By Stan Sauerwein
They may blush in shades of fuchsia or hues named after flowers and fruit, but there is a lot more to the Victorian-style chalets being built these days on the knoll at Silver Star. The gingerbread homes atop the highest residential property at the ski resort hide a very modern attitude behind their colorful petticoats.
The mountainside homes designed and built by Gavin Parsons Homes in the southern Okanagan ski hill community a mile above Vernon are both unique and memorable. To a buyer ready to make an investment of up to $400,000 or more on a winter hideaway, these chalet designs by this award-winning builder are definitely top of the line and worth more than a passing glance.
Navigate your way from the Gaslight-style streets in Silver Star village towards Silver Views on the knoll to see the newest and current Parsons Construction development. Along the route, beneath the roadway on your right and above it on the left, you'll see Silver Star's "painted ladies", many of which were built by Parsons. Reminiscent of San Francisco's Victorian-era homes, the two or three-storey chalets Parson creates on the narrow lots above the village boast the company's trademark Queen Anne turrets style.
Silver Views encompasses 13 private residences including six duplexes and a single-family chalet that has already been sold. These visually intriguing units offer a medley of authentic 1860s touches in their design. While they may play the part of 1860 architectural harlots made famous by San Francisco photographers, these chalets are actually examples of the most modern techniques in 'green building'. They're healthy homes built with flat, load-bearing roofs and energy-efficient construction methods.
Parsons, one of the few R-2000 registered builders in the Okanagan, has served as the president of the Canada Home Builders Association North Okanagan chapter three times. His firm has won five Thompson Okanagan Housing Awards and Parsons Homes now boasts a list of customers from as far away as Britain, Italy and Australia.
Along with competitor Bercum Builders in fact, during the last 12 years battling the black flies of summer and whiteouts of winter on the mountain, Parsons has built 80% of the chalets at Silver Star. His business has grown primarily by world of mouth and you'll recognize why when you view the development's show home.
If you're in the market now, Silver Views could represent a profitable hideaway real estate investment with plenty of potential upside.
Lot prices at Silver Star have increased by 23% since last Easter when Big White's operators formally announced that they had acquired the ski hill and were planning a $75-million expansion. The upgrade is the largest single season resort expansion ever to be undertaken at a ski resort in B.C.'s interior.
The first $33-million stage began this summer and Concert Properties, a Vancouver developer, has signed an agreement in principle to construct $50-million worth of residential real estate totaling over 220 units if and when necessary approvals have been received.
Expectations of those improvements prompted a flurry of purchases that consumed all available land at Silver Star. It means that the six single family homes already under construction or currently planned will be the only new units going up at Silver Star for at least two years, according to Parsons.
While Silver Star languishes as a distant second to Big White when it comes to construction numbers the uniqueness of the "painted ladies" gives Silver Star a first-place win where visuals are concerned. Big White, while an attractive in its own way, still has an international ski resort cookie cutter kind of look. Squint and you could be in Whistler, Sun Peaks or even Mammoth.
That could never be said of Silver Star.
Even at prices of between $250 per foot for more modest home and $350 a square at the high end of the scale, the chalets at Silver Star are finding a warm reception with affluent buyers, says Parsons.
Each of the residences at Silver Views features a five-colour cedar exterior with Victorian gingerbread trim. Named and painted after a local mountain wildflower, they are all unique. At 2,368 sq. feet, the development show home, called the Mountain Daisy, is a great example.
The show home boasts a stamped concrete foyer, nine-foot ceilings, three bedrooms and three baths. An indoor garage, storage, large ski change area and a family room make up the first floor of the Mountain Daisy.
"A lot of buyers would like a renter that will cover the mortgage payments or at least the expenses," says Parsons, so his designs often include a suite in the basement that can be up to 30% of the building's size. That one-third limit means to get a one-bedroom suite of reasonable size (700 sq feet) requires a chalet of around 2,700 square feet. In the case of the show home, the Italian buyer opted to put the residence into the resort's rental pool without a basement suite, which gives this chalet a definite private tone.
A fine-turned spindle handrail leads up the stairs to the main floor where a maple, raised-panel kitchen with a walk-in pantry and a breakfast bar opens to the stairs. Next to it is an open plan living room with a rock fireplace highlighted by a carved mantle that makes the narrow chalet appear deceptively large. What's a chalet without the après? This design has it with a hot tub deck off the kitchen and another you can reach through the living room.
Special touches make this chalet memorable. The doors are heritage style with raised panels. There is a chair rail and crown moulding in the front room along with decorative wood baseboards. The trim selected from samples in a 1906 Victorian millwork catalogue has been specially made for Parsons.
There are three bedrooms on the third floor of this Victorian-style lovely with a deluxe master suite that shows off an indulgently large soaker tub, heated tile floor and a separate shower in the bathroom that is enclosed with clear glass.
Parsons interviews his customers to determine what they want in a design and then works that into his creative style. A key question is whether the owner plans to use the rental pool at Silver Star, he says. "Usually if they are you have a bunk room that will take four kids, a master suite and another bedroom that will take a queen-sized bed.
"You try for combinations that will have room for two families with two children each," he says.
The energy package on the home is as impressive. Heating on the Mountain Daisy last winter was only $1100, though cost would likely have been higher says Parsons, had it been occupied every day for the full winter. Even so, the cost to heat the residence includes the premium of $4 a giga-joule for gas on the mountain.
That cost saving on heat was achieved with a 92% efficient furnace that is two phase, variable speed and gas-forced. The chalet also features low E argon aluminum clad wood windows and a heat recovery ventilation system. To top it off the chalet has blown insulation rated to R21+ in the walls and R50 in the ceilings.
It all makes for a custom package that matches the custom appointments in the rest of the home.
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