So, you've decided to renovate.
Problem is, you're overwhelmed by images from dozens of TV renovation shows that promise results in a week, and from shelter magazines that highlight homes so perfect, a wet dog or a kid bashing toys against the wainscotting would look as out of place as monkeys ripping up the drapery.
What you need are real people who've gone through the process to give you real-life timelines, costs, frustrations and triumphs — and, yes, even the will to go on.
Tomorrow, the Canadian Cancer Society launches its Bloor West Village Home Reno Tour. Based on the society's successful Kingsway Christmas House Tour (held bi-yearly since 1988), the new event will feature 10 very different houses whose owners have agreed to open their doors — and, in some cases, their renovation ledgers — to help foster a better understanding of what can be a frustrating yet rewarding process.
One participating owner is architect Charles Gane, 51, whose house is nestled beside High Park on dead-end Wendigo Way. For many of us, messed-up millwork or a botched paint job might be sources of frustration in a reno, but for Mr. Gane it was having to start from scratch when, in 2002, an arsonist torched his home after it had been almost completely renovated. "So we rebuilt it completely, again," he says matter-of-factly, pointing to the burned stump of a century-old oak that perished in the fire, which he considers an even greater tragedy.
Mr. Gane's home was a simple 1-1/2-storey bungalow when he discovered it in 1998. (It was like the existing one next door that is about to be demolished to make way for a house designed by Mr. Gane.) For the first few years, he and his wife lived on the main floor while renting out the tiny top floor.
"Whenever I'd [go upstairs] to fix the fridge or something, I'd always say 'Wow, what a great view,' and I thought if I ever do a renovation, I would move up [there]," he remembers.
He expanded and cantilevered the second floor over the original footprint of the first, and installed the windows demanded by that "great view." With this design, it was only logical to locate the principal living areas upstairs.
Now, the first floor houses the bedrooms, while the atrium-like second floor accommodates a massive 15-foot kitchen island that "organizes the whole space." Bookending the central kitchen are two living areas: one with a fireplace for the adults and the one with a television for the couple's two boys — Oliver, 8, and Finlay, 6.
Mr. Gane's experience as a loft-condominium designer (he's a principal at Core Architects) shows in his happy obsession with the structural details of the 2,000-square-foot home, such as the exposed-bolt, beamed ceiling and the outdoor "bridge" to the backyard, fabricated from city sidewalk grates. (He had to demonstrate they were safe and unclimbable before the city would approve them.)
He stresses that the key to a successful renovation is keeping the materials palette simple. All of the stone, for example, is Algonquin limestone and many of the lighting fixtures repeat throughout the space, which, rather than looking like overkill or lacking in inspiration, actually help them blend into the background.
"There's one design," he says. "People always think they need to reinvent — I don't know why, they have enough things going on in a renovation anyway — but every bathroom is different, every moulding is different."
Another house on the tour, situated on Brumell Avenue in the Baby Point neighbourhood, demonstrates just how effective a simple palette can be, but this time in a heritage context.
Owners Janine and Iain MacDonald had considered moving out of the then two-storey home built in 1923. Instead, they painstakingly and lovingly renovated it, turning it into exactly what they wanted.
"We'd been looking for about three years for a bigger home in the area," Ms. MacDonald recalls. "Every house requires changes to make it the way you would like it, so why not do it here? Iain has wanted an en suite bath and a walk-in closet for years."
He got much more than that. There's a large addition off the first-floor kitchen and dining room, and the basement is now supremely livable after the floor was lowered 18 inches and a media centre was added. A third storey was added to house the master bedroom, with Mr. MacDonald's en suite bathroom — complete with steam shower — and walk-in closet. The latter also fulfils a dream Ms. MacDonald had by incorporating a stacked washer and dryer. (Their contractor set the appliances on a custom-built pan with drain.)
Surprisingly, the fiftysomething couple are only the third owners of the home, which they think explains why so many of the 1920s and '30s details are intact, such as the dining room's magnificent cherry wood panelling and the original staircase. Not only did these sell them on the home when they bought in 1986, it's what has guided the renovation. "What we've tried to do is maintain the theme so the house looks, in theory, as if it had been like this from the very beginning," Mr. MacDonald explains.
While they've created quite an energy-efficient home by removing every single wall to add spray-foam insulation, it's the attention to heritage details that's most striking. When a small wall was removed in the foyer, one side of the staircase was left bare, so a matching newel post, banister and balusters were created, which are indistinguishable from the originals. Ms. MacDonald — who quit her job as a banker a few years ago to study pottery at Sheridan College — designed replicas of the original bevelled-glass windows that now populate the entire home.
They've learned a great deal since sitting down to exchange ideas with architect Charles Bunker in the spring of 2005, and they have much advice to share on dealing with a project of this magnitude: "Move out, be patient, do as much research as you can and then be flexible while you're going through it," Ms. MacDonald suggests.
"My dad always said, 'Nothing is rocket science except rocket science.' You can do almost anything you set your mind to."
The Bloor West Village Home Reno Tour is self-directed and houses will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. All proceeds will go to Canadian Cancer Society research and other programs. Tickets cost $30 and are limited to 1000, and can be obtained by calling 416-231-1118, or picked up at the Toronto West office of the society, 5359 Dundas St. West, Suite 300, or at Sutton Group — Old Mill Realty Inc. at 4237 Dundas St. West. Both locations will be open Nov. 10 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
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