Capital Home Fall 2016

FALL 2016

CapitalHOME HOW VICTORIA LIVES

THE

Before PLUS:

TRAVEL: - Come along

to New Orleans

Afters FOOD: - B.C.'s Bounty

of Fantastic Fruit

EDITION ART: - Audain Museum's

B.C. Masterpieces

FORTY AND FABULOUS

SCANDESIGNS.COM COQUITLAM 1400 United Blvd 604.524.3444 2 | Capital HOME

LANGLEY 20429 Langley By-Pass 604.530.8248

RICHMOND 12551 Bridgeport Rd 604.273.2971

KELOWNA 1850 pring eld Rd 250.860.7603

NANAIMO 1711 Bowen Rd 250.753.6361

VICTORIA 661 McCallum Rd Millstream Village 250.475.2233

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4 | Capital HOME

2269 DOUGLAS STREET | VICTORIA, BC 4890 RUTHERFORD ROAD | NANAIMO, BC JORDANS.CA

Capital HOME | 5

6 | Capital HOME

{ In this issue }

10 p.

RANCHER REMAKE

92.

Fabulous Fruit Dishes Eric Akis turns apples and pears into delicious desserts

64. B.C Treasures View the works of Emily Carr and First Nations at the Audain Art Museum

20. Fall Trends 23. Hot Celebrity Homes

26 p.

76. Take a trip to New Orleans and celebrate the food, music, and resilient people

WONDER ON WARK

54 p.

40 p.

A NEW LIFE

ALL IN THE FAMILY

On the cover: Persistence pays off in a magniďŹ cent makeover of a Victoria home more than 100 years old.

Photo by Debra Brash p. 26 Capital HOME | 7

CHANGE IS GOOD

Quick show of hands.

Who’s had a perfect renovation project — done on time, with little inconvenience and under budget?

Thought so.

No matter how big or small, ripping apart a room or house has its challenges. Getting to the “vision” of your new space is a bumpy road of permits, revolving work crews, unforeseen hassles and, of course, bundles of money.

But when the last of the sawdust is swept away, the artworks are hung and your first group of friends and family meet to break bread in your new dining room, it’s sublime.

Renos bring fresh perspective to our lives.

That’s good for the soul — and the local economy.

In our Renovation Edition of Capital Home, we’re featuring four major makeovers in Greater Victoria.

All were fraught with challenges, including our feature spread on the Wark Street home of Daphne Goode and Mike Winstone, who stubbornly brought what most would have considered a lost cause into a beautiful new light.

The 1911 house was a 14-year, back-breaker project, but the finished product is a study in perseverance and a lesson on the preservation of the city’s heritage line of housing.

We’re also telling the story of a Saanich family who bought a house with a built-in racquetball court. So, what do you with a six-metre-high, 10-metre-long shell inside your house? Well, you

8 | Capital HOME

roll up your sleeves and get creative.

The same goes for architect JC Scott. Known for his eco designs and philosophies of living spaces, JC also managed to bring out the very best in a century-old cottage on the Saanich Peninsula, where writer Grania Litwin so eloquently pens “quality original materials and old-world craftsmanship had long been left to slumber.”

Travel writer Kim Westad takes us on a tour of the biggest reno of them all — New Orleans, that wonderful, vibrant city that rebuilt itself from one of the world’s greatest disasters — Hurricane Katrina. It’s a whirlwind celebration of music, food, history and human triumph in the face of daunting challenges.

We are also pleased to introduce our region to a provincial, national and world treasure in Whistler, where philanthropists Michael Audain and Yoshiko Karasawa have opened their incredible collections of British Columbia and First Peoples masterpieces to the public in the stunning Audain Art Museum.

The museum has one of the greatest collections of Emily Carr and historical First Nations pieces in the world. And it’s open for all to see and enjoy in a stunning building and natural setting.

Capital Home wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the kitchen with Erik Akis. This time, he’s featuring desserts made from the bounty of fall fruit in B.C. So, cozy up and enjoy the autumn with this edition of Capital Home. CH

CapitalHOME DAVID WHITMAN / DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING JASON SCRIVEN / PABLO MIRANDA SALES MANAGERS WENDY KALO / OPERATIONS MANAGER GORDON FALLER / GRAPHIC DESIGN DARRON KLOSTER / EDITOR DAVE OBEE / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Capital Home is published by the Times Colonist, a division of TC Publication Limited Partnership, at 2621 Douglas St., Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8T 4M2.

Canadian Publications Registration No. 0530646. GST No. 84505 1507 RT0001 Please send comments about Capital to: Editor-in-chief Dave Obee dobee@timescolonist.com To advertise, phone: 250-380-5328, or email Sales Manager Jason Scriven at: jscriven@timescolonist.com.

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RANCHER REMAKE

CHEERS! INTERIOR DESIGNER JENNIFER PACHECO, HOME OWNER BARBARA CURTIS AND PROJECT MANAGER DERRICK NEWMAN RAISE SOME GLASSES OF WINE TO CELEBRATE A JOB WELL DONE FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION OF THE SAANICH HOME RENOVATION.

10 | Capital HOME

Clean Contemporary STYLISH RENO ON 1980s INTERURBAN HOME IS ALL ABOUT MODERN ONE-LEVEL LIVING GRANIA LITWIN IMAGES BY TONY PUERZA, BRIGHT IDEAS PHOTOGRAPHY

Capital HOME | 11

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RANCHER REMAKE

C

risp blue and white interiors were the finishing touch on this all-encompassing renovation, which delighted the owner because she has ample space to cook and can now host a large family thanksgiving dinner.

The facelift, by MAC Renovations, also transformed the 1980s rancher into an easy care contemporary home, complete with a light-filled sunroom at the back and new deck overlooking the adjacent meadow — with vaulted ceiling spanning both. >

WHEN ORIGINALLY BUILT IN THE 1980s IT WAS STATE-OF-THE-ART STRUCTURE, WITH ENERGY PERFORMANCE AND ECO FRIENDLY CONSTRUCTION IN MIND, SAID MAC RENOVATIONS’ PROJECT MANAGER DERRICK NEWMAN (WHO HAS RECENTLY BEEN HIRED AS A SENIOR PROJECT PLANNER FOR THE CITY OF VICTORIA)

WHITE CEILINGS, SKYLIGHTS, WALLS AND HEATED WHITE TILE FLOORS ADD VISUAL VOLUME TO THE KITCHEN WHERE THE OWNER’S PENCHANT FOR BLUE IS SEEN IN THE ISLAND BASE.

BY TAKING DOWN SEVERAL INTERIOR WALLS AND ADDING SKYLIGHTS MAC RENOVATIONS TURNED THIS DATED RANCHER INTO A COOL, OPEN, CONTEMPORARY SPACE.

Capital HOME | 13

RANCHER REMAKE

INTERIOR DESIGNER JENNIFER PACHECO SAID THE OWNER WANTED A PROFESSIONAL-STYLE KITCHEN AND ACHIEVED THIS WITH A FARMHOUSE SINK, WHITE SHAKER CABINETS, STAINLESS APPLIANCES AND LOTS OF COUNTER SPACE, ALL ARRANGED IN A CLASSICALLY EFFECTIVE WORK TRIANGLE.

“The backyard borders on an estuary and we wanted to maximize that, to exploit the natural light at the rear of the house and the airiness of the yard,” said MAC project manager Derrick Newman, who added the owner was a dream client because she had a strong, clear vision.

The home has a large basement for storage, but this 1,200-square- foot rancher is all about stylish, one-level living. “That’s a key thing as more and more boomers retire,” said Newman. “People are really starting to think about that especially when investing lots of money. They want things like walk-in showers large enough that down the road they can accommodate a bench.”

The house had many eco-conscious features to begin with — such as a heat recovery ventilator and thermal windows

14 | Capital HOME

— even though it was more than three decades old.

That’s because it had been built as an R-2000 home, a voluntary standard that exceeded the building code of the day in terms of energy efficiency, environmental responsibility and indoor air quality. Construction was a joint pilot project involving Camosun College’s Engineering Department and carpentry program students. “I’m a carpenter by trade myself, so it was really cool to work on,” said Newman. “Building science and the R-2000 program was in its infancy back then, just starting to be applied to the residential market as a whole, so this house was way ahead of its time.

“And that meant we had a building where we could leverage the existing systems and update them very

A GAS FIREPLACE IN THE MASTER BEDROOM HELPS KEEP THINGS COZY.

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RANCHER REMAKE FLOATING SHELVES NEXT TO THE FIREPLACE ARE UNDER LIT FOR AN AIRY LOOK.

THE TELEVISION IS SET INTO THE WALL ABOVE THE FIREPLACE, IN A NAVY BLUE WALL.

effectively. It was not a stretch to get it to a real premium standard.â&#x20AC;?

MAC Renovations gutted the entire building, removed some interior walls to open the space up and added a kitchen to delight any chef. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We put in a really well-functioning kitchen with white shaker cabinet doors and other classic elements. Basically we designed the house from the kitchen outward.â&#x20AC;?

The home has many attractive features thanks to MACâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in-house designer, Jennifer Pacheco: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We like to say, if I can make it stand up, she can make it stand out,â&#x20AC;? Newman said with a grin.

The home has been nominated as a ďŹ nalist in two categories in the 2016 CARE awards: best traditional kitchen (251-300 square feet) and best full house renovation or restoration ($275,000-$499,000).

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RANCHER REMAKE A NEW SUNROOM AND DECK SHARE A VAULTED CEILING. “IT’S ONE OF MAC’S TRADEMARKS TO COVER THE DECK, BECAUSE WE LIVE IN A RAINFOREST AND THIS INCREASES THE EXTERIOR ASSET, ALLOWING HOMEOWNERS TO ENJOY THE SHOULDER SEASONS, AND STRETCH OUTDOOR LIVING TO MID-OCTOBER WITH A PATIO HEATER,” SAID NEWMAN.

LOCATED ADJACENT TO A MEADOW IN THE INTERURBAN AREA THIS HOME WAS ORIGINALLY BUILT AS A PILOT PROJECT, A MODEL HOME FOR R-2000 ENERGY TECHNOLOGY. IT INVOLVED STUDENTS FROM THE CAMOSUN COLLEGE CARPENTRY PROGRAM AS WELL AS ITS ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT.

18 | Capital HOME

Capital HOME | 19

GLOBAL INFLUENCES, TEXTURES Cuddle up with this Moroccan wedding blanket woven of sheep’s wool and cotton, embellished with lilim bands, plush fringe and metallic sequins. The rich textural mix and global influence represent two of this fall’s strongest decor trends.

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METALLIC ACCENTS The Pietro chair combines luxurious upholstered curves with a set of sexy metallic legs. A more modern take on midcentury styling, a curvier silhouette and metallic accents are just some of the big trends for fall.

What's COOL for Fall

DEEP, RICH BLUES

An elegantly upholstered navy blue sofa, blue textured wall and aqua throw bring coziness home for the cooler months Deep, rich blues are trending across all the decor categories this fall.

Indigo and batik come together on a pretty plate collection.

RECLAIMED WOOD Wood walls are a strong decor trend for fall as shown in this nursery renovation. A far cry from the dowdy paneling of decades past, reclaimed wood is sawn into thin planks that can be attached to walls using adhesive. Weathered ďŹ nishes as well as richly-toned smooth ďŹ nishes are available, expanding the design options. >

Capital HOME | 21

TRE RE

4

simple decor updates that can transform any room SACHA STREBE

A

re you ready for a room refresh, but have more dash than cash? You’re not alone. Our wallets are often less enthusiastic about our aesthetic needs and desires than our hearts, but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo it altogether. Sometimes all you need is a micro makeover. After all, a few simple updates and minor tweaks are all it takes to transform your space from meh to magnificent. And it doesn’t need to break the bank.

LIVING ROOM If you’re looking for a low-cost upgrade with high impact, add a bar. “There are tons of bar carts out there, new and vintage, or just use the top of a sideboard and some cool trays,” designer Max Humphrey says. “They’re fun to style with vintage glassware, monogrammed napkins, and colorful bottles; your friends will love it too.”

Humphrey says moving your furniture away from the wall will really give it that transformative effect on a dime. “You can get that designer look and create an intimate conversation space by floating everything off the wall,” he said. “Even just a few inches.”

If you really want to define the space, Humphrey recommends buying an area rug that’s big enough to fit all the furniture on.

You’ll be amazed how this simple move makes a massive difference.

DINING ROOM The dining room is the jewel of the home. It’s where we feast every night, entertain our friends and families, and catch up on the day’s events. It’s for this reason that the room needs to be special. The quickest, most cost-effective way is to change out the overhead lighting. You can find a cool new or vintage pendant or chandelier at great prices, and it’s not hard to swap them out.

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While re-tiling is on the long-term agenda, we have a couple of thrifty solutions to ramp up that style dial fast. Buy yourself some cool embroidered hand towels,” says Humphrey. “Don’t let your guests dry their hands on the soggy bath towels hanging over the shower curtain rod. Need an update and a little more space? You can have both with the installation of a decorative mirror.

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Sleep is vital to our survival and our sanity, so the humble bedroom needs that comfort factor, with a dash of chic for the sweetest of dreams. If yours is looking a little nightmarish, a quick bedding upgrade is all it takes to ditch those bad vibes and introduce new textures and color. CH

HOT PROPERTIES SNEAK A PEEK INTO THE HOMES OF CELEBRITIES WHO RECENTLY PUT THEIR PADS ON THE MARKET Genre-bending musician Kid Rock has changed his tune in Malibu, relisting his B Balinese-inspired compound ffor $10.995 million US. A price change isn’t the only thing that’s new. The 1.5-acre property, tucked within privacy hedges and gates on a cul-de-sac, and its 8,300-square-foot home have been freshened up this time around. Updated interiors feature hand-carved doors and ornate woodwork, modern fixtures and skylights.

The five-bedroom, five-bathroom main house features a black-and-white mosaic foyer that opens to a formal living room and an adjacent dining room and openplan kitchen. A two-sided fireplace divides the common areas; sets of French doors bring the lush grounds inside. Rock bought the property in 2006 for $11.6 million US. (Michael Gardner photo)

10.995m

$

$

15.9m

$

2.05m

Actor Paul Wesley of the Vampire Diaries bought the house a year ago from Counting Crows musician Charlie Gillingham for $2.05 million US. Custom drapes and an in-wall home theater are among updates made to the home during his ownership. (Lee Manning photo)

French singer and composer Sebastien Izambard of the pop-opera quartet Il Divo has a home in Malibu on the market for $15.9 million US. Sitting on four-plus acres above Zuma Beach, the estate centers on a five-bedroom main house that offers a contemporary play on the farmhouse style. The whitewashed home, built in 1979 and restored during Izambard’s ownership, features dramatic cathedral ceilings, light French oak floors and meticulously placed skylights for a light and airy feel. Izambard stands to make a tidy profit on the property.

Records show he bought the house in 2011 for $4 million US — about a quarter of his current asking price. (Simon Berlyn photo)

> Capital HOME | 23

HOT PROPERTIES $

4.83m

$

Pop Rock singer Adam Levine, leader of Maroon 5 and coach on The Voice, bought this home in T Beverly Crest four years ago for $4.83 million US and commissioned Los Angelesbased designer Mark Haddawy to renovate the layout. Reached by a long gated drive, the single-story home has a midcentury vibe with walls of glass, beamed ceilings and open living spaces. (Lee Manning photo)

$

6.5m

Actors John Krasinski and Emily Blunt sold their renovated and expanded home in LLos Angelesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Hollywood Hills West, to model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner, for $6.5 million US. The property, on more than a third of an acre, features a rooftop patio, a swimming pool and an oversized master suite. (Michael Izquierdo photo)

8.9m

Tennis great Pete Sampras and wife Bridgette Wilson-Sampras are asking $8.9 million US for their updated and expanded home in Los Angelesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Brentwood neighborhood.

A Sampras bought the house new in 2009 and added a swimming pool and an outdoor pavilion to the grounds. Tall redwoods and mature landscaping encircle grounds of about an acre. (Jeff Elson photo) CH

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14 YEARS IN THE MAKING, A 1911 HOUSE IN VICTORIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NORTH END RECEIVES EXTRA DOSES OF HARD WORK, PURE SKILL AND TOUGH LOVE. THE END RESULT IS A...

Heritage Home

Adventure

BY GRANIA LITWIN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEBRA BRASH THIS 1911 HOME WAS SENSITIVELY AND IMPECCABLY RESTORED BY MIKE WINSTONE AND DAPHNE GOODE. IT STANDS IN A BLOCK OF FINE HOUSES AT THE NORTH END OF TOWN, WITH LARGE TREES AND BOULEVARDS, BUT SURROUNDED BY INDUSTRIAL LAND. EXTERIOR HERITAGE COLOURS ARE AUTHENTIC AND THE $40,000 PAINT JOB BY DOUBLE A PAINTING TOOK ONE MONTH.

26 | Capital HOME

M

ike Winstone has a taste for adventure.

He cycled around the world in his 20s, is a keen mountaineer (despite the fact his father was killed in a climbing accident when Winstone was four) and enjoys snow camping at Strathcona and hiking in the Himalaya.

But one of his greatest adventures has been a 14-year project to restore a 1911 home in an original Victoria neighbourhood with his wife, Shaw Television’s Daphne Goode. It’s been a “thrill” for her, too. Nothing like living through a lengthy reno, clambering under ladders, between cans of paint and over stacks of drywall and lumber, while trying to get ready for a big event or interview. Goode, who emcees scores of charity and other galas, has been known to leave the dust and chaos of her home, stuff gown and stilettos into a duffle bag and change in the Empress Hotel ladies room before stepping on stage. >30 Capital HOME | 27

THE HOME (LEFT) IN BLIZZARD OF 1916

DAPHNE GOODE LOVES THE NEW BUILT-IN SIDEBOARD DESIGNED

BY HERITAGE CONSULTANT STUART STARK.

28 | Capital HOME

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Capital HOME | 29

LOOKING INTO THE DINING ROOM, OVER THE WHITE SUBWAY TILES OF THE KITCHEN COUNTER, WINSTONE CREATED AN ENFILADE EFFECT OF SEVERAL ROOMS LINING UP WITH EACH OTHER THROUGH FRAMED OPENINGS. A COMMON FEATURE IN GRAND CONTINENTAL ARCHITECTURE, IN THIS CASE THE KITCHEN ARCH FRAMES THE DINING ROOM OPENING AND LIVING ROOM WINDOW.

“It’s been a busy decade, but Mike is amazing and fastidious,” she said with characteristic enthusiasm. “The amount of work he has done and his attention to detail is incredible. And I have been so impressed with the trades, the craftsmen.

Everything was done to perfection … no wonder these specialists are in such high demand.”

The project began in 2002 with the purchase of an old rooming house next door to a home Winstone already had. Abandoned by renters in the 1980s, the deteriorating grand dame was owned by an aged Chinese woman. It was shockingly rundown. The gas had been turned off, the roof leaked and the drain tile had failed, but Winstone got the furnace working, the house dried out and sealed. “I also filled a 30-yard dumpster with stuff from the main floor and basement.”

Black mould was everywhere, mostly in the wallpaper, but they steamed it off and exposed the plaster while wearing micro-calibre respirators,

then he treated all the walls with bleach before sanding, sealing, skim coating and painting.

Soon after purchasing the home, they learned it was a legal triplex, so all the upgrades were done to code for multi-family and over the years he soundproofed the home between ceilings, floors and walls; refinished all the floors; installed a complete suite of heritage reproduction fixtures from Mclaren Lighting and personally rebuilt all the wooden sash windows, hanging new cords, sealing them and putting wood frame storms overtop, coated with solar film.

Phase two began with architectural drawings by Nick Bawlf, which included plans to raise the house and create two basement suites. “It was probably the last thing Nick did before he died,” said Winstone, who explained the architect designed a new internal staircase and they memorialized him with a plaque there.

Nickel Bros. lifted the house less than a metre

THE FRONT HALLWAY OFFERS GLIMPSES THROUGH THE DINING ROOM INTO THE NEWLY DESIGNED KITCHEN. ALL THE FLOORS ARE ORIGINAL AND TOPPED WITH A VARIETY OF PERSIAN CARPETS, INCLUDING TWO FROM THE COUPLE’S RECENT TRIP TO NEPAL.

30 | Capital HOME

but it made a towering difference, and the owners managed to live there for the 30 days it was up in the air. Services such as water, sewer, gas and electricity were only shut off for the day of the lift and while high on dunnage they were impressed to see the “phenomenal” original timbers – eight-metre-long, knot-free 2x10 floor joists spanning the width of the house and a single 12-metre beam running from front to back, “all aged like iron.”

