A Sit-Down With Joy Playford

At West Harbour our residents are the best thing we have going. We want to make them the stars of the show for us. In this sit-down with new resident Joy Playford, we talk about fishing, her executive coaching gig,  and why West Harbour’s community is special.

Start off by telling us about yourself.

J: So my husband Marty and I, and our Portugese waterdog Finnegan, moved into West Harbour in June. From our home base we run our business interests; we do coaching and executive leadership development and coaching. So we travel a bit with our work and we really enjoy going to Mexico. We have a couple places that are favourites there for us. We traveal about every quarter, either back to see our kids, or for vacation, and quite regularly for work too. Also, we have a Thunderjet fishing boat, so we love to fish. Little bit on Lake Okanagan but usually we go to the coast to catch salmon and fish off the coast of Vancouver Island.

Why do you love fishing?

J: I think what we love most about fishing is we love to be on the water, first and foremost. We love to eat fish, therefore we love to catch them. But I think most importantly is it feels really great to be able to just be out in the wilderness. Where we love to fish most is out in a really remote part of the Northwest part of Vancouver Island, and it’s just a great “back to nature” kind of connection. We love to be on the water and we love to be in those remote places.

What do you mean by executive coaching?

J: We work with leaders at all levels and organizations to help them generate better outcomes for themselves and the teams they lead. Most of that’s done one-on-one, but sometimes as a group on-site as a company. Sometimes we work remotely with them, using Skype and similar apps. And those clients are mostly in the Western region but all over Canada and sometimes into the States as well. We love Kelowna because it’s a great place to live and a great place to do business from.

How did you discover the West Harbour community?

J: Originally I knew the leadership of Troika. I knew the project was happening and we talked to a couple people who lived there and they loved it. We’ve seen it from the water too, because it’s really beautiful how it’s all built up the hill. We’ve seen the marina and the housing development beyond it. It was through personal connections that we learned about West Harbour, and then we saw it with our own eyes.

As a newly-minted West Harbour resident, what’s your favourite thing about  living here?

J: My favourite thing so far is that the people have been incredibly friendly. It’s a real community, so as we were moving in folks were coming over, saying hello. So I really love that people have a real community commitment. The second thing is that the amenities are excellent. As I said before, we love fishing, and fishing here is year-round, so the fact we got a dedicated boat slip is great. The other amenities are also great. We really enjoyed the hot tub, the pool, the beach has been fantastic. Our kids, when they’ve come to visit already, have said it’s like coming home and coming to the cottage at the same time. They really loved it. And I guess the other thing, which is very important to us, is this is a very diverse community and a very inclusive one. We have everything from snowbirds to vacationers from Alberta to folks with little kids, to semi-retired folks, people that are in that chapter where they’re still working but taking their leisure time like us. So it’s wonderful that we have such a diverse neighbourhood.

Tell us about your home. What sort of design  is it? Is it custom?

J: Actually we had a much larger home in West Kelowna and decided that we had to make a change, so we put our home on the market. It sold really fast so we had to find a home quickly so we could move in in a few weeks. When we came to West Harbour there was one two-storey available and we had to finish the basement. They did an awesome job at the basement finishing for us and we moved in immediately after.

The main floor is really open concept, and because we had moved in from a much larger home we had a lot of large furniture. Despite that it fit perfectly. We almost immediately wanted to finish the garden so we made the backyard into almost like a secret garden; we fenced it, hedged it and put fertilizer in. It’s basically an extension of the house. We’re really enjoying it because it lives like both a house and a cottage at the same time. For our anniversary we gave each other this really cool cherry red golf cart, and we’d jump on the golf cart and whip down to the beach, out to the hot tub and the pool. So West Harbour does have this kind of vacation, resort feel, which we also really enjoy too

What is the design of your house? Is it an Amarone or a Moscato or something else?

J: I believe it’s a Moscato; four bedrooms, two bathrooms, including the ensuite, and then a laundry room upstairs. We had an open concept mainfloor with a den, and then we have the whole lower level finished. We’re using the lower level as a home office; which is another bedroom, and full bath. Also we added a really lovely bar and wine cellar and great room down there as well. It has all the same living spaces that our previous home has with significantly less maintenance.

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If you would like to read more about some of the benefits of buying a new home in West Harbour, Please have a look at this list of “9 Reasons To Buy Your Home On Leased Land”!