Claude and Marie are lucky enough to spend their summers near a lake surrounded by their family of nine grandchildren! “I am the GO, the nice organizer, for all water sports: water skiing, wakeboarding, surfing…”, says the dynamic grandfather who trains every day to keep in shape. It was to enjoy the pleasures of outdoor life that the couple bought, in 2002, an old chalet three quarters of an hour from Quebec.
Claude wet his shirt to give back to the house, built in 1929, its original cachet which had disappeared with the work of successive owners. He restored the roof, the chimney and reintroduced wood inside. “We redid the interior as it once was plank by plank with B.C. Fir wood from British Columbia. I have made it my mission to protect the architectural heritage of the lake, “he says in the process, saddened by the disappearance of ancestral houses in favor of prestigious modern residences in the surroundings.
When Marie wanted to enlarge the family holiday home so that she no longer had to climb stairs and gain storage space, touching the old building was out of the question. The architect Jérôme Lapierre, to whom the couple turned for this project, succeeded in this challenge thanks to the creation of a pavilion connected to the house by a large glass passage opening onto the lake.
The new construction, designed for rest and relaxation, houses a large bedroom with a library area, a “walk-in”, a bathroom and a gym for Claude where Marie, who likes to paint nature with surroundings, put away colors and brushes in large cupboards.
So that the wing fits harmoniously into the resort architecture of the site, Jérôme Lapierre was inspired by the veranda on the other side of the house, the lines of which he took up. He also extended the covered gallery surrounding the house and integrated columns, similar to those found outside, in the new entrance converted into a former living room. A wall dressed in cedar shingles painted in a luminous yellow, like the facade of the house, testifies to an old desire for expansion. The living room moved into the glazed space gently rocks the guests into modernity.
“The glazed passage allows you to take a break between two eras. It’s a process that I really appreciate to preserve the authenticity of an existing house and affirm the contemporary character of an addition”, underlines the architect who also bet on a contrast between the dark interior of the house and the row of white rooms in the pavilion to give a modern look to the new living area.
Full-height windows also accentuate the opening towards the lake and the trees surrounding the new estate of Marie and Claude, who now spend most of their time there, which allows them to reserve the three bedrooms of the house for their big family. “It’s like we’re living outside. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or windy, it’s always nice to be there”, confides Claude who, on the advice of a Finnish friend, had a sauna built halfway between the new wing and water to take advantage of all the benefits of a stay at the lake.