Winstone removed the entire main floor’s lath and plaster ceiling to install firebreaks, acoustic insulation, wiring and plumbing — “a monster job” — and demolished two chimneys. “Another very big, very messy job.” He also put all the gas, water heaters, electrical panel systems and meters for the multi-family home into a single mechanical room: “That’s a big advantage for servicing and it also impressed the plumbing inspector who walked in and said: Wow.”

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Capital HOME | 31

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HERITAGE CONSULTANT STUART STARK FOUND THE PERFECT DINING ROOM WALLPAPER, A SOFT LEAF-GREEN PATTERN REMINISCENT OF THE FINE ART FABRICS OF A CENTURY AGO. THIS COPY OF AN HISTORIC STENCIL PAPER FROM 1908 CAME FROM CHARLES RUPERT DESIGNS. ABOVE THE WALLPAPER IS A PALE SHADE OF GREEN AND ABOVE THAT, A CREAMY GOLD THAT ECHOES THE LIVING ROOM’S MUCH BRIGHTER YELLOW. “THE DINING ROOM APPEARS THREE TIMES LARGER WITH THIS COLOUR SCHEME RATHER THAN THE PINKY-PURPLE COLOUR OF BEFORE,” SAID STARK. THE NEW KITCHEN, ONCE A BUTLER’S PANTRY, MAY BE SMALL BUT IS DOWNTON ABBEY STYLISH. STUART STARK DESIGNED CABINETS TO THE CEILING, AN OFF-CENTRE SINK TO NOT BLOCK THE WINDOW AND FOUND AN EXTRA TALL BUT SHALLOW GERMAN-MADE FRIDGE THAT’S FLUSH WITH THE COUNTERTOP EDGE. AN ANGLED ENTRY ALLOWS CABINET AND FRIDGE DOOR TO SWING FREE

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32 | Capital HOME

ROBERT AMOS PAINTINGS, TRAVEL CURIOS AND BOOKS ARE EVERYWHERE IN THIS ECLECTIC HOUSE. “WE BUY ART FOR ART PURPOSES, NOT FOR DÉCOR,” GOODE SAID WITH A CHUCKLE.

Dave Baillie and Rod Fricker of HomeRite Construction, who have 70 years of experience between them, did a brilliant job through all the years of hard labour: “Those two do quality work. They can figure out how to make things better on the fly and the peculiarities of an old house don’t bother them,” said the impressed and grateful Winstone.

The final critical phase saw creation of the kitchen and staircase. The owners knew there of no better way to highlight the aesthetics of such a classic home than by creating a stunning staircase (see sidebar) and classy kitchen. “We’d already invested about $300,000 and the final phase cost another $100,000, but we weren’t going to cheap out at the end,” said Winstone. “Why would anyone do that?”

They had previously turned the home’s former kitchen into an office and now wanted to convert the butler’s pantry into a compact kitchen, so they turned to heritage consultant Stuart Stark. Winstone cut an arch between kitchen and dining room to improve sight lines and light, but it was still exceedingly tight.

“We maximized storage with cupboards to the ceiling,” said Stark, and installed white subway tiles and white quartz countertops, with grooves by the sink for a built-in drain board. “We wanted it brighter, with no clutter, because it was important to capture as much visual space as possible.”

Cupboards were custom crafted by Michael Kjernisted, who also built the sleek arts-and-crafts-style sideboard Stark designed for the bottom of the arch, and the new plate rail in the dining room. All the wood was finished in a clever blend of high gloss and satin, “to look as if it had originally been shiny, but had aged. Subtle things like that really give the finishing touch,” said Stark.

Winstone custom designed the extraction fan ductwork to go through dead space in a cabinet and affixed the fan on rubber mounts to reduce noise: “A trick I learned while working on submarines.” Like much of the work he did himself, it was completed on the fly while home on leave. A millwright and power engineer, Winstone is constantly in demand, working in the potash and uranium industry in Saskatchewan, shipyards in Victoria, pulp and sawmills on the Island, a railway in Squamish, aluminum industry in Kitimat and currently a hydro turbine at the head of Toba Inlet in the Coast Range.

Capital HOME | 33

DAPHNE GOODE HAS LONG COLLECTED ORIGINAL ART, BOTH CONTEMPORARY AND HISTORIC. ON THE CHAIR IS ONE OF SEVERAL CUSHIONS MADE WITH RECYCLED FABRIC FROM THE DINING CHAIRS WHEN THEY WERE RECOVERED. STARK SPOTTED THE REPRODUCTION WILLIAM MORRIS PRINT FROM 1897. “THIS IS THE GENIUS OF STUART,” SAID WINSTONE.

Goode is thrilled with the results and tickled by the many artifacts they found “such as a Star Weekly from the 1950s in the walls, receipts for coal delivery in the old basement, which was like a dungeon.

“It’s been a labour of love, but we believe in heritage conservation,” said the community relations and access co-ordinator for Shaw, who also hosts Go!Island in Cowichan.

Now that the reno is almost finished, and she doesn’t have to live downstairs anymore, or have a chimney torn apart in her bedroom creating clouds of dust, she is finally hanging 32 pieces of original art she collected over the years, including her first find: a Colin Graham painting bought from Art Rental when she was on the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria board.

Her eclectic taste includes mementoes from their travels, heirlooms, traditional and contemporary art by the likes of Andy Wooldridge, Robert Amos, Fenwick Lansdowne and Phyllis Serota. A trustee on the Maritime Museum board, she also collects nostalgic nautical paintings and photos of ships, now hanging in the Bawlf staircase.

This restoration project is a gift to the neighbourhood, said Stark flatly. “The owners respected the architectural heritage of the house while turning it into a viable commercial prospect, and they went about it the right way with appropriate consultants, starting with Nick Bawlf and Double A Painting,” whose employees take great care stripping old paint so all the edges are crisp again.

“This area is going through a renaissance,” said the driven Winstone. “Our experience shows you can do a sensitive conversion, to modern codes and without sacrificing aesthetics. And it’s been so satisfying. It’s good for the person, for the property and for the city,” said the man whose next goal is to cycle around Iceland this summer.

“Life is an adventure, so let’s get on with it.”

34 | Capital HOME

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Capital HOME | 35

WINSTONE FOUND THE CLASSIC ARTS-AND-CRAFTS, MISSION-STYLE DINING SUITE, CHAIRS, SIDEBOARD AND MORE ON CRAIGSLIST FOR A FRACTION OF THE ORIGINAL PRICE. THE TABLE SEATS 10

36 | Capital HOME

FROM TOP: PRE RENO FACADE CUT OUT FOR INTERNAL STAIRS | WITH ROD FRICKER. DAVE BAILLIE WITH FOUND BOARD - SIGNED, DAVE WALLACE,SEPT., 1911 -ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BUILDERS SHINGLE PAINTING LAYING RADIANT HEAT PIPING IN BASEMENT. VERY AIRY BASEMENT!

Capital Cap C Capi Ca ap a pi pital tal ta a HO HOME H OM ME E | 37 37

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TEMPORARY STAIRS

WARK encore

Stellar

Staircase Architect Nick Bawlf designed the

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Don Barr

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Sharon Bolton

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authentic-look staircase and the owners mounted a plaque there in his memory. Materials came from the Finishing Store and the project was a five-man effort.

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Colleen Flynn

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The stairs were roughed in by Dave Baillie and Rod Fricker of HomeRite Construction; Mark Hill installed treads, risers and baseboards fellow Finishing Store colleague Serge Plasvic, “woodworker

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Rod Kurtz

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250-882-9981

Anne Lord

Margaret Melling

extraordinaire” and luthier in his spare time, created handrails, newel posts and spindles modelled on those of Winstone’s house next door.

Staining, sanding and trop coating was done by the owner according to

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Stuart Stark’s direction, using a base stain of ebony topped with two coats of urethane, mixed 50/50 with gloss and semi-gloss in a red fir tint to mimic the homes existing wood tones.

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“It took a very, very long time,”

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said Winstone, who explained the previous basement access was via a very short, very steep set of stairs through a small door in what is now a bedroom closet.

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The nautical artworks lining the stairwell were collected by Daphne Goode, who is a keen supporter of local talent and a trustee of the Maritime Museum. CH

Capital HOME | 39

THE COTTAGE HAS BEEN LOVINGLY RESTORED AND PRESERVED

BY ITS NEW OWNERS AND JC SCOTT, WHO ADDED A SMALL PATIO AND STEPS IN BUSH-HAMMERED TLUPANA BLUE MARBLE, LOCALLY QUARRIED AND NO-SLIP. PLANTS AND TREES HAD TO BE REMOVED FOR THE RENO, AND WILL BE REPLACED THIS FALL WITH HERITAGE ROSES FROM ELSEWHERE ON THE PROPERTY.

-

C Scott has a degree in architectural history from Queens University, but rarely has he ever had a chance to restore a century-old cottage, especially one that was part of an historic estate in Ardmore.

More typically, today’s owners want to demolish dated bungalows, or renovate and modernize them to the point that they’re virtually unrecognizable.

“So this was a very exciting project,” said Scott, who enjoyed reviving a building where quality original materials and old-world craftsmanship had long been left to slumber. It was also a pleasure because the building is located on a superb, sprawling property that slopes gently down to lowbank waterfront, where the main house was taken down some years ago.

The owners, who asked to remain anonymous, greatly appreciated the building’s provenance and charm, too: “This cottage is rich in history and we tried to preserve that while creating a modern living space,” they said. >42

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40 | Capital HOME

PEENINSUL A HIDEAWAY AS SOLID D BONES, HA STTRONG CHARACTER GRANIA LITWIN PHOTOGRAPHS

BY DEBRA BRASH

GIV V IN NG A WA RM G LO W T O T H E D I N I N G RO O M , THE O RIG GIN NAL WOO D WA LL S W ERE O IL L ED A N D PRESERV ED. THE M O DER N , G L A SS TO PPED TA BLE CO ON T R A S T S W IT TH E CEN TURY- OLD THE SURROUN DIN N GS , A N D D O U BL ES THE V IE W.

Capital HOME | 41

ALL THE ORIGINAL HARDWARE WAS REUSED AND ALMOST ALL THE LIGHTING FIXTURES ARE ORIGINAL. THEY WERE RESTORED AT WATERGLASS STUDIOS, WHICH SPECIALIZES IN HERITAGE LIGHTING AND ANTIQUE RESTORATION AND REPAIR.

