Home of the Week: Playwright puts Annex home up for sale
381 Markham St., Toronto. Asking price: $1.75-million. The home of Canadian playwright David Young is a century-old semi, located on Markham Street in the Annex and bought in 2003. It was in terrible shape. ‘There was a coach house in the back that was falling apart and some rooms in the house you couldn’t go in,” says Mr. Young. ‘But if you squinted you could see all the original detail was in the house. It hadn’t been maintained, but it was all there. So, the idea was to fix it, treat with respect, to make it last another hundred years.’ken straiton
Mr. Young hired two architects to help him bring the 1890 house into the 21st century. Sharon McKenzie was in charge of the home’s mechanicals, updating the plumbing, wiring and adding radiant floor heating, while John Thompson was the designer whose love of all things Japanese ensured that the interior was streamlined and as ergonomic as it was modern and simply beautiful.photos by ken straiton
‘I had no [renovation] budget,’ says Mr. Young. ‘But I had standards.’ken straiton
Mr. Young says he wanted a house that was practical and comfortable, ‘A place where I could hang pictures, and hang with my friends.’ken straiton
Original details such as the antique tile surround on two gas fireplaces were painstakingly restored with Mr. Young sometimes commandeering out-of-work musicians from nearby Kensington Market to help him pull apart the house only to rebuild it again. It was hard work and it lasted for 10 straight months.ken straiton
The three-bedroom, four-bathroom house has a new Bonaparte Red kitchen, a finished basement with additional bedrooms and a coach house converted into a studio where he is currently writing a novel.ken straiton
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To connect the main house to the coach house, Mr. Young created a fantastically lush inner courtyard planted with 13 Japanese maples and landscaped with glacial stone harvested from the Canadian Shield.ken straiton
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David Young looks up from his latest work in progress to the refreshing view from his Annex home office. ‘There had never been a plant in the backyard before,’ he says. ‘The whole of it was paved with the bricks used to build this house in 1890. The garden took years to get right. But I am a nature freak. I wanted a house that would open up to nature and where I could have dinner parties of 10 looking out into the trees even though we were in downtown Toronto.ken straiton