Property: 1017 Marine Drive, $800,000
Kamla Prasad moved into her house at 1017 Marine Drive in 1973, the same year the 2,074 square-foot Vancouver Special was built. It cost $66,000.
The wide square house is divided between the main floor and its three bedrooms and a lower basement suite with two more bedrooms. The kitchen opens onto a large deck and although the house borders a busy thoroughfare, little traffic noise disturbs the inside. The bright living room looks south toward the Fraser River.
The house was a family home to Prasad, her late husband Shiue and their two daughters and son. After they emigrated from Fiji, the family rented for four years before settling in Sunset. They bought on the East Side because the property featured a brand new house and was still less expensive than a decades’ old house. “We liked living here,” she said through her son-in-law, Ahmed Buksh, who is also her realtor and who translated her comments from Hindi.
Prasad’s younger daughter raised two children in the downstairs suite and moved out after 18 years when she and her husband were expecting their third child. Then, Prasad’s son moved into the same apartment with his wife and two children. Now Prasad is also leaving, this time to follow her children to the suburbs. The family typically gathered at the house to celebrate Diwali and more frequently goes to relatives for Christmas and Eid. Whatever the meal,
Prasad, said her son-in-law, makes the best samosas.