Scott was just the man to take on the project. A keen environmentalist, dedicated to the 100-mile design mandate, he never wants to demolish a perfectly good house and always strives to use local materials. “The embedded carbon, the lowered footprint if you like, of a home that already exists and can be renovated rather than replaced, is incredible.

“And these old homes have none of the toxins or volatile organic compounds found in petroleum derivatives, that can harm the human nervous system and lead to sick-home syndrome.

42 | Capital HOME

“Buildings such as this were made before the Canadian petroleum industry took control, before petro chemicals were entrenched into the building code. That industry has managed to insert itself now into everything from carpets and vinyl flooring, to furnishings and baby mattresses.”

He added that except for the serious concern of lead in water pipes, until the latter part of the 20th Century there was virtually no off-gassing of harmful materials in man-made home environments. The human carbon footprint on earth was also manageable then.

“These owners had no desire to disembowel and recreate,” said Scott, and luckily the 1,000-square-foot cottage was in excellent shape for its age, though badly in need of modernization as well as rewiring, re-plumbing and new heating. “We also added new insulation and vapour barrier in the basement, so it is built to code now, from the attic to the crawl space.”

The dining room, living room and bedroom were restored while retaining their original fabric, but the kitchen and bathroom were completely remodelled. Here Scott designed a bold pattern for the new floor that’s made of

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Countertops are honed Vancouver Island white marble that he teamed with grey-tone cabinets for a soft, restful effect and a mid-century modern look.

The view from the sink is bucolic to say the least, as it is from a second, smaller window off to the side, with peek-a-boo glimpses of the ocean. “I always think a lot about sight lines, particularly in small spaces. It comes from having designed artists’ and writers’ studios.”

The designer is also partial to generous counter space and created a galley-style kitchen with two long counters running down each

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DESIGNER JC SCOTT USED SMALL, WHITE SUBWAY TILES AND CREATED TWO LONG COUNTERS IN THE COTTAGE’S LARGE KITCHEN.

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side. Scale needs to be taken into account in a kitchen, which is why he chose small, twoby-four-inch subway tiles behind the taps, for the functional backsplash, but also used it up to the ceiling on the opposite wall, as a design feature, punctuated with shiny, half-moon brass hangers.

“A lot of people use really big tiles, but things in kitchens are not big – think about little butter dishes or a creamers – so the smaller scale works better.” Also, this tile is a dimension that’s traditional, so it harmonizes with the century old interiors.

Talking about proportion, he included several adorable small cabinets and mini drawers here and there in the kitchen, as fun details, and added swoopy curves underneath cabinets to echo the original profiles. The owner-wife told him she likes this kitchen best of all those in her several homes.

Although the kitchen is roomy for a compact cottage, the narrow fridge is smaller than those typically seen in contemporary kitchens, giving the area a less American, more European feeling. The designer also chose a space-efficient combination microwave and convection oven

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for above the cooktop, and an oven with warming drawer below.

The farmhouse sink is stainless steel — “I wanted to avoid cottage cute” — and there are new skylights and new baseboards. The latter are fitted with invisible heaters set into the kick plates: “These Ouellet heaters are a pretty darn great feature — high performance and energy efficient.”

Apart from the kitchen and bathroom, all the floors and ceilings in the cottage are original and have either been refinished or painted. Walls in the tiny dining room were left untouched except for a little oil to restore their aged cognac colour and patina.

Scott did make one major change here: “I really liked the dark wood, but didn’t want quite so much claustrophobia, so I widened the door into the kitchen, removed the wall and door separating it from the living room, and replaced it with a pony wall.

The home’s new windows make a huge difference and are styled to mimic the originals. They are high efficiency glass with wood on the inside, and fibreglass that looks like wood on the outside, to give high performance and durability as well as architectural style.

Another high performance element is the new, and very small, wood-burning insert by Majestic Mechanical, set into the original brick fireplace. “It seems to me that most wood stoves are designed for people who live in Calgary or Whistler, not for people in Victoria. I like small fireplaces because I don’t ever want to bake my clients.”

He concluded, while the cottage had been unoccupied and neglected for many years it was rock solid in its construction, with not even a squeak in any of the floors. “So it really deserv ed this restoration. I have worked on many multimillion dollar projects over the years, but this is one of the nicest properties I’ve ever seen.” CH

Capital HOME | 45

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Capital HOME | 47

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48 | Capital HOME

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The GOLD Awards will be presented on Saturday, October 1st

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Capital HOME | 49

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Capital HOME | 51

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A RENOVATION

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REMOVING AN IN-HOME SQUASH COURT WAS NO EASY TASK, BUT RESULTS PROVIDE A STUNNING VICTORY FOR RURAL SAANICH FAMILY

BY GRANIA LITWIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEBRA BRASH

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t’s not unusual in Victoria to find a home with a tennis court in the backyard, or perhaps a pickle ball court or badminton net strung across the lawn. But this house is a little different: It used to have a squash court built right inside the house.

“We’re not that devoted to squash and didn’t really need a court in our house,” said the new owner, David Bulinckx, with masterful understatement.

“We just scratched our heads when we saw it. I mean, how ridiculous?”

He and his wife Leeanna bought the home in 2014 because they had big ideas for the regulation-size court that measured roughly 10 metres long, 6.5 wide, six metres high and also had an upstairs viewing area and change room.

The space was combined with existing areas on the lower level of the house to become a twostorey home within a home. It includes a huge rec and media room, laundry, utility and storage area on the lower floor (the former bottom of the court), and on the new upper floor above, which adjoins the basement, are two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a master bedroom with large walk-in closet, and a spacious great room featuring kitchen, dining and living areas.

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Capital HOME | 57

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They owners still have three leftover — and very large — bulletproof glass windows that were removed from the viewing area during the renovation.

“It was a huge job, replacing the court’s walls, adding windows, new beams, and ceiling. We completely rebuilt it and the construction made a huge mess of the yard,” said David, who is president of LifePlan Financial Services Group.

Another problem they ran into was discovering the original builder had back-filled two feet above the foundation on the side of the house where the court is, so naturally the wall was rotting. “We had to replace all the foundations of the court and raise them.”

But the three-generation, 6,700square-foot home is perfect now.

David and Leeanna live on the upper two levels, and their daughter, son-in-law and grandson live on the lower two, which opens onto a slate patio with a water garden.

“We often lose each other in the house,” joked David, adding their children’s portion covers about 3,200 square feet.

Capital HOME | 59

They all enjoy the rural two-hectare Saanich property, located high on a hill with fabulous views, which includes a tiny cottage and old character barn they plan to renovate one day.

“We wanted a home where we could be with family and where we could live for a lifetime,” said Leeanna, who noted they never grow tired of their beautiful and secluded environment. “I think we are going to see more and more of this kind of multigenerational living as time goes by,” she said,

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adding in their previous home, their other son and daughter-in-law lived with them.

When Leeanna first looked at this house she was unimpressed. She stepped in the front door and saw a wall encasing a tiny, lower level living room — what used to be called a conversation pit — and her heart sank almost as far as the room. But then she spied the expansive dining room, bay-windowed family room, large kitchen and spectacular panoramas.

“That’s what really drew me in,” said the nurse, who owns PerCuro Clinical Research.

She said one of their first decisions was to remove the living room walls and to add a new kitchen island with a pop-up fan, “which does a fabulous job,” because she and David love to cook together. She also has a passion for making jams and jellies and for baking, so the kitchen is a key area for them both.

During the nine-month renovation, which cost about $500,000, they lived in their previous house and on their boat. In addition to creating a new suite on the lower floor, they replaced all the wiring, all the mechanical systems and

almost all the plumbing, all the wall sconces and other light fixtures, and redid every deck and railing.

They also remodelled the master bathroom, which was “hideous” as it was decorated in four different shades of green — “which all clashed,” he said — and was “overwhelming” beside the jade green faux marble tub and shower. “We kept the Jacuzzi tub and the shower, but toned everything else down,” and replaced all the other plumbing fixtures in the entire house.

Capital HOME | 61

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The couple also rebuilt the chimneys and reinsulated the house, which had been built in 1992. All the walls around the living room came down and were replaced by wooden railings, and all the wood trim on windows, bannisters and doors, as well as the doors themselves, was refinished. “The amount of dust created was incredible,” said David with a grimace, and the biggest job was refinishing all the doors, which were given new life by cabinet-maker and finisher Abel Fuentes.

The owners were prepared for a lot of mess because they had extensively renovated their previous home in Central Saanich. “Funnily enough the reason we did that reno was because we wanted to add a balcony to take advantage of a terrific view of Mount Baker,” said David.

“But the reno grew and grew, and in the end

we just added 18-foot-long windows and no balcony. It was like when you go to the store to get a bottle of milk and end up coming home with $200 worth of groceries and no milk.”

And then, ironically, they found this house with its numerous balconies, on multiple levels and three sides of the home. The only problem was, every single balcony and deck was in such terrible shape they had to be replaced. Some were rebuilt with concrete pavers and others were topped with a high performance, plastic composite called Trex. Guaranteed to last 30 years, it is made of recycled wood, sawdust and plastic.

The owners love the variety of decks because they offer comfortable places to sit no matter what the time of day or prevailing wind. One of their favourites is an all-weather, covered veranda where they sit when it is too hot or two cool elsewhere.

“We can always find a shady place there in the summer, which is necessary because it can get really, really hot on the other side of the house,” said Leeanna, who noted she and David are very much “outdoor people.”

“We like to sit outside all year round here, unless it’s really nasty.”

And when it’s just too cold to spend time in the elements, their home is always warm and cozy inside. The upper two levels are kept warm by a heat pump and the lower levels by a propane furnace. The building also has backup electric and a backup propane generator, “We need that as we get about three power outages every year,” said David. 8=

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GRANIA LITWIN

HOME AGAIN

IMAGES COURTESY PATKAU ARCHITECTS, AUDAIN ART MUSEUM, GADBOIS PHOTOGRAPHY

PHILANTHROPIST MICHAEL AUDAIN REPATRIATES BRITISH COLUMBIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PRICELESS WORKS OF ART IN A STUNNING GALLERY AND SPIRITUAL SETTING 64 | Capital HOME

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histler has long been a Mecca for extreme sports and heart-pumping thrill seekers, offering everything from skiing and ziplining to mountain biking and white-water rafting. And now it is a destination for those craving a cultural high, too, thanks to Vancouver businessman Michael Audain.

