Down on the Farm
When picking out a hostess gift, friends know to make it white, says Michelle, who loves her “invisible kitchen.” Custom cabinetwork and white paneled appliances help to achieve the effect.
If you didn’t know them, you could almost believe Michelle and Chuck Quintyn were country folks. Arrive at their Port Glasgow, Ontario, farmhouse on any given weekend, and you’ll find her in a wide-brimmed straw hat planting or picking flowers. He will more than likely have some kind of tool in hand. Lately he’s been building a gatehouse at the entrance to their tranquil 85-acre retreat, which backs up to 3,000 feet of Lake Erie shoreline.
“It’s the antithesis of our home in the city,” Michelle says. Their weekday residence is a century home in downtown London, surrounded by shops, restaurants and youthful urban culture. She delights in both environments but admits the farm is where they recharge from busy jobs in the city. She’s president and CEO of Goodwill Industries for the Ontario Great Lakes region. Chuck owns and operates his own construction company.
On weekends, the 50-somethings head to the farm, where they watch sunsets instead of television and measure growth not by financial reports but by how much the land and wildlife are thriving.
Saturdays typically begin with breakfast on the patio followed by a hike through the woods or along the coast. The couple usually works in the yard before venturing to the area’s numerous farm markets where they handpick what they’ll prepare for supper. Later, they go for an early evening sail or sip wine by the backyard bonfire.
It was quite different 15 years ago when they bought the property to build a second home for weekend getaways. “People thought we were crazy,” Michelle recalls. Port Glasgow is less than an hour from London, but at the time it was considered no man’s land, and the property had no sewer, water or electric. There wasn’t even a road.
Southern Ontario flagstone extends out of the home to the porch and patio and will soon form the foundation for the new outdoor kitchen Chuck is building.
Michelle remembers how they navigated their Jeep down an old logging trail to check out the property. The land was overgrown farmland and forest, seemingly untouched for decades. Chuck climbed onto the roof of the vehicle for a better view. “I think I’ve found our building site,” he said confidently, eyeing a 2-acre open meadow in the middle of it all.
“It was a part of Ontario that people just couldn’t see the potential in,” Michelle says, “but Chuck and I have always had the ability to see the diamond in the rough. We’re risk takers.”
Risk takers indeed. Not only did the Quintyns have time-consuming careers (Michelle was managing the redevelopment of what would become London’s Covent Garden Market), they had a 120-year-old city home that was always under renovation, and they were raising two children, ages 2 and 5. It would take the Quintyns more than five years of weekends to clear the land of brush and to prepare it for the build.
During that time, the family lived out of the back of a pickup truck and cooked meals on an open campfire. As the couple’s daughters, Carly Jac and Scotty, learned to appreciate the outdoors, Michelle pulled vines from trees and moved rocks and brush, all the while designing their future home in her mind.
She was inspired by the region’s rich farming history and the numerous white farmhouses scattered along the coast. And she longed for simplicity — in both lifestyle and design. By the time they were ready to build in 2001, Michelle knew what she wanted and took on the role of architect, collaborating with Chuck on the more technical aspects before taking their plan to an engineer.
What they ended up with is nothing short of spectacular — a 3,000-square-foot wood clapboard farmhouse with a definitively modern interior. “We call it white farmhouse minimalism,” Michelle says of the home she and Chuck built from the ground up.
Every decision, from outlet placement to building materials, was carefully thought out and discussed. Of utmost importance to the Quintyns was how the home would entwine with the environment. Michelle envisioned a see-through structure, a perfect symmetry of tall windows and wide French doors so that those standing in the center of the main floor could look out in all four directions.
To accomplish the panoramic vista, they designed the first level as an open 1,100-square-foot room with the kitchen at one end and living area at the other. Michelle’s interior decor choices propelled the drama even further when she blanketed the entire space in white.
“I didn’t want any competition with the scenery,” she explains. “I wanted white counters, white walls, white everything. I would have gone with white leather furniture if I thought it was practical.”
The basement repeats the first floor’s design, but color replaces windows as a focal point. The fireplace is one of three in the home.
She continued modern minimalism into the upper level, which features two master suites adjoined by a sleeping loft — an especially useful area now that the girls are grown and enjoy bringing friends for long weekends.
Although the second floor is mostly white, Michelle warmed the winter suite with crimson-colored walls and a gas fireplace. The summer master, preferred by the Quintyns because it faces east, allows them to enjoy the day’s first cup of coffee while watching the sunrise from the balcony.
It’s a far cry from drinking cold coffee while sitting on the back of a pickup truck. Still, those times make up some of the Quintyns’ fondest memories. “It’s all about seeing the potential in land and nature and bringing it to life through vision and hard work,” Michelle says.
Looking back, were they crazy? Maybe. Was it hard work? Gruelingly so. Would they do it all over? Absolutely.
“Our motto is ‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space,” answers Michelle. From where they’re sitting on their own private edge of Lake Erie, their risks have reaped many rewards.
Story:
Sharon Doddroe
May/June 2010