A Downsized Upgrade

This custom-built cottage in New Brunswick is a comfortable and calming oasis filled with collected memories and one-of-a-kind pieces.

- By Lauren Hofer

When their kids started moving out, Jo Galbraith and her husband decided it was time to downsize. They had a beautiful Victorian home in Fredericton, New Brunswick, but they wanted something different to fit their stage of life. So a few years ago they decided to build. “I basically designed the house; then we had working drawings made up by an architect,” says Jo, “it worked out really well considering that I did not know what I was doing.”

Jo, who previously had a career as a social worker, doesn’t have a background in design. Painting furniture and rooms in her house had been a hobby that helped her cope with the stress of work. “I was dealing with problems that could never be solved,” she says, “but I could paint a room and change it in a day.”

She started the design process of this house with a list of must-haves in mind, like a kitchen-window sink and a goodsized mudroom to accommodate their two large greyhounds. The result is a fresh, happy and livable home, where both her dogs and her twenty-something-year-old sons can put their feet up and stay awhile.

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