The audacious Audain, who is also a passionate art lover, philanthropist and environmentalist, decided if he built an art museum in the mountains they would come.

And he was right. They have been coming in droves from all over North America, Europe and Asia since it opened in March â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even a bus tour from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Visitors are eager to see not only the First Nations and British Columbian masterpieces it contains, but also the much-praised 56,000 square foot building itself â&#x20AC;&#x201D; valued together at about $150 million.

The Emily Carr and historical First Nations works donated by Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa, are considered the greatest privately

Capital HOME | 65

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ART held collections in the world. But there are also pieces by EJ Hughes, Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham and Stan Douglas — and contemporary pieces

by First Nations artists are second to none. When the museum opened, the Queen and Prime Minister Trudeau sent congratulations.

B.C. Cultural Development Minister Peter Fassbender says the facility adds a whole new dimension to Whistler, “which already provides 37 per cent of all tourism dollars in the province. It will be a magnet and lead the country in celebrating First Nations’ art and culture. Michael’s vision is an inspiration that will last for generations.”

Also enthused about the building and the West Coast talent it exhibits is Marc Meyer, director of the National Gallery, who said at the opening: “If you were going to build a museum dedicated to the art of British Columbia, it should be built right here, and it should be done precisely this way….”

He joked, “If Martians landed on the coast of British Columbia tomorrow, in no time at all they would be making great art. It just seems to be inevitable … Everybody in the world has known for centuries about the artistic genius of this place,” and if ever there was a location that deserved to be “admired in isolation for the sheer millennial brilliance of its art,” this is it. >70

PREVIOUS PAGE: DESIGNED BY JOHN AND PATRICIA PATKAU, DAVID SHONE AND THEIR FIRM PATKAU ARCHITECTS OF VANCOUVER, THE AUDAIN ART MUSEUM IS NESTLED IN A GROVE OF ENGLEMANN AND SITKA SPRUCE HYBRIDS AND WAS DESIGNED TO INTEGRATE SEAMLESSLY INTO ITS SURROUNDINGS. AN ENORMOUS GLASS WALKWAY GUIDES VISITORS IN AND OUT OF THE GALLERIES, ALLOWING THEM TO DRAW IN ART AND NATURE IN ALTERNATING BREATHS. PATKAU ARCHITECTS

YOSHIKO AND MICHAEL AUDAIN ATTEND THE MARCH OPENING AND CROSS THE BRIDGE, WHICH LEADS TO ART MUSEUM’S ANGLED PORCH. “I WILL MISS MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MASKS AND THE ANIMALS,” SAYS MICHAEL, WHO HAD SOME OF THE ART IN HIS HOME. “WE SPENT A LOT OF TIME TOGETHER. WE GOT TO TALK.” GADBOIS PHOTOGRAPHY

Capital HOME | 67

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ART

1

1. EMILY CARR (1871-1945)

2

AT BEACON HILL PARK, C. 1933 OIL ON PAPER 110CM X 80.5CM AUDAIN ART MUSEUM COLLECTION. GIFT OF MICHAEL AUDAIN AND YOSHIKO KARASAWA

2. EMILY CARR (1871-1945)

HOUSE WITH SLANTED ROOF - BRITTANY, C. 1911 OIL ON BOARD 70CM X 85CM AUDAIN ART MUSEUM COLLECTION. GIFT OF MICHAEL AUDAIN AND YOSHIKO KARASAWA

3. EMILY CARR (1871-1945)

THE CRAZY STAIR (THE CROOKED STAIRCASE), C. 1928-30 OIL ON CANVAS 110.2 X 65.7 CM AUDAIN ART MUSEUM COLLECTION, 2013.014 PHOTO COURTESY OF HEFFEL.COM

3 Capital HOME | 69

AUDAIN ART MUSEUM VISITORS ARE GIVEN A GUIDED TOUR IN ONE OF THE MAIN GALLERIES, AND ARE TREATED TO BILL REID’S BEAUTIFUL BRONZE KILLER WHALE, C.1984, AND JACK SHADBOLT’S MAGNIFICENT AND MESMERIZING BUTTERFLY TRANSFORMATION THEME, C.1981. GADBOIS PHOTOGRAPHY

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The $44-million building was designed

by Patkau Architects, winners among other accolades of 15 Governor General awards in architecture and, like the cut of an Armani suit, its style is elegant and timeless.

Visitors enter across a bridge and through a sky-lit, prism-shaped porch defined by oblique and acute angles. Inside they see walls and ceilings of western hemlock in the lobby and event areas, and then an enormous glazed walkway that spans the length of the building, guiding visitors in and out of the allwhite galleries and encouraging them draw in the art and nature in alternating breaths.

Visitors can admire a magnificent Emily Carr painting and then step into the hallway and marvel at the kind of forest that inspired her.

“The character of the building responds

to the culture of Whistler and its powerful connection to the landscape,” said John Patkau, noting it is built on piers that raise it safely above the floodplain of Fitzsimmons Creek and winter’s five-metre snowfall.

Few buildings have achieved a greater tranquility and perfection than this new one, said Jack Lohman, CEO of the Royal B.C. Museum. “Everything seems so gentle, there is something immensely spiritually humbling about the architecture. The building drifts in a fog, like a Japanese ink painting.” Its reduced and quiet architecture “prepare the mind for the extraordinary works on display and the replenishing experience.” He added the collections are dazzling: “What a privilege that Michael Audain is sharing all these works… the Emily Carr collection is one of the most

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significant in the world, stunningly displayed … the contemporary First Nations art speaks to it’s vitality and richness.”

“Visitors are coming from around the globe, including curators from as far away as New York and Thunder Bay,” said museum executive director Suzanne Greening.

“Whistler gets 2.7 million visitors a year and, for some, this is the only taste of Canada they will have, so this is a great opportunity for them to see a museum dedicated to British Columbia art. People are in awe when they see it and we are finding Whistler is becoming a cultural destination because of it.”

Audain, who is chairman of Polygon Homes, said his family has lived on Vancouver Island for five generations and his love of Northwest Coast native art was born at the Royal B.C.

Museum. In a telephone interview on the SeaTo-Sky Highway, he jokingly noted the old family homes are still standing: Craigdarroch and Hatley Castle. (His grandmother was James Dunsmuir’s oldest daughter.)

“At the age of 10, I started going to Saturday morning lectures at what is now the Royal B.C. Museum, although at that time it was in the Legislative building. There I was exposed to Northwest coast art, superlative art in great quantities. It made an impression on me. It’s one of the reasons that all my life I have been interested in art of the original peoples, both contemporary and historic.”

He has been collecting First Nations art ever since and, during the last 25 years, has assembled historical pieces dating back to the 18th century. “Quite a few are unique and they >75 Capital HOME | 71

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”This is history in the making … an important moment in Canada.”

— Lt. Governor Judith Guichon said at the March opening “It’s an astonishing building and a wonderful gem that Michael Audain has given to the people of B.C. It’s a very rare gift, as it is the vision of one individual.”

— Jon Tupper, director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

“This museum is heart stopping….

It’s showing the best of B.C, from ancient history to contemporary, all in one place.”

— Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP for West Vancouver and Sunshine Coast.

IF YOU GO

“An amazing gallery and extraordinary that it was done with private money. This is one of the most famous art making regions in the world and people will come here from all over the world to see it.”

— Marc Meyer, director of the National Gallery of Canada

JAMES HART (1954- ) THE DANCE SCREEN (THE SCREAM TOO), 2010-2013 RED CEDAR, YEW WOOD, ABALONE, MICA, ACRYLIC 332.0 X 479.0 X 35.7 CM AUDAIN ART MUSEUM COLLECTION, 2013.015 GIFT OF MICHAEL AUDAIN AND YOSHIKO KARASAWA PHOTO COURTESY OF RACHEL TOPHAM, VANCOUVER ART GALLERY

were all collected out of the country. None was bought from a native family,” stressed Audain.

“I had a rule about that. They have now come back to the Northwest Coast, to their home territory.

“Many were traded by collectors and museums, some had as many as six owners, but when I brought them to my house I promised them: You will never be sold again and you will never leave the B.C. coast again.”

He is quick to add they will certainly be lent to other institutions, “but never again to museums in Europe, the States or eastern Canada. They have done their travelling.”

His goal now is to create a $25-million endowment to support the AAM and he has already secured more than $15 million. Close to 25,000 people have visited the museum and he recently gave a tour to a senior curator from the Museum of Modern Art, in New York. “We are forging very good relations with the MOMA and other prestigious galleries.”

With a trace of sadness, Audain confided that he and his wife will miss having this extraordinary art in their home. “Mostly I will miss my relationship with the masks and the animals.

They used to be in my den and we spent a lot of time together. We got to talk.” CH

© SALVADOR DALI, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ/ SODRAC (2016).

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The Audain Art Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and closed on Tuesdays.

Admission is $18, children under 16 are free.

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Capital HOME | 77

newly sold house in the popular Marigny area of New Orleans still has a crudely spray painted X near the front door.

The so-called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Katrina crossâ&#x20AC;? is a graphic reminder of the human toll the hurricane and its aftermath took in 2005, and many people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want that forgotten. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s part of our history, part of what makes New Orleans what it is,â&#x20AC;? said the new owner, Jeanine Canon, who bought the brightly coloured cottage in part because it still had the cross.

Like most New Orleans people, she is happy to chat to a passing tourist from her front porch.

She explains that the letters and numbers in each of the crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; four quadrants are shorthand for when the house was searched by rescue ofďŹ cials, by which unit, any hazards inside, and if any people were found. The last often contains two numbers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; one followed by an â&#x20AC;&#x153;Aâ&#x20AC;? for alive and another with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dâ&#x20AC;? for dead. No people were found in the

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house; they had made it to relatives in Houston, she was told.

The crosses are on homes and businesses throughout the city, along with the telltale whitish lines high on the sides of buildings.

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the watermark that can still be seen after 11 years.

Many businesses have chosen to showcase that line. A Starbucks has it clearly painted just above the doorway.

These reminders of Katrina have become part of the history and culture of New Orleans and are now part of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story for tourists.

Beyond these signs, though, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d hardly know such a disaster happened in this city with its motto of â&#x20AC;&#x153;laissez les bon temps roulezâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; let the good times roll.

