games, and parties. the basement features a walkout deck with stairs to the backyard.

yes, this site has some major slope to it which may also deter older buyers as there are stairs to conquer at all times of the day, but its good for keeping us all fit.

4. lowered deck for better view. the deck at the living room is lowered by 2 steps which make the railing lower at the edge of the outside deck. this is a smart thing the designer did, that now when sitting inside you are not looking so much at the deck and the glass guards but rather to the view beyond. brilliant!