Family finds a piece of home at Oak + Park
February 22, 2017
It was love at first sight when Oya and her husband, Gorkem, first visited Oak + Park’s presentation centre. “A home is mostly about the heart,” she says, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “You can try to use logic, but when you find a place that speaks to your heart, you just know it’s the right one.”
The couple had recently made a life-changing decision to immigrate to Canada from Istanbul, Turkey, where they owned and ran two successful businesses. After a short stint in Toronto, the family found themselves drawn to Vancouver for the climate and access to exceptional schools for their 12-year-old son, Kuzey.
“Oak + Park is in the catchment area for Sir Winston Churchill Secondary, which is one of Canada’s top-ranked IB schools,” Oya explains. “That was the first major motivation for why we wanted to live in this neighbourhood. Our son can’t wait to go there in the fall. And when he needs to go downtown, there’s a bus right there.”
Enviable lifestyle
Oak + Park’s inviting curb appeal and intelligently laid-out floor plans were the other “oh wow” factors that proved irresistible.
“The classical European architecture with a small garden front and back, the three-level design with the master bedroom on the top floor, and the open kitchen to the salon and living room — it was just like the semi-detached house we had in downtown Istanbul,” Oya says.
“And we couldn’t find many places with a powder room on the main floor. Here, when my mother comes with her bad knee, she won’t have to struggle up and down the stairs.
“We’re all really looking forward to the move,” Oya continues. “My husband will have a studio for playing his guitar, I’ll have a huge home office, and our 12-year-old son will have his own space — something he really needs as he turns into a teenager. We want to raise our son in a modern city like Vancouver, and Marpole is a great area that will just keep getting better. It’s going to be perfect.”
Come see for yourself
Oak + Park is over 50 per cent sold, but there’s still a great selection of homes to choose from, at a price you’ll love. “Westside townhomes are a hot commodity, and prices here are on the rise,” says Yosh Kasahara, Alabaster’s director of sales and marketing. “Most new townhomes in this neighbourhood are selling for around $2 million, but we actually have six homes available for under $1.5 million. Hurry though, because this opportunity won’t last long.”