Tourism is a mainstay in the city and has recovered relatively quickly.

In 2004, 10.1 million visitors spent a total of $4.9 billion in New Orleans, according to the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation.

That number fell to 3.7 million visitors, who spent $2.8 billion the year after the storm. By 2014, the number of visitors had bounced back to 9.5 people who spent a record $6.8 billion. A three percent rise in visitors is projected this year.

The city is also becoming popular with retirees.

Tourism ofďŹ cials say the visitor proďŹ le postKatrina has also changed. More are interested in experiencing the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music, culture and history and exploring up-and-coming neighbourhoods, artistic and architectural attractions and the fantastic foodie scene, rather than simply hitting Bourbon Street.

Indeed, there really is no need to even go to Bourbon Street, unless you really want â&#x20AC;&#x153;Three MONSTER Daiquiris - $1â&#x20AC;? and to trail a dozen stag and stagette parties. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth walking down once to say youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been there, and then exploring other parts of the French Quarter and beyond.

Our cab driver, learning we were staying beyond a weekend, said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;A week â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long enough, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not ever gonna want to leave.â&#x20AC;? He and his family escaped to Dallas the day before Katrina and stayed away 18 months before returning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We missed the food and the people too much.â&#x20AC;?

And heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right on all fronts. The city hits on all marks with its own distinct music, food, architecture and feel, with amazingly friendly people. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s now one of my favourite U.S. cities.

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Capital HOME | 79

SOME E ONS REASONS ..

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t’s a rare North American city that has its very own food culture as New Orleans does, with its Creole, Cajun and French-influenced dishes.

Sharing a meal is an important part of life here, whether it’s red beans and rice, jambalaya, muffaletta sandwiches, turtle soup, oysters, foie gras gumbo, sugar-coated beignets, bananas Foster (we’re told you shouldn’t go higher than 80 proof for flambéing the bananas and that a half cup of brown sugar and the same of butter is mandatory per serving) or sno-cones. (One guide told us that the sno-cones that originated in the city have

I

Can’t go to New Orleans without enjoying a crawfish boil.

shaved ice so fine, they “make the fallen snow feel like gravel.”)

Every area has good restaurants, cafes and little holes-in-the-wall where you can get fresh sandwiches as thick as dictionaries.

Where’s the best po’boy, muffaletta or beignet? Families have divided over less, New Orleanians joke. (I think they were joking.)

s CAFÉ DU MONDE in the French Quarter

is famous for its beignets. Think a small doughnut without the hole, dipped in sugar or icing sugar as soon as it’s plucked from the deep fryer. But the line-up is generally long — not that enjoyable in the heat. Café Beignet and Morning Call

New Orleans power breakfast: beignets and café au lait. have versions that are just as tasty, without the line. Eat them while they’re hot and when you’re not wearing black (the sugar tends to fall down your front.)

s

VERTIMARTE in the French Quarter is terrific for sandwiches and its hot lunch counter, even if Brad Pitt no longer goes there. Pitt’s New Orleans home is down the street (521 Governor Nichols; it’s now for sale for $5.65 million) and he was a regular at Vertimarte until fans started staking the store out. Central Grocery also serves muffalettas thick with meat, cheese and the briny olive-caper spread and pickled vegetables that make this sandwich on a large sesame-crusted bun special.

s New Orleans is famous for its seafood, with line-ups to the end of the block at the Acme Oyster House. The oysters are just as fresh across the street at Felix’s Oyster Bar; you won’t have as long a wait and you’ll be eating with more locals.

s

The Magazine Street area, a 10-minute bus ride from the French Quarter, is filled with small, mostly independent shops and so many restaurants it’s hard to choose. It’s made easier when a woman and her granddad come out of one and said: “We’ve been

80 | Capital HOME

a joke, even if his TV show-style became one) — have multiple restaurants. These aren’t chain restaurants; each has its own identity, different menu and are well worth a night out.

Link’s Cochon in the Warehouse Arts District, was a highlight with its Cajun southern style. The wood-fired oysters sounded simple but were so perfectly moist and spicy, you’re tempted to lick the shells. And how can you go wrong with Louisiana cochon (pig) falling off the hock, with cabbage, cracklins’, pickled peaches and a side of creamy grits?

s

The Brennan family owns more than 10 restaurants throughout the city, each with its own atmosphere. Brennan’s, in the French Quarter, and Commander’s Palace in the Garden District are the most well-known and both are good for an upscale meal out on the town. Our quiet dinner at Brennan’s was perked up when the wedding party using the gorgeous

FAMOUS PO’ BOY SANDWICH.

coming here forever. We love it.” Joey K’s serves fresh southern food. Can’t decide between broiled catfish and jambalaya? No problem. The waitress brings a half portion of each. And I spot Aarón Sánchez, star of the TV show Chopped, eating with friends.

He bought a house nearby after opening his own restaurant, Johnny Sanchez, downtown.

s Several well-known city chefs — Donald

Link, John Besh, Susan Spicer and Emeril Lagasse (New Orleans is where he got his start, and his restaurants aren’t viewed as

interior courtyard headed to the street for a parade.

These parades are part and parcel of any evening.

It might be for a wedding; it might be for a funeral. Either way, they will be joyous, with people dancing and the brass blaring.

The bride led the parade, carrying a red plastic “geaux” – “go” – cup.

Drinks on the streets are legal in New Orleans, as long as they’re not in glass.

s

Galatoire’s is straightup, old-fashioned fun with waiters who have been there more than 20 years. And those are the new ones. Men need a suit jacket (they have a selection at the front, including seersucker). Truman Capote’s regular table was the one in the left corner by the window.

Tennessee Williams is said to have written A Streetcar Named Desire here. >84

BRENNAN’S, NEW ORLEANS. PREPARING BANANAS FOSTER FLAMBÉ.

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e h t e v o y IL r to

s i H

A WALK THROUGH THROUGH DAR THR DA DARK RK PAST

OAK ALLEY PLANTATION IS A HISTORIC PLANTATION LOCATED ON THE WEST BANK OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, IN THE COMMUNITY OF VACHERIE, ST. JAMES PARISH, LOUISIANA. OAK ALLEY IS NAMED FOR ITS DISTINGUISHING VISUAL FEATURE, A CANOPIED PATH CREATED BY A DOUBLE ROW OF SOUTHERN LIVE OAK TREES 240 METERS LONG, PLANTED IN THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY — LONG BEFORE THE PRESENT HOUSE WAS BUILT. THE TREE AVENUE RUNS BETWEEN THE HOME AND THE RIVER. THE PROPERTY WAS DESIGNATED A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK FOR ITS ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPING, AND FOR THE AGRICULTURAL INNOVATION OF GRAFTING PECAN TREES, PERFORMED THERE IN 1846–47 BY AN ENSLAVED GARDENER.

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G

rand plantations lined the winding River Road between New Orleans and Baton Rouge in the late 18th century, and about 20 of these have been refurbished to their former glory.

Some evoke a Gone With the Wind lifestyle, particularly Oak Valley, a National Historic Landmark.

Its Greek Revival architecture and 240-metre drive lined with 28 oak trees planted in the 1700s is popular in photos, postcards and pop culture, including the 1964 classic horror movie, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. It also appears in Beyonce’s Déjà Vu music video.

Several plantations deal directly with their slave history, albeit to different degrees. Often, information about the enslaved men and women who built and sustained the plantations was barely kept. Oak Valley has a database available to the public with all the information it has found on the slaves that lived there, as well as a permanent exhibit with six reconstructed cabins showing slave quarters.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHITNEY PLANTATION

WHITNEY PLANTATION OWNER JOHN CUMMINGS, LEFT, WITH DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH DR. IBRAHIMA SECK.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WHITNEY PLANTATION

New OR-lens OR lens

The nearby Whitney Plantation Museum (www. whitneyplantation.com) opened in 2014 to rave reviews and is the only Louisiana plantation focused on slavery.

John Cummings, a white trial lawyer who founded the museum, spent 16 years planning it and more than $8 million of his own money to restore the site. It is meant to pay homage to all slaves on the plantation itself and to all of those who lived elsewhere in the U.S. South.

A series of angled granite walls engraved with the names of the 107,000 slaves who spent their lives in Louisiana before 1820 dot the grounds. It was inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. As well, many life size sculptures of children symbolize the thousands of children who died while in slavery.

Capital HOME | 83

e r e h W ! y a t to S

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entral hotels and B & Bs are in the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and the Central Business District/Warehouse Arts District. All these areas are easy walking distance to one another and provide easy transportation to other parts of the city, such as the Garden District.

s 4HE /LD .O (OTEL #HANDLERY is a boutique hotel in a former coffee warehouse in the funky Warehouse Arts District. The large rooms have exposed brick walls, hardwood ďŹ&#x201A;oors and interesting art.

The hotel partners with the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, a tuition-free high school that offers students academic and arts instruction. Their artwork is throughout the hotel. As well, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home to a terriďŹ c new restaurant, Compère Lapin, run by Nina Compton, a runner-up on Top Chef, Season 11. And the hotel doorman is possibly the friendliest and most helpful Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve met. s 4HERE ARE NUMEROUS CHAIN HOTELS IN THE area, with the Marriott and its subsidiaries having, it seems, one every second block.

Good time to either rack up or use those points.

84 | Capital HOME

g n i k l a W rs! tou

SEE THE CITY THAT CELEBRATES ITS DEAD, D, ARCHITECTURE, MUSIC AND HISTORY tanding under the shade of a leafy magnolia tree in Lafayette Cemetery #1 in New Orleans seems like a good idea until the guide casually drawls that we might want to step a few feet away. Red ants also like the tree, and they bite.

It’s one of those little things you can pick up on a guided walking tour, along with tidbits that you might not otherwise realize as you’re walking through this above-ground cemetery that exudes Southern gothic. It’s just one of 42 such cemeteries in a city that celebrates its dead. Here, about 1,000 tombs cover a city block, each telling a story of sorts of its inhabitants.

Look out for the crypts built by fraternal organizations such as the Jefferson Fire Company No 22. It took care of its members and their families in large shared tombs.

A few rows over is the metal tomb that inspired the author Anne Rice when the New Orleans author wrote the novel, Interview with a Vampire.

