RETRO FEVER

The ’70s are back in this Quebec couple’s unique vintage home

- Isabel B. Slone

IN 2019, MARTIN DUMAS, a graphic designer, and his partner, Maude Beaupré, a TV producer, were feeling cramped. They had been renting a three-bedroom place in Montreal's Little Burgundy neighbourhood for the past 12 years, paying $865 a month. After their daughter, Simone, was born in 2012, the couple realized they needed more space. They started imagining a move-preferably to a more pastoral setting.

Dumas and Beaupré hoped to find a rambling old house in the countryside filled with vintage character, as opposed to a cookie-cutter new build in a suburb. That September, Dumas sketched a crude illustration of an A-frame with a squat addition on a pink Post-It note. He joked to Beaupré that he had just drawn the house of his dreams. A day later, their realtor sent over a listing for a small home with a stucco exterior that bore a strange resemblance to his illustration. "My boyfriend doesn't believe in the idea that the universe sent it to us, but we were in shock," says Beaupré.