At least that’s what Carol and Laurie Lavine discovered when they moved into their 2,200-square-foot two-storey NuVista jewel box and away from their larger Springbank “dream” bungalow home last summer.

“We wanted a lot of things in a home. The last house had a lot of bells and whistles – we put all kinds of stuff in that house – and it was really Laurie’s dream home, but after being out there three years we decided the commute was too much,” says Carol.

The couple decided their careers as CIR realtors, which take them all over the city showing homes on a given day, would be less hectic with an address within Calgary’s city limits.

And because they had previously acted as agents on their share of NuVista homes – selling at least 20 in the past six years, Laurie estimates – choosing who to help achieve their goal was the easy part.

“We had just dealt with them as a builder so much and had so many good experiences with them for our clients, we decided we had to build with them,” Carol says.

The neighbourhood was also a no-brainer for the couple, who together have 25 years of experience selling homes, as many of their northerly Evanston neighbours were inadvertently hand-picked. Carol jokes how she and Laurie sold many on their street their Nu Vista digs, including a Calgary Stampeders football player and her own daughter and son-in-law, adding that a sense of community did rank high on her home wish list.

“Coming back to a neighbourhood was really important to us,” says Carol, who hopes knowing many of those living around them will also help when it comes time to build – and pay for – a fence this summer.

While Carol and Laurie did scale their current digs down from a larger footprint, it was a fair trade for closer proximity to family (Carol’s other daughter lives in Airdrie), and better access to favourite pastimes, such as hopping on their motorcycles out in Sundre.

The Lavines were sold on their design when they toured a show home in its likeness in another neighbourhood, knowing a little tweaking would have to happen to make the move worth it.

The prospect of a bonus room above the garage – now one of the couple’s favourite haunts with its built-in media centre completely hand-drawn by their salesperson – intrigued Carol, who’d never lived in a home with such an entertaining spot.

“One of the big things was to have a built-in for our television, because we’d had that before. We spend a lot of time here, so we have made it user-friendly.”

There were a few other design features that would make or break the home purchase, which their builder happily obliged.

“We had to make the dining nook bigger, so we pushed it out two feet because I entertain a lot. On Christmas Day we usually have 15 people for dinner, so that was really important and we also have a lot of people over because of what we do,” says Carol, who normally entertains once a month, and usually on the larger scale. “Laurie will tell you I don’t know how to do anything small.”

As the pair also works from a home office, small was definitely not an option where workplace was concerned, so the main-floor den was cantilevered out to make room for duelling desks and two realtors’ hectic schedules.
And Laurie won’t have to miss his large back yard, thanks to a back alley which is a rarity in many new communities with front-attached garages. Meanwhile, the couple was barely unpacked before Carol had strapped on a tool belt to toil at a deck, now beautifully complete outside the expanded eating nook.

The master bedroom was similarly crafted with the hard-working spouses’ busy lifestyles in mind, also the result of some shifting and personalizing of the builder’s stock plans.

“It was really important that we have a big bedroom, with a big walk-in closet as we had a huge one in the other place, so we borrowed a foot from the bedroom to make that happen,” says Carol.

An ensuite also had to flow with the space, so a second sink was added, as was a linen closet, and a second showerhead in an enlarged shower.

Now in their home since late last summer, the couple agrees they will likely build again in a few years with the same builder, and acknowledges it’s the best way to get a house that truly reflects individual buyers’ lifestyle and tastes.

For now they will settle into their northwesterly digs, where Carol looks forward to digging her green thumbs into the dirt when spring hits. “A lot of people passed up the lot because there are big rocks behind, but I can work with them. It will look a lot different by summer once it’s done and I add some trees.”