Coach Bluff Villas

These 19 chalet-style townhouses are likely the most dramatic in the City of Calgary, and are picturesque enough that I've heard that a photo of them once appeared in National Geographic magazine. It was 1978 when they were built as condominium homes from the outset by Heslip Holdings on what was then the far west edge of the city. Stand among these A-shaped homes and evergreen trees to feel immediately that you're in Canmore or Banff; 'nice!

There are three groups of five homes and one group of four. The nine homes that face west to Coach Hill Road had mountain views from their living rooms before the suburbs sprouted beyond them, but still have those views from upper levels. And levels there are; each home has a basement with drive-in parking and space for an extra rec room or bedroom, a main level for living, formal dining, and kitchen, a second floor housing two bedrooms, then a third-floor open loft bedroom or TV area with a vaulted ceiling. Every home has two and a half bathrooms and a living room wood-burning fireplace, originally with a natural-gas log lighter that some will have converted to a natural-gas fireplace. Heating is by baseboard hot-water radiators.

Each home has 2,427 square feet of floor area, but of course that includes the indoor parking, utility areas and some floor area close to sloping walls that's not full height. Deduct much of that and each still has about 1,550 square feet of living space in dramatic spaces with an open staircase between levels.

The cedar siding and sloping windows have required maintenance so the owners have chipped in a few times over the decades to maintain these buildings. In 2002 Coach Bluff Villas assigned responsibility of each home's windows and exterior doors to the individual homeowners, so the Reserve Fund no longer needs to save up to maintain and replace those. Unit factors for each home are virtually equal. I keep the Condo Plan on file.