#An entrepreneur created a tropical paradise in Quebec

#An entrepreneur created a tropical paradise in Quebec

Denis Dumas built his dream vacation home to recall hot days and nights by the beach (Photography courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty Québec) Montreal entrepreneur Denis Dumas doesn’t tackle projects half-heartedly. He spent 18 years transforming a 2,800-square-foot, California-style house with 360-degree views into a mini beach resort. He calls it “Cuba in Quebec”: a…

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#The Move: A former Toronto renter becomes a first-time homeowner—in St. John’s

#The Move: A former Toronto renter becomes a first-time homeowner—in St. John’s

Hayley Shaughnessy standing in front of her “very Newfoundland-y” clapboard home St. John’s. (Photography by Johnny C. Y. Lam) The buyer: Hayley Shaughnessy, a 32-year-old communications consultant The budget: $325,000 The backstory: In October of 2019, the Toronto-based public relations agency where Shaughnessy was working decided to hold its next company retreat in St. John’s,…

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#This Muskoka home used to be a rustic barn

#This Muskoka home used to be a rustic barn

“I basically wake up and I pinch myself every day.” (Photography courtesy of Homes in Focus) Just off of Ontario’s Highway 11 sits the home of former lumber worker Tom Owens and Subzero Wolf area territory manager Michelle Stevens—a barn restored into a modern house. In one version of the story that Owens and Stevens…

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#This Nova Scotia co-housing community is creating connections—and more affordable homes

#This Nova Scotia co-housing community is creating connections—and more affordable homes

“I’m proud of what we’ve built—for a group of amateurs, it’s quite an accomplishment” Cate de Vreede and her family. (Photography by Meghan Tansey Whitton.) For more than a decade, Cate de Vreede dreamed of living in a co-housing community—a village where residents have private homes but share common areas and amenities. De Vreede, an environmental and…

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#Inside Manoir Blackswan, an extravagant modern-day palace in Montreal’s suburbs 

#Inside Manoir Blackswan, an extravagant modern-day palace in Montreal’s suburbs 

Owned by an antiques dealer, this mansion is part-residence and part-showroom On the outskirts of Montreal, there’s an imposing 6,500-square-foot Georgian mansion in Châteauguay, Quebec. It looks like something out of the Gilded Age, with an ornate hand-carved entrance and turn-of-the-century copper sconces. In fact, the house was built just last year.  Its owner, antique…

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