“I was a confirmed bachelor,” says Terry, 30. “I was in a couple of serious relationships but I kept telling my friends that I was never getting married, but when I met Vanessa I knew that she was the one.”

Their “When Harry Met Sally” moment happened while the two avid skiers were working at the Nakiska Mountain Resort. And now, a year later, they are engaged and about to be married in February.

The second time love found the pair was when they were looking for a home where they can start their married life. They had a wish list of what they wanted in their new home, but didn’t really expect to get all of them. That is until they saw Brookfield Homes’ The Belvedere show home in Auburn Bay.

Terry and Vanessa were immediately smitten by the heritage-look exterior of this home — which is part of Brookfield’s laned show home parade in Auburn Bay — and The Belvedere’s floor plan seemed to answer all their needs.

“We loved the layout of the home, I liked how their version of the open concept layout in the main floor still has some separation between the rooms,” Vanessa says. “I like that there’s an actual dining room not just a little nook. The drop-down step separating the great room from the rest of the main floor gives it a subtle delineation, you still get the open feel and can still entertain freely but retain that sense of privacy.”

To strengthen this feeling of room separation, Vanessa says they opted to go with tile flooring in the kitchen rather than the hardwood flooring that was used through the whole main floor in the show home. “I like cooking and we’ll be using the kitchen quite a lot, the tile flooring seemed more practical.”

The Belvedere features a galley kitchen with wall-length cabinetry and pantry; it also has a floating centre island that sits between the great room and the dining room at the back of the home. The curving staircase with wood and wrought iron railing adds a stylish turn, and the open-to-above kitchen with a skylight overhead (a standard feature) gives the entire main floor a natural glow.

Topping all that was the fabulous lot they were getting in Auburn Bay; not only was it bigger than usual, and just a short drive to Deerfoot Trail, it’s still a quiet, secluded haven. Terry just knew that this was the home for them. “It’s at the end of a cul-de-sac so we get a really huge backyard,” he says, adding that he plans to build a giant 28-foot-by-28-foot garage in the near future.

“I can have my own ski workshop in this heated garage I plan to build and we’ll still have more than enough space left for a big backyard for us to enjoy with our two dogs.”

Being right at the border of Deerfoot Trail, it would be natural to expect some traffic noise, but they both happily discovered that once inside their home, they are literally in their own cocoon of silence. 

“I heard there are plans to put up a wall to act as a noise barrier around the neighbourhood, but I wish they wouldn’t as we don’t have any problem with the traffic noise, and a wall would just block the pretty views of the mountains and city that we enjoy right now,” Terry says. 

“The lovely views we get from the second floor were also a pleasant surprise,” Vanessa adds.

The lakeside living appeal that Auburn Bay offered was also a wonderful bonus, Terry says, and that the 43-acre lake here brings back fond memories of his boyhood in Thompson, in northern Manitoba. “We lived near the Paint Lake Provincial Park, and we’d always have weekends enjoying the lake, and we can enjoy a similar lifestyle here.”

Their experience with the Brookfield sales staff in Auburn Bay added to their close-to-perfect experience of buying their first single-family home. “I’ve seen them more than I’ve seen my own family in the last few months,” says Vanessa, who praised the team led by Mary Merhi for their professionalism and friendliness. 

Considering all the upgrades they put in their home — they haven’t moved in yet as of this writing — the couple were happy that the total cost just came up to a little over $400,000. “We really were fortunate to get such a good deal on this house and lot that we wanted,” Terry says.

Brookfield Homes offers single-family homes in Auburn Bay from bungalows to two-storey models starting in the $320,000s. The award-winning builder and developer will also be opening a new show home parade in the community at the end of February.