Rice also staged her own funeral in the cemetery a few blocks from her home, hiring a horse-drawn hearse and a brass band to play dirges. She wore an antique wedding dress as she lay down in a coffin. The event did happen to coincide with the release of one of her novels.

Walking tours are a great way to see a neighbourhood, specific sights or themes in a city. Sure, you can find out all these bits of info by scouring websites and guidebooks. But often, when travellers want to maximize use of time, guided tours in an area of interest can be efficient, fun and relaxing. There’s no arguing over directions, you get to meet other people for a short period of time (about two hours) and you walk and chat with a local.

Tours are often only as good as the guide, and New Orleans has a leg up over many other cities.

Guides here must be licensed and trained, so you can be assured of a good level of knowledge.

The guides at Historic New Orleans Tours (www. tourneworleans.com) generally have degrees in history or architecture and offer good value at an average of $20 for a two-hour tour. They are happy to take tips but don’t ask for or seem to

S

expect them. (Some guide companies do.)

Ours tour of the Garden District had me peering through the thick foliage outside Sandra Bullock’s New Orleans home, remembering the Brad Pitt movie Benjamin Button – filmed at a stately albeit slightly rundown-looking home in the ‘hood — and admiring the lacy iron work on pretty much all homes. Even the grate covers on the ground have a bit of filigree in New Orleans.

The company, like others in the city, also offers a range of tours. Take the music tour and check out the favourite haunts of Fats Domino, Little Richard, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis before listening to the city’s best street bands.

Voodoo tours dispel myths and reveal a part of the city’s culture and history, both so important to its character.

If you have time for time outside the city, there are plantation tours as well as swamp tours that take you to the bayou and provide an up close view of alligators, dozens of bird types and other wildlife in an eco-system that is as dramatic as the movies make it look.

For another view of the Katrina story, Gray Line tours offers a three-hour tour for $50 that clearly shows the man-made mechanical mistakes that made Katrina the disaster it was.

The tour focuses on the fatal engineering flaws in the city’s flood protection system that allowed the levees to break after Katrina landed.

Capital C itall HO Capit HOME ME | 85

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86 | Capital HOME

UP $ TO

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I Love the Musi c!

WIKIPEDIA

PRESERVATION HALL ENTRANCE

FRENCHMEN STREET

WIKIPEDIA

s .EW /RLEANS MUSIC COULD AND HAS lLLED MANY BOOKS )T S EVERYWHERE FROM the kids playing on a street corner to Ellis Marsalis â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wyntonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father â&#x20AC;&#x201C; playing piano Fridays at a small club on Frenchmen Street. s *UST WANDER AND YOU LL HEAR IT &OR MORE TARGETED LISTENING Frenchmen Street in the Marigny area, walking distance from the French Quarter, is chockablock with small clubs, many of which have several shows a night. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great place to wander in and out as the music catches you. There are also numerous restaurants and an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market. s 0RESERVATION (ALL in the French Quarter is a small space devoted to traditional New Orleans jazz. We went there after a carpenter/musician we chatted to in a bar called it his â&#x20AC;&#x153;church.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 100 people packed in a small hot room, often standing, with almost everyone clapping or dancing along. Book online or get there early.

BOURBON STREET MEMBERS OF THE PRESERATION HALL JAZZ BAND WITH NEW ORLEANS BINGO POSE ON SIDEWALK IN FRONT OF PRESERVATION HALL

Capital HOME | 87

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t a h W o! to d

The .ATIONAL 77)) -USEUM might be one of the last things youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d expect in New Orleans.

But the Higgins boats, landing craft that were vital to the amphibious invasion of Normandy, were designed, built and tested in New Orleans.

The museum focuses on the U.S. role in the Second World War and does an engrossing job of building the humanity and drama of D-Day through video, displays and personal stories.

You know how it ends, but youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still tense. It is poignant and brings history to life.

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Despite its potholed streets, New Orleans is a great city for BICYCLE TOURS Several companies offer them, including Confederation of Cruisers.

The city is at or below water level, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy pedaling and southern hospitality seems to prevail between drivers and cyclists.

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The Presbytère is a part of the Lousiana State Museum in a historic building from 1791 on Jackson Square. Its two main exhibitions tell two sides of the ongoing Louisiana storyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one of celebration and one of resilience. The Mardi Gras display gives a view into the celebration that takes over the city in February. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Living With Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyondâ&#x20AC;? has graphic photos, voices and video of the hurricane and its effect on the city. One of Fats Dominoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s baby grand pianos has been restored and is home here. Both displays are excellent.

It also clearly explains how the badly engineered levee system failed the city. An interactive display demonstrates how more than 50 levees and storm walls â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in disrepair and not built to withstand the 30-foot high storm surge â&#x20AC;&#x201D; collapsed under the pressure of heavy winds and rains. It is commonly accepted in New Orleans that the Katrina disaster was manmade.

Kim Westad is an award-winning, Victoria-based journalist and a frequent travel writer for Capital Home

88 | Capital HOME

Take the St. Charles streetcar, the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, its entire 21-kilometre route. The $1.25 trip will show you some of the nicest part of the city, including the Garden District, Audobon Park, Tulane University and Loyola University. It’s one of the best deals in town. Very crowded on weekends; less so on weekdays.

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Capital HOME | 89

Spirit s high

REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS’ NINTH WARD A MISSION FOR LIFELONG RESIDENT veryone in New Orleans has their own Hurricane Katrina story. Ronald Lewis, Jr. would be the first to tell you that his is luckier than most.

No one in his family died in the Aug. 29, 2005 hurricane and subsequent levee breaches that killed an estimated 1,800 people, caused $110 billion of damage and left 80 per cent of the city underwater.

Lewis has his rebuilt home, his family and the title of unofficial historian of the Lower Ninth Ward. This low-lying, working-class neighbourhood was hit the hardest by Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and again by Katrina in 2005.

“We survived Betsy and we survived Katrina.

This community is strong and it will survive — it is surviving,” says Lewis on a recent 35C June day.

We are sitting in a small spot of shade in Lewis’s backyard on Tupelo Street, po’boy sandwiches filled with meat and shrimp dripping dressing on paper in our laps.

We’re on a bike tour with Confederation of Cruisers, which provides an up close and personal view of the culture of the Lower Ninth over a fourhour ride.

PHOTOS: WIKIPEDIA

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Lewis is a driving force behind the community rebuilding. A lunchtime stop by his backyard — where he welcomes visitors to chat, have some water, see his museum and use the porta-potty — is a highlight.

Lewis loves talking about the neighbourhood he grew up in and sharing the Museum of Dance and Feathers, in a trailer and garage in his backyard. The museum is jammed ceiling high with hundreds of eclectic artifacts that tell the story of New Orleans culture as well as the history of the Lower Ninth.

It’s filled with everything from elaborate Mardi Gras costumes to a thank you letter from Barack Obama, of which Lewis is proud.

Lewis was one of the first to rebuild in the area after Katrina.

“See the sign out front that says, ‘Your roots run deep here’? That’s how I live and what I believe,” says the 65-year-old retired streetcar repairman.

Lewis well remembers walking chin high through the Betsy flooding in 1965. That, and a lifetime living in a flood zone, taught him how to prepare for the hurricane warnings that come like clockwork every season.

But even a lifetime of experience couldn’t prepare people for Katrina and the levee breaks.

Lewis and his wife, Minnie, battened up their

house windows with plywood and secured what they could before going to a hotel on higher ground near the French Quarter.

“We huddled like sheep and rode the storm out,” he says.

The 200-kilometre-plus an hour winds blew the roof off the room they were in, but those inside were safe.

Many in the Ninth Ward and other parts of New Orleans weren’t so lucky. The water rose so high, people had to chop holes in their roofs and climb up to wait – often for days, with no food or water in southern summer heat - for help. Fats Domino, his wife and daughter were airlifted out by a Coast Guard helicopter from their deluged home, a few blocks from Lewis. For many, though, help never arrived.

“Katrina created a wasteland, “ Lewis says. “You saw houses in the streets and on top of each other, cars everywhere, and death flowed with it. It was a feeling and stench you never forget. But the spirit of the people overrides all that because they wanted to be home.”

His home still stood, athough much had been destroyed after weeks under 14 feet of water. He started from scratch and rebuilt.

“I wanted to let the world know who we were

IT’S ESTIMATED THAT KATRINA CAUSED $96-$125 BILLION IN DAMAGE, TODAY (BELOW) YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW.

here. Our families built this community. I wanted my neighbours back and life in the community.”

It will never look like it was before, he says. “Too many families were lost.”

It’s hard to imagine that death and destruction as we sit behind Lewis’s tidy two-bedroom shotgun-style house.

Now, 11 years on, there’s an air of quiet as you pedal through the wide streets of the Ninth. About 40 per cent of the residents have come back. Most of the small, single level homes are tidy and cared for. Some of the cut grass is so immaculately tended it looks like Astroturf. But wide swaths of shoulder-high grass separate many homes. It looks a bit pastoral until you realize this is where homes used to stand. Whole blocks of them.

Many people couldn’t afford to return from wherever they fled or didn’t have the means to rebuild. (Lewis’s neighbor has been working away at his place for a decade, whenever he has a bit of money.)

On each block, there are homes sitting battered and empty but, for the most part, it looks like a slightly barren but tidy and quiet residential area from the 1950s. We’re not out of place zipping along the potholed roads on our one-speed bikes. Rather than gawking at demolished houses, the tour focuses on community rebuilding. A few blocks from Lewis are the “Brad Pitt” houses, as the 109 houses that the actor built with his Make It Right foundation are known.

No Pitt to be found – although our guide has met him.

Pitt’s goal was to build safe, sustainable homes in the most devastated part of New Orleans to show that highquality, green housing could be built affordably anywhere.

The aim is 150 houses.

The houses are solar-powered (New Orleans, in general, has high solar power use) and built to high LEED standards. The buildings, done by well-known architects including Frank Gehry, have a futuristic, angular look that doesn’t fit in with the typical Ninth Ward style but is welcome nonetheless.

Lewis said he appreciates Pitt’s work.

“We’re all modern pioneers,” says Lewis.

Before the rebuild

... and after

— Kim Westad

Capital HOME | 91

MNTYN MN TURN YOUR APPLE AND PEAR HARVEST INTO DELICIOUS DESSERTS

7

hen it comes to autumn desserts, I tend to favour classic ones made with apples or pears, but don’t shy away from using modern conveniences when making some of them.

I did that with two recipes that follow — apple galette and apple strudel.

