A Family Dream in Grandview Heights

Written by Lin Stranberg

Erin Cebula photos Alfonso Arnold

This year’s B.C. Children’s Dream lottery home is a lavishly spacious and luxuriously appointed contemporary dream home perched on an incline in the aptly-named Grandview Heights area of South Surrey. It’s situated on a large corner lot with a view that stretches far and away to the north, over green farmlands to Vancouver’s beautiful North Shore Mountains. 

With 5000 square feet on three levels, the home is designed for gracious family living and entertainment. There’s a great room on the main floor plus a study, guest suite, open kitchen with an adjoining spice kitchen and airy dining room. Folding glass walls in the great room open to a generously-proportioned outside covered eating and entertainment area that offers both space and privacy. With its high vaulted ceiling, indoor-outdoor flow and sleek kitchen bar, the great room is the heart of this dream home. As the pièce de résistance, a dazzling showstopper of a contemporary chandelier in glittering crystal and chrome hangs from the 21” ceiling.

“My husband and I work together,” says Jas Rai, who is the designer half of MGR Group’s builder-designer team; her husband Arvi is the builder. “And every home we build is a dream home! When I was designing this space, I thought carefully about how I would want it to be if it were my own home and then I added features I would want myself – fireplaces, outsize windows, stonework, an infrared sauna, a built-in wine display cooler in the dining room and an elevator for wheelchair access if the need should ever arise.”

“This is a social house for warm and family relaxation and I envisioned it being well used on all three floors every day. I designed the master bedroom with a chic hotel suite feel and a curvy Juliet balcony open to the great room. Downstairs I created a more muscular look, with stonework, exceptionally high 10’ ceilings, a bar, exercise room, sauna and an amazing home theatre with a 114” screen. I included fireplaces for visual interest throughout the house, windows to bathe the space in as much natural light as possible, and an abundance of chrome and crystal chandeliers to heighten the style. I always find that crystal gives that wonderful richness to a space. This home, a blend of both contemporary and traditional architecture, has detailed finishing inside and the lighting highlights that beauty.”

The home’s elegance set the tone for interior designer Debbie Heal, a savvy professional with years of experience at Sunrae Design. She set out to add texture and colour in the furnishings, which she sourced from La-Z-Boy furniture galleries, to give the elegance a more casual feel for a comfortable family lifestyle.

“I aimed for balance,” she said. “For example, in the master bedroom we used a fashionable blush colour for a more feminine touch, but we balanced it off with a tailored bedroom suite that has the organic feel of natural wood. Organic was our mantra when decorating the great room as well. The boldly modern florals of the chairs and drapes, the leaf motif of the round rug, and small decorative succulents in chic brass and glass geometric terrariums work together with the textured blue velvet split sectional as a grounding counterpoint to the room’s magnificent height, stunning chandelier and marble fireplace surround.”

With its mix of contemporary and traditional architecture, elegant, spacious and comfortable interiors and outstanding recreational and practical qualities, this home has been beautifully created for living a family dream.