Mountain House

By Marc Huminilowycz | Photography by Clay Dolan | Staging by Van Allen Design Centre

Designed as a ski-in, ski-out sanctuary for two, this warm modern mountain home centres daily living on its light-filled top floor, while the lower levels open seamlessly for family visits and lively gatherings.

AT THE BASE OF BLUE MOUNTAIN, where the road meets the rise of the Escarpment, a modest ascending gravel lane carries a history that harkens back to the early days of Ontario’s premier ski resort. Happy Valley Road stands adjacent to its namesake ski slope, Happy Valley, which began as the dream of early ski enthusiasts in the 1920s, who hoped to install a rope tow, and was officially established in 1941 by Jozo Weider and Peter Campbell.

When the Town of Thornbury amalgamated with the Township of Collingwood in 2001, “Happy Valley” was among the names considered for the new municipality before “Town of the Blue Mountains” was ultimately selected. Today, a few of the original chalets on Happy Valley Road still remain, and a youth hostel near the top was recently demolished to make way for a new dwelling. It is on this road that a Toronto couple decided in
November of 2021 to build a dream ski retreat for their family on
a rare vacant property with ski-in, ski-out access.

“At the time, we were staying with friends on weekends at a chalet on the road that their parents built in the 1960s,” said the homeowners. “We found out that there was a perfect parcel of land for sale. It wasn’t even listed on MLS — just a hand-painted sign with a phone number — so we put in an offer and got it.”

The couple contracted an established builder, Robert Gerschwiler, who grew up in the region and whose father worked for Jozo Weider during the early days of Blue Mountain. “Robert and his team had built three custom homes on Happy Valley Road. Ours was the fourth,” the homeowners explained.

“When it came to the design of our new home, we had a set of priorities: maximize the Georgian Bay and mountain views, capturing as much light as possible; create a home that allowed for aging in place; provide welcoming and warm open living areas for family and friends to gather; and include cozy and intimate spaces that we can retreat to for quiet time. We wanted a ‘warm modern’ home, using natural materials (local stone and warm wood tones) combined with large windows.”

Planning for a retirement future in their new home, the couple decided on a reverse living layout, with their total living space situated on the top floor. “We call this our ‘condo’, which contains our master bedroom and ensuite, a breakfast balcony overlooking the ski slope, kitchen, dining, and living areas, and an office finished with a shiplap ceiling,” they said. “The dining area faces west to Blue Mountain, and the living area looks east over Georgian Bay for beautiful sunrises. And there’s a little secret over here — a small elevator to help us get up and down the three levels of the home and bring up groceries, supplies, and firewood, now and as we age.”

This area of the couple’s five-thousand-square-foot home features a gently sloped ceiling (rather than a pitched roof ) to allow for large, high-performance windows (from InLine Fiberglass Windows and Doors in Toronto) with spectacular 180-degree views over the mountain, the Village, and Georgian Bay. As intended, the feeling of the living space is modern but warm, including an open dining/living/kitchen with attractive, low-maintenance Italian Laminam porcelain stoneware countertops, wooden ceiling beams, oak floors, and a naturalstone-hearth wood-burning fireplace.

The style of the fireplace is a Rumford design, which features a shallow firebox, angled sides, and a streamlined curved throat to maximize radiant heat and improve efficiency by reflecting more heat into the room and minimizing smoke. It was developed by Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) in England in the late 1700s.

Below this space is what the homeowners call the “family level,” which includes three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an “après room” with comfortable group  seating around a rustic table and a bar — a welcoming place for the family to convene after a day of outdoor activity. There is a wraparound deck and convenient access to the ski-in/ski-out “turkey trail,” a narrow access path that leads in and out of the adjacent Happy Valley slope. The bottom entrance level of the home includes a central open foyer, garage, and mud room/gear room.

“We enjoy the fact that we have our own little cozy condo to enjoy when it’s just the two of us. When our kids are home with their friends or family visits, we can ‘open up’ the rest of the house, controlling the in-floor radiant heating zones based on which areas of the house are being used,” said the homeowner. “In designing our home, we wanted a place to be lived in, intentionally choosing materials that are low-maintenance, durable, and resilient in both the interior and exterior.”

“Given our home’s exposure to extreme weather, we chose steel siding, a steel roof, and Duradek flooring on all the decks. Inside, we installed durable LVP (luxury vinyl plank) flooring on the family and entry levels to match the hardwood in our main living area. And we tried to maximize the energy efficiency of our home using an ICF (Insulated Concrete Forms) foundation, in-floor radiant heating throughout; tankless, on-demand hot water (installed by Nottawasaga Mechanical); and fibreglass thermal windows.” 

The homeowners are grateful for the quality of the work of their design/build team. “Our ‘mountain house’ is everything we wanted our home to be, and everyone who was involved in its construction made it all happen,” they said. “We have incredible views of Georgian Bay year-round, and in the winter, it’s so great to ski in and out of Blue Mountain. In the shoulder seasons, we have a number of hiking and biking trails literally at our back door.”

Specifically, the homeowners singled out several key contributors to the building of their home. “First of all, we can’t say enough about our builder, Robert Gerschwiler and his team.

“Pamela Farrow, our architectural technologist, took our design ideas and translated them into a beautiful and practical architectural plan,” the couple added. “Catherine Staples of Aspen & Ivy helped us capture the ‘warm modern’ feel we wanted, suggesting, among other things, the ceiling treatment on the principal level. And working with John Mealey and his team from North Shore was an amazing experience. It was one-stop shopping for all our flooring and tile for bathrooms and showers. North Shore also supplied and installed all of our shower glass and the glass panels for our staircase and exterior railings.”

Ski-in, ski-out; nature at your doorstep; and spectacular mountain and Georgian Bay vistas in a comfortable, well-crafted, low-maintenance family home — had he been here today, the late, great co-founder of Blue Mountain, Jozo Weider, would have approved. E

SOURCE GUIDE

Builder: Robert Gerschwiler, Gerschwiler Building Inc.
Architecture: Pamela Farrow, Architectural Technologist, Holstein, Ontario
Windows: InLine Fiberglass Windows & Doors, Toronto with glazing provided by North Shore Ltd. Collingwood
Exterior Doors: Decola Windows & Doors, Barrie
Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinetry: Southgate Cabinetry, Clarksburg
Window Coverings: Salnek, Collingwood
Appliances: Thermador and Gaggenau installed by Mid Ontario Appliance Installations (MOA), Collingwood
Flooring, Glass & Mirror: (Bathroom showers, staircase, exterior railings)– North Shore Ltd, Collingwood
Stairs: John McCaig, Barrie
Landscaping: S. Young Design Inc., Collingwood
Electrical & Plumbing: Nottawasaga Mechanical, Collingwood
Fireplace: Chantico Fireplace Gallery, The Blue Mountains