Inside a High Park renovation
Purchased in 2009 in a sad state of disrepair, the High Park home of Ginger Sorbara has been thoroughly renovated. The 400-sq. ft. rear addition has a floor-to-ceiling glass wall.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
The music room at 53 Indian Grove. Ms. Sorbara met the original owners - the Mills brothers , in 2004 and offered to buy the then dilapidated 1911 property that had been in the family for over seven decades. Paint peeled everywhere, walls were filthy and water-damaged, tentacles of ivy reached through broken windows.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Sorbara and her architect partner, Douglas Birkenshaw, a principal at B+H Architects, began renovating in 2009.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
The kitchen features custom millwork by Ms. Sorbara’s uncle’s company, Barlow Cabinet Works built to Ms. Sorbara’s and Mr. Birkenshaw’s plans, a bench in the bay window, and a long Eramosa limestone islandFernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
“I like that sense of progression in houses – the old thing, then the new thing,” says Ms. Sorbara.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
A tiny powder room near the dining area is so small, the corner of the wall swings open to reveal it. “Houses should have a little bit of surprise and humour,” says Ms. Sorbara.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
A massive, angled fireplace dominates one wall of the 400 sq. ft. addition. When the fireplace first arrived, explains Ms. Sorbara, it was placed against the wall of the “big and beautiful” new living room, where it stuck out like a sore thumb…or pimple. So, she and Mr. Birkenshaw “drew it and drew it and drew it” until they arrived at a plan: a false wall. “All of the space in here,” she says, touching the drywall over the firebox, “is air, and it’s really gut-wrenching to give up space, but space is not a huge problem in this house.”Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Ginger Sorbara in the kitchen.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Sorbara has left some of the small holes left in the walls by the previous untouched. ‘A part of me thinks of it as patina, and part of me like an art project,” she explains, adding she might ‘fill’ the holes with Mills family photos left in the basement and then cover the ‘repair’ with lacquer.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
One wall of Ms. Sorbara’s second floor office resembles geological strata, as new chalkboard paint covers part of the old plaster, which has crumbled away around the edges to expose some amazing old brick.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Just outside the music room, in the foyer, the original plaster light fixture hangs, illuminating the wonderful original staircase.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
The large, new master bedroom features an upper window with a treetop view. ‘You are in the trees,’ says Ms. Sorbara. The ‘poetic and gestural’ movement of the branches makes this ‘the most beautiful place I’ve ever slept.’Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
To make the third floor more usable, the roof pitch was reconfigured for more ceiling height. Now, what was a cramped space has become an open, airy place for Ms. Sorbara and an assistant to work at her design business.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
To make the third floor more usable, the roof pitch was reconfigured for more ceiling height. Now, what was a cramped space has become an open, airy place for Ms. Sorbara and an assistant to work at her design business.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail
Although landscaping is still a year in the future, Ms. Sorbara’s worry about the matter is as nonexistent as the front porch, still in the planning stages. “We’re going to be slow,” she says, matter-of-factly.Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail