Bailey Roubos/Bailey Roubos/DroneHub Media Co.
66 Weirs Lane, Dundas, Ont.
Asking Price: $8-million
Taxes: $28,250 (2024)
Land Size: Five acres
Agent: John Genereaux, Sotheby’s International Realty Canada
The backstory
Artists Rebecca and David Zak moved to Dundas, Ont. from the nearby city of Burlington with the aim of nurturing creativity in their two young children.
The Dundas Valley Montessori School appealed to Ms. Zak, who has a background in art education, and Mr. Zak, who founded a business selling art supplies.
Dundas was amalgamated into the city of Hamilton in 2001, but it still has the main street and historic centre of a small town.
The couple had long dreamed of building their own home, so when a ramshackle house on a large plot of land lingered on the market for a while, they went to have a look.
The two figure most house hunters found the amount of work the old house needed too daunting.
“We actually bought it on day 365,” says Ms. Zak. “It was a DIY disaster.”
The property also falls under the protection of the Niagara Escarpment Commission and the Hamilton Conservation Authority, which oversee the natural environment.
The rural Dundas Valley, sitting below the escarpment at the western end of Lake Ontario, has a variety of landscapes, including forests, farms, recreational areas, waterfalls, wetlands and wildlife habitats, according to the HCA .
For the Zaks, the location in the midst of conservation lands, parks and trails, was part of the appeal, but they would also need to line up the necessary permits in order to build.
“We knew it was going to be a bit of an undertaking,” says Ms. Zak.
But they also figured the five-acre parcel of land would allow them a more relaxed lifestyle.
“In Burlington we had chickens and ended up getting into trouble,” says Mr. Zak. “We wanted to be in nature - we wanted chickens and bees – and no neighbours.”
The house today
The old house was torn down, and the couple was allowed to rebuild on the patch of land where it stood under the grandfather clause in planning rules, Ms. Zak says.
Ms. Zak had admired a modern house in Burlington, so she set up a meeting with the designer to talk about the couple’s vision for an eco-friendly house that would also provide a large studio for creating art.
Joel Tanner, founder of SMPL Design, came up with a scheme for a clean-lined structure inspired by the influential German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
At first Mr. Tanner envisioned a single-storey house but Ms. Zak prefers bedrooms on a separate level, so the designer added a second storey cantilevered over the first.
The exterior is clad in panels of white aluminum composite materials and contrasting sho sugi ban wood. The Japanese technique involves charring the wood to create a charcoal finish.
Primary living happens on the main floor of the 8,000-square-foot home.
The Great Room at the centre of the home includes a kitchen with integrated appliances and a 17-foot island with a cooktop and breakfast bar.
Primary living happens on the main floor of the 8,000-square-foot home.Bailey Roubos/Bailey Roubos/DroneHub Media Co.
The dining area is divided from the living room by a double-sided gas fireplace.
Large expanses of wall allow plenty of space for substantial works of art.
A wall of sliding 12-foot glass doors allows indoor-outdoor living in the warmer months. In the cooler months, family members are warmed by infrared heaters under the shelter of the cantilevered second story.
“Last year we had a New Year’s Eve party,” says Ms. Zak. “Everyone was around the gas firepit.”
There’s also a family room for watching television with the couple’s two kids and a home office with built-in desks and cabinets.
The main floor provides a gym with a mirror wall, powder room, water fountain and a sauna at one end. At the opposite end, a 1,200-square-foot studio is tucked in behind the garage.
Mr. Zak says artists often end up making art in basements or other makeshift spaces, so the couple wanted plenty of space.
“Our whole life was just making art,” he says. “We had to make sure it was big enough.”
There’s also a mud room, dog washing station, powder room and pantry.
A floating staircase with glass rail in the living area leads to the second floor.
Upstairs the home has three kids’ bedrooms with three bathrooms.
The primary suite has a bedroom and sitting area with a fireplace, a large walk-in closet with skylight and a coffee bar. The bathroom has a walk-in shower and the deep soaker tub stands beside a window overlooking the landscape.
Doors in the sleeping area slide open to an outdoor balcony.
The couple launched the project in December, 2020, when pandemic restrictions were firmly in place.
Only one of the trades could work at a time, so construction went slowly. They moved in at the end of August, 2022.
The Zaks have the use of natural gas and electricity, but their aim was to reduce their reliance on conventional sources of energy with passive technologies.
They have solar panels on the roof, geothermal heating and cooling, and heat recovery systems. There’s also a living roof with plantings that turn yellow in spring, green in summer and red in autumn.
The property includes an original outbuilding that the couple fixed up and used for their art supply operation before selling the business.
The best feature
The property is on a five-acre lot and is surrounded by conservation land.Bailey Roubos/Bailey Roubos/DroneHub Media Co.
The five acres of land includes woods and a spring-fed pond. Conservation land surrounds the property.
The family skates on the pond when the temperature dips, and they play soccer in the front yard.
Trails also meander through the land.
“The dogs know our little loop,” Ms. Zak says of their regular walks. “The dogs lead the way.”