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'Forget hair," says Ray Civello, while striding into what used to be a dirt-floored cellar. "This is the ultimate makeover. You can't believe what it used to look like!"
The president of Civello salons is talking about his custom wine cellar, made of teak, tiled with marble and sporting eight-foot ceilings, housed in the lower level of his arts-and-crafts-style Rosedale house. Large windows lend the basement a light, bright and airy feel.
The bounce in his walk continues up the stairs to the second and third floors where there are six spacious bedrooms, each designed with the spare, clean style of his eponymous salons. Buddha heads and meditation mats dot the corners. On the walls are examples of Mr. Civello's latest venture, portrait photography, a skill he has been honing on frequent trips to the Indian subcontinent. The aroma of Aveda's Shampure fragrance candle permeates the entire house, accentuating its aura of calmness.Originally built in the 1920s on a leafy cul-de-sac that abuts Rosedale Park, the house had been a duplex for decades. Mr. Civello, who renovates and resells prestige houses as a sideline, stumbled on the property two years ago, while jogging in the neighbourhood where he has lived, on and off, for close to 10 years.
Mr. Civello says he wanted to transform the home into an urban retreat where he could unwind at the end of his busy day. This meant opening up the interior to encourage a flow of natural light, and creating a back-of-house addition to contain a new contemporary kitchen with a tailored family room overlooking a landscaped garden.
"When I first walked in, I wondered if I should keep it as a duplex, and rent it out," he says. "But then I decided to convert it back to what it had originally been, an elegant single-family residence, and move in myself."
- HOUSE: Three-storey house at 37 St. Andrews Gdns.
- ASKING PRICE: $3.295-million
- TAXES (2007): $11,052.85
- NUMBER OF BEDROOMS: Four plus two
- NUMBER OF BATHROOMS: Five
- OPEN HOUSE: Today, 2 to 4 p.m.
- LISTING AGENTS: James Warren, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., 416-489-2121, and Ross Anicai, Homemarket Realty, Inc., 416-760-9090.
Open House ends with this last column.
