THE LISTING 249 Bathurst St., Toronto
ASKING PRICE $1,399,000
TAXES $4,086.56 (2016)
AGENTS Sandra Pate, Lina Risi and Ken Mazurek, Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Johnston and Daniel Division
THE BACK STORY
Two years ago, architect Christie Pearson had no plans to renovate her Victorian-era house on Bathurst Street. But that was before a fire tore through a neighbouring house and spread to her own.
Ms. Pearson, her husband and their two children weren’t home at the time. She’s grateful there were no deaths or injuries in the three-alarm blaze.
The flames were quite localized to the roof of her own house, she says, but the smoke and water damage was devastating.
The family had already been hunting for a new property when the calamity happened, so they put their search on hold while they worked out what to do next. They decided to renovate 249 Bathurst for a new owner and carry on with their plans to move.
All the while, Ms. Pearson was sorting out the upheaval in their lives while also learning the ins and outs of dealing with an insurance company.
“It’s a very vulnerable moment,” she says.
Rebuilding the red-brick, circa-1885 house was a huge undertaking, Ms. Pearson says, despite the fact she’s in the building industry. Most of her practice is not in residential building, so she had to learn a new set of skills.
“You just have to throw yourself in.”
Negotiating with insurers about how best to rebuild is extremely time-consuming, she adds.
She figures that if the process was difficult for an architect, it must be even more daunting to people who have no experience or friends and colleagues they can call on for advice.
For instance, she grappled with the dilemma of whether to have the work done by the insurance company’s contractor or whether to settle on a sum to be paid out and hire her own contractor. She decided to go with the latter strategy so that she could bring in a contractor whose work she admired.
One thing she didn’t know about until she needed it was the advantage of having “code upgrade” insurance for houses more than 100 years old. Owners who are rebuilding are obligated to bring the house up to today’s codes for plumbing, electrical and building, she points out. Some insurance policies will cover that cost.
She counsels other people who run into a misfortune to seek out as much support as they can.
“If someone’s suffering or going through something tough, there are people out there who can help you.”
THE HOUSE TODAY
The house stands just two doors south of Alexander Park, which is located at the southeastern corner of Bathurst and Dundas Street West.
By the time work began on the rebuilding, the property had been sitting empty for a few months. Ms. Pearson knew the damage was extensive, but she didn’t realize the water from the firefighters’ hoses had permeated the interior all the way to the basement.
“We started with a contractor and opened it up and that’s when we saw what the water really meant,” she says.
Before the fire, the house had been duplexed, but the original layout was mainly intact.
“It was a typical Victorian plan, which is all about the corridor,” she says, adding that the house felt a bit cobbled together, as many old houses do when uses change over time.
The walls had to be stripped back to the bricks, so Ms. Pearson decided to reinterpret the interior in a way that explores the vertical space.
As catastrophic as the fire was, it brought the opportunity for renewal.
“That act exposed the glory of these houses with their high ceilings,” she says.
The main floor, with 10-foot-high ceilings, has an open plan for the living room, dining room and kitchen. She also determined that the new interior would be contemporary.
“I’m quite passionate about design. I have an ethos that would prohibit recreating another historical moment.”
She points out the craftsmanship of the late 1800s is different from the craft of today.
The Victorian elements could not be salvaged. Beautiful plaster work and wood trim had to be torn out.
“It was quite hard to see it go.”
In its place, she made the architecture as simple and as flexible as possible in the nearly 3,000 square feet of living space.
Throughout the house she aimed to keep the proportions of a Victorian house even while dispensing with all ornamentation. The baseboards are tall and the interior doors are eight feet-high.
“I would rather take that intention and express it in a way that uses contemporary techniques and materials.”
The living room, for example, has a wood-burning fireplace with a limestone surround she finds elegant and beautiful.
Throughout the house, Ms. Pearson used sound-attenuated windows framed with Douglas fir.
Upstairs, she made three comfortable bedrooms with new closets. The front bedroom has a large bay window overlooking the street.
The marble-clad bathroom has a bathtub, a walk-in shower and a large vanity. It also benefits from natural light.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges of an architect: How do you pull light into the core?” Ms. Pearson says.
For the bathroom, she used a frosted glass door that provides privacy while allowing light to filter through.
The bathtub, made in Germany of enamelled steel, is large enough to comfortably accommodate two people.
Upstairs, the third floor has been opened up to create a studio. Before the fire, a dropped ceiling made the rooms feel closed in. But when workers tore down the ceiling, the 15-foot height was revealed.
“The fire opened up this space for what it was and, seeing that, you can’t go back,” Ms. Pearson says.
The exterior of the house has been refurbished but not dramatically changed. Ms. Pearson had the bricks cleaned and the trim painted black.
“We wanted it to fit in and not stand out too much.”
Ms. Pearson points out that three-and-a-half-storey Victorian townhouses can be thought of as an example of medium-density housing. At one time, they would have housed a family with servants. Over the years, some have provided shelter for a single family while others have been divided up into multiple flats.
She believes reconfiguring buildings to adapt to peoples’ changing needs is a good practice.
“I’m pro-planning and smart density,” she says.
While the house is open and designed for a single family now, Ms. Pearson thought carefully about how it could be gracefully converted in the future.
“It should have that flexibility.”
She kept a partition along the stairs to the second floor, for example, instead of leaving them open. That design would make it simple to create a main-floor living space that’s separate from the upstairs.
The third floor has an outdoor terrace already. Pipes are behind the walls so a future owner could add plumbing for a kitchen and create a separate flat. Another owner might decide to make it into a luxurious master-bedroom haven.
Outside, the backyard provides space for a large cedar deck. It’s shaded by one of the few surviving elm trees in Toronto after Dutch elm disease devastated most of the species.
“It’s got some great genes,” Ms. Pearson says.
She has also enjoyed living so close to historic Alexandra Park. The 2.7-hectare park has a community garden, children’s playground, outdoor swimming pool, winter skating rink and summer skateboarding area.
Ms. Pearson points out that Bathurst Street and Alexandra Park connect such vibrant neighbourhoods as Kensington Market and Trinity Bellwoods, as well as Queen Street West.
She and her family enjoy going out for dinner often, she says. Sometimes, they’ll head east to Spadina Avenue for Chinese food, or north to Dundas Street West for its variety of new restaurants and cafés. Ossington Avenue is the best stretch for expensive cocktails, she says.
Days after the house was listed for sale, it sold for the full asking price.
THE BEST FEATURE
The kitchen has been designed with Douglas fir cabinets, a large centre island and high-end appliances that include a dual-fuel range.
The rear wall has been replaced with a 10-foot high sliding door that opens to the garden and the treetops.
“Opening this up, now we’re in the park,” Ms. Pearson says of the view.