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House Beautiful: Stairway to her dreams

Justine Gill is a romantic who always dreamed of living in a home with a grand staircase that divided into two at the second level. “I saw a staircase like that once when I was very young, in someone’s home, and never forgot it.

Justine Gill is a romantic who always dreamed of living in a home with a grand staircase that divided into two at the second level.

“I saw a staircase like that once when I was very young, in someone’s home, and never forgot it. I have thought about it ever since,” she explained.

And so her builder husband, Jamie Gill, decided to make her dream come true.

“This whole house was designed around these stairs,” and he had no doubts about who would build them.

Jamie’s family has been in the construction industry for 30 years and he has long known about local stair master Christopher Bradshaw (see sidebar).

“We have worked with him before so I didn’t get a quote from anyone else. I hired him before we even started the house. If you are doing an elaborate staircase, he’s your guy because of the quality of his workmanship. You just don’t go anywhere else.”

Jamie explained a staircase is typically framed up within a house, but in this case, the structure was entirely pre-built in Bradshaw’s shop, brought in by crane and bolted down.

“It took a lot of planning, drawing and engineering. But it’s so strong it could hold 100 people — and everything in the house works off it, including the dining room, family room and living room.” There is a circular hallway all around and everything is focused on it.

The $45,000 feature is not only the home’s centerpiece, but also serves as the upper hallway, splitting into a Y that leads to the master bedroom on one side, and the kids’ rooms on the other. “So we saved some square footage upstairs,” Jamie said with a chuckle.

The staircase has oak treads and handrails and both sides and underside are finished with wainscoting detail. (A flight of stairs below this one leads to an exercise room, theatre and office on the lower level).

It suits the unusual three-storey, 4,000-square-foot home, which has an unconventional hexagonal shape and sits comfortably on a corner lot on Beach Drive.

The exterior shakes are stained a vivid blue, which took the couple weeks to settle on. They took their time choosing all the colours, both inside and out, and painted the interior walls in seven different test shades before ending up with a neutral taupe.

“The exterior colour was a tough choice too and it took us 10 tries, but we finally got it right. Half a dozen people have since rung the doorbell to ask the name of the shade,” said Jamie, who graduated from UVic. He and his brother own SEBA Construction and specialize in custom-built houses with remarkable elements.

This home’s double staircase is not its only double feature. Off the master bedroom are two ensuites, connected by a large shower that each of them can access from their own side.

“To be honest, I don’t like to share a bathroom,” said Justine of the his-and-hers aspect.

They don’t have a bathtub but their shower has “the works,” including a steam unit, rain head, six jets, on-demand heat and an electronic program that sets the temperature automatically for each of them.

“We don’t have time to sit in the bath because we are always on the go,” said the new mum who had a baby two weeks ago and is on maternity leave from her government job.

Justine explained both she and Jamie are very family oriented and have a lot of relatives in Victoria so their home was designed for large gatherings. They had a party recently for aunts, uncles and cousins only — more than 80 people attended.

Their spacious kitchen has side-by-side fridge and freezer, both units are 30-inches wide, as well as a huge warming drawer, recycling centre, Thermador appliances and a sizeable pantry that stores all the mixers and other small appliances.

“I wanted a large kitchen island with no sink, just a nice clean space for parties,” Justine said, and she loves her convenient sink by the window, with its Delta tap that turns instantly on and off with a touch.

They both credit Mark Whitney for creating the extensive interior woodwork.

“We gave him our vision and he brought it all together,” said Jamie. “He even wainscoted the arches over the doorways. We hadn’t planned that originally, but he drew his ideas on the walls, to show what it would look like, and used 112 pieces of wood to create each doorway. He made all the built-ins, too.

“He was here till 10 p.m., night after night, and worked here for about eight weeks.”

The arts and crafts style house took almost 18 months to complete from start to finish.

“It was quite a process because our plans got rejected twice by Oak Bay. It’s a difficult corner lot because of all the Garry oaks and we had a lot of setbacks which meant we had to seek five variances,” Jamie said.

“But it was worth it and we saved all seven Garry oaks.”