Home-A-Rama: Unique homes featured in fundraiser

Editor's note - This is the second in a series of stories profiling the homes on display in the 45th annual Home-A-Rama tour on Feb. 25. The stories will appear each week in Desert Life/Home & Garden.

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When they were having a new home built for them in Yuma, Suzanne Dion hadn't expect her husband to put so much of his own time and effort into this labor of love.

Husband Benoit Beauregard ensured the family's home had the family touch by making many additions or improvements himself, including crafting headboards and bed frames, building banisters, the entertainment center, door frames and cabinets, installing floors and putting up the outdoor fence.

"We appreciate our home a whole lot more because we did it all by hand, so it's priceless," said Dion, a nurse at Yuma Regional Medical Center.

The home at 4615 E. County 15th St. also features doors and windows that came from a century-old manor in Montreal, Quebec, their hometown. They are among the unique details of the home featured in this year's Home-A-Rama, which will take place Feb. 25 from 1 to 4 p.m

This self-guided tours, offered as a fundraiser for the Yuma Reading Council's adult literacy programs, came to the attention of the Beauregards after friends suggested they open their home to this annual event.

The home has a Santa Fe exterior, but on the inside, the style is what Dion calls an eclectic mix of bold European and Tuscan influences.

Tables and countertops are appointed with ceramic figurines, vases and pots and wine bottles.

"In Quebec, we have a lot of European influences, and I kind of brought that with me, but at the same time I love the color of the Southwest so I incorporated that as well," Dion said.

This home features a U-shaped layout with the kitchen in the center. "From my kitchen, I can see the backyard and the front. Everything was built around the kitchen because we eat together a lot and relax."

Before they began building the home about three years ago, Beauregard, a woodworker by occupation, sat down with his wife to decide how the elements would come together.

"It's all done by him. Between him and I, we decide what we want with the color and the style. Then we draw up the plans and he'll say, 'What are you going to put here?' He makes it exactly to the size of everything I need," Dion said proudly of her husband's skills.

Indeed, Beauregard, known to friends as Ben, knows wood. He custom built and installed the bathroom sinks made out of teak wood, and even installed a wood swivel door in the guest bedroom.

"The mosaic tile behind the surface of our two sinks in our room I completed with leftover granite and marble tiles," Dion said.

"The list of the things Ben didn't make is short. Everything he practically had a hand in."

The three-bedroom home has a view of the pool from all windows facing the backyard. Vividly colored terracotta tiles line the pool's bottom, almost glittering in the sunlit water.

"We have all our plans already for the backyard. Luscious trees with vines and hibiscus, an outdoor kitchen when we're done working on the house. It will be beautiful back there," Dion said as she gazed from her bedroom window to the backyard.

Though the emphasis of the home is wood, in their son's room the theme is metal.

"My son is into flying, so Ben made his room with metal to be similar to an airplane," Dion said.

The kitchen is the family's favorite room in the house, she said. "I cook a lot. I wanted a huge cutting board and a hidden garbage. We have double ovens so I can cook for a crowd. I like to do events, gourmet events. I cook for private parties and private entertaining," Dion said.

TREASURES LEFT BEHIND

When Suzanne Dion and Benoit Beauregard moved to Yuma, they had thought they left behind one of Benoit's treasured antiquities.

"The front door and the one in the garage, plus the window in the kitchen and two other windows come from Canada," Dion said. "They are antique and come from an old manor that was built over a hundred years ago.

"In Canada, my husband owned a convenience store. Somebody came over and asked if my husband wanted these windows this guy was getting rid of. They are trimmed with oak, so of course Ben wanted them and he paid $150 for four huge antique windows. That was in 1992. These windows went through everything - rain, snow, humidity in the summer - because we stored them in the shed."

When the family moved to Yuma in 1997, the doors and windows remained behind.

"My husband swore that he was going to build a house and put those windows up. I just thought, 'Yeah right.' So when we moved to the United States, I thought we had said bye-bye to those windows."

But she was wrong.

"His mother called and said, 'I'm coming for a visit and I'm bringing all you left behind.' And the windows came along."

Stefani Guerrero Soucy can be reached at SSoucy@yumasun.com or 539-6857.