A galette is a rustic way of making a tart without a fancy fluted pan. Roll out the pastry, set it on a baking sheet and top with your filling, which in this case is a sweetened and spiced apple mixture. Then then pull the edges of the pastry slightly over the filling, creating a free-form tart.

I like to use puff pastry for galette and my recipe uses store-bought puff pastry, a modern convenience that saves you the time and fuss of making your own.

Apple strudel is traditionally made with a homemade pastry that’s rolled out and then hand-stretched until very thin. Like puff pastry, it is fussy to make and you need a fair bit of room to make it, so I most often use storebought phyllo pastry for strudel.

92 | Capital HOME

3PICED'ALETTE !PPLE A

galette is are a rustic-looking, free-form tart cooked on a baking sheet. This apple-rich recipe makes two galettes, yielding 10 to 12 servings, enough to feed a table full of guests. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nice to serve for Thanksgiving or other festive autumn gathering.

Preparation time: 40 minutes, plus chilling time Cooking time: 40 to 45 minutes (per galette) Makes: two galettes (10 to 12 servings)

It is also very thin, bakes up crisply and provides a quicker way to make strudel when your time is tight. Simply thaw the dough, layer, ďŹ ll, roll, bake and slice.

Phyllo pastry is sold frozen. To thaw, plan ahead and set the phyllo in its package in the refrigerator overnight. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve forgotten to do that, you could thaw in its package at cool room temperature for a few hours. Never set the phyllo in a warm place to thaw, or moisture will build up inside the package and cause the sheets of phyllo to stick together.

My last classic dessert recipe, poached pears, did not require a modern convenience. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because the process of making them is pretty simple, poached peeled pears in spiced syrup until tender, cool and then serve.

Poached pears are a dessert thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been made for eons that I really enjoy making. The pears ďŹ ll my kitchen with a heavenly aroma as they cook and look beautiful when you stand them up on plates and serve them. Another nice thing about poached pears is that you can prepare them in advance, so they are in your refrigerator at the ready to dazzle your guests when the dessert bell rings.

4BSP LEMON JUICE 6 large Granny Smith or other tart, ďŹ rm apples (about 8 cups when sliced) 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 4BSP ALL PURPOSE ďŹ&#x201A;our, plus some for rolling 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the lemon juice in a medium bowl.

Halve, core and slice each apple into thin, 1/4-inch thick slices. Place the apples in the bowl with lemon juice and toss to coat.

Now add the sugar, 1 Tbsp ďŹ&#x201A;our, spices and salt and toss to combine.

Lightly ďŹ&#x201A;our a work surface. Cut the pastry, widthwise, in half. Set one of the pieces on the work surface. Gently roll into a 10- x 10-inch (25- x 25-cm) square (does not have to be perfectly square). Set the rolled pastry in the centre of one of the baking sheets. Roll out the second piece of pastry and set it on the other baking sheet.

Divide and mound half the apples on top of one of the doughs, leaving a 2-inch border of clean dough around the fruit. Set the remaining apples slices on the other dough. Fold the clean edges of pastry up and partially over the ďŹ lling, leaving the centre open. Brush the top and sides of the

TSP GROUND CLOVE 1/2 tsp salt GRAM PKG FROZEN PUFF PASTRY THAWED ) USED 4ENDERmAKE brand) LARGE EGG BEATEN WITH 4BSP MILK CUP APRICOT JAM OR APPLE JELLY 2 tsp water WHIPPED CREAM OR VANILLA ICE CREAM

to taste

pastry with milk/egg mixture. Refrigerate galettes 30 minutes (this will ďŹ rm up the pastry and make it puff better when baked).

Preheat the oven 375 F. Bake one of the galette 20 minutes. Turn the pan around and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, or until puffed and rich golden and the apples are tender. Remove from oven and set on a baking rack. Bake the other galette as you did the ďŹ rst.

(Galettes can be baked a few hours before needed. When cooled, tent with plastic wrap until needed.)

An hour before serving, melt the apricot jam (or apple jelly) in a small pot set over medium heat with 2 tsp water. When melted, brush the jam on the top and sides of each galette.

When itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to serve, slice and set wedges of galette on dessert plates. Serve each portion with dollop of whipped cream, or scoop of ice cream, and dig in. > Capital HOME | 93

3TRUDEL !PPLE #RANBERRY 0ISTACHIO

T

his perfect-for-autumn strudel is made with phyllo pastry, which is sold ready to thaw and available at most supermarkets.

Preparation time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes Makes: six servings

&OR THE ½LLING 4BSP FRESHLY SQUEEZED LEMON JUICE 3 large red apples (I used Braeburn apples) 1/2 cup packed golden brown sugar 4BSP ALL PURPOSE mOUR 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg pinch salt 1/2 cup fresh of frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped 1/3 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped (see note) Place the lemon juice in a large bowl. Halve, core and slice each apple into thin, 1/4-inch thick slices. Place the apples in the bowl with lemon juice and toss to coat. Add the remaining filling ingredients and toss to combine.

Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Set one sheet of the phyllo pastry flat on a work surface and brush the top of it lightly with melted butter. Top that sheet with another

94 | Capital HOME

&OR THE PASTRY AND TO ½NISH SHEETS PHYLLO PASTRY SEE .OTE 1/3 cup melted butter Icing sugar for dusting WHIPPED CREAM OR VANILLA ICE CREAM TO TASTE

sheet and brush it lightly with butter. Repeat these steps until all the phyllo is used.

Place the layered phyllo on the baking sheet.

Spoon on the apple mixture and shape it into a long and narrow rectangle along the bottom of the pastry. Fold over the sides of the pastry, about 2 inches (5 cm) on either side, and then carefully fold and roll the filling into the pastry.

Brush the top of the strudel with a little melted butter. Now make shallow, diagonal cuts, about 2 inches (5 cm) apart, into the top of the pastry

to make it easier to cut after baking. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until strudel is puffed and golden and filling is bubbling a bit.

Let strudel rest for 15 minutes before dusting the top of it with icing sugar and slicing with a sharp, serrated knife. Plate and serve portions of the strudel with a dollop of whipped cream, or scoop of ice cream.

Note: Shelled, unsalted pistachios are sold at some bulk-food stores and in the bulk-food section of some supermarkets.

0EARS 3PICE 0OACHED

WITH "LACKBERRY 3AUCE

P

ears simmered in spiced syrup, cooled and served with an easy to make sauce rich with blackberries.

Preparation aration time: 3 30 0 minutes minu mi nute nu te es Cooking ing time: A About bout bo ut 20 20 minutes miinu m nute tess te Makes: es: ffour o r se ou serv servings rvin rv ings in gs

3 cups water 1 cup granulated sugar 4BSP LEMON JUICE 2 cinnamon sticks, each broken into 3 pieces WHOLE CLOVES a few pinches ground ginger 4 small to medium ripe pears, such as Bartlets

Place the water, sugar, juice and spices in a medium-sized pot. (My pot was 6-inches (15 cm) wide and 6-inches tall; a size of vessel that ensured the pears are submerged in the syrup).

Set the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer.

While the syrup is coming to a simmer, peel the pears, leaving the stem attached. Now trim a little from the bottom of each pear so it will stand up straight.

When simmering, simmer syrup one minute to dissolve the sugar. Now add the pears to the pot and return to a slow simmer, adjusting the heat as needed until small bubbles just break

1 tsp cornstarch 4BSP WATER 20 to 24 fresh or frozen blackberries 1/2 tsp ďŹ nely grated lemon zest 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped until stiff peaks form 4 mint sprigs

on the surface. Cover the pears and cook until just tender, about 15 minutes, and then remove from the heat.

Uncover pears and pour 3/4 cup of the pear cooking syrup into a small pot. Now let the pears cool to room temperature in the remaining syrup.

Make sauce for the pears by whisking the cornstarch and 1 Tbsp water together in a small bowl. Mix the mixture into the 3/4 cup of syrup in the small pot. Set the pot over mediumhigh heat, mix in the lemon zest and bring to a simmer. Simmer one to two minutes, or until syrup is lightly thickened.

Remove pot from the heat and gently mix in the blackberries. Cool this blackberry sauce to room temperature.

When both the pears and sauce have cooled, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, (Pears and sauce can be made a day in advance of serving).

When ready to serve, spoon some of the blackberry sauce on each of four dessert plates.

Drain and set a pear on each plate, standing them up. Garnish each pear with a piped spiral or dollop of whipped cream and a mint sprig, and then serve.

HOW TO > Capital HOME | 95

(OW TO PREPARE GALETTE

FOR BAKING ROLL OUT PASTRY, SET ON BAKING SHEET AND TOP WITH FILLING, LEAVING A BORDER OF CLEAN DOUGH AROUND THE EDGES.

IN THE HEART OF OLD TOWN

FOLD THE CLEAN EDGES OF PASTRY PARTIALLY OVER THE FILLING. BRUSH PASTRY WITH EGG WASH. CHILL AND THEN BAKE GALETTE AS DESCRIBED IN RECIPE.

PREPARE STRUDEL

FOR BAKING LAYER PHYLLO, SET ON A BAKING SHEET AND TOP WITH FILLING.

FOLD THE SIDES OF THE PASTRY PARTIALLY OVER FILLING AND THEN ROLL.

BUTTER THE TOP OF STRUDEL, AND THEN MAKE SHALLOW, DIAGONAL CUTS, ABOUT 2 INCHES (5 CM) APART. BAKE AS DESCRIBED IN THE RECIPE.

EAKIS TIMESCOLONIST COM Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks.

His latest is The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook (Appetite by Random House).

96 | Capital HOME

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COMING UP NEXT ISSUE OF CAPITAL HOME

J

oin us for the next issue of Capital home this winter when we’ll be featuring some of the Island’s most luxurious homes and

plenty of ideas on how to add beauty, colour and lavish accents to your own living spaces.

We’ll have the latest in architecture and room designs, and hear from experts on how you can transform your home from the ordinary to outright fabulous. As always, our food expert, Eric Akis, will have some surprises for a grand dinner. And travel writer Kim Westad will take us to Paris and other romantic spots in France.

Watch for it in November.

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MUSEANDMERCHANT.COM

VICTORIA 661 McCallum Rd 250.474.3433 Capital HOME | 99

250-381-6238

www.budgetblinds.ca/victoriaeast

#100-915 Fort St., Victoria 100 | Capital HOME