1164 Danforth Rd., Prince Edward County, Ont.
Asking price: $1,386,000
Lot size: 301 by 361 feet
Taxes: $3,566 (2025)
Listing agent: Faye Moxam, Jenna Ash DeMille, Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd.
The backstory
A debate over what is the best kind of vacation property in Ontario’s Prince Edward County might break down along the lines of whether it should be more rural, more historic or more modern. Or you might just combine all those elements: a modern farmhouse with an 1850s core.
That’s what the Sugarmans – Aaron and Caroline – did when they bought a little more than two acres surrounded by wineries just west of the village of Wellington (a community known for its farmer’s market, restaurant scene and home to the Drake Devonshire boutique hotel). They had owned a home in Prince Edward County since 2016, but in 2019 saw the potential for something new.
A view from the kitchen.Ben Spence/OneLook Productions Inc.
“The previous owners had a workshop, and they did some work in iron, and we had a couple of pieces done, so we got to know them from seeing the shop and seeing the house,” Mr. Sugarman said. “It was an old white farmhouse with 1950s additions that were covered in asbestos tile. The back wall of the house was just hemlock boards, with no insulation.”
They bought the home, and work got under way to renovate in late 2019. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the work down, but when the sawdust cleared, they had a new space.
“This was going to be a weekend home,” said Mrs. Sugarman, but you couldn’t have found a better reason to make a more permanent move to country living. “In July of 2020, we moved in and never left. We slept in our Toronto house for one night in 2021.”
From the outside, it looks like a brand-new building was constructed with the exterior clad completely in crisp grey barn board. Actually, it’s a shell of new construction on the outside that provides highly energy-efficient insulation without losing any of the interior space. The bones of the 19th-century structure remain, and in some places have been exposed for the first time in decades.
The house today
The original front door to the farmhouse faced the main road, but a curving drystone wall cordons off the old entryway and gently pushes visitors to a long porch off of a flat-roofed addition on the back of the house. This very large veranda sits under a deep L-shaped roof that provides shade for the various outdoor leisure options (chairs, log benches, even a hammock) that sit next to the new main entrance.
The cladding on the addition is a little different; it runs in horizontal planks for one (unlike the vertical barnboard everywhere else) and is wood treated in the Japanese shou sugi ban method, where it was literally scorched with fire to weather-treat it.
“If you’re standing or sitting on the deck, you don’t see anybody,” Mrs. Sugarman said. “You see farm fields, you see a protected wetland.” She adds that, even though the neighbours are a five-minute walk away, you are almost more likely to see local birds like cranes and bitterns than other people.
The couple's ecoconscious architect encouraged them to install a sleek, but efficient woodstove instead of an open fireplace.Ben Spence/OneLook Productions Inc.
The foyer opens into the new addition centred by the kitchen. Vivid blue millwork on the island and lower cabinets is topped by natural wood, with stone slabs for prep surfaces. There are no upper cabinets, though there are some open shelves, making space for chunky bronze and stainless steel fixtures for the lights and oven range hood. Their ecoconscious architect insisted on a sleek but efficient woodstove instead of an open fireplace. There are windows on three sides of the room (including a set of double doors that walk out to the rear of the lot) with a pass-through view to the front windows through the entryway.
“You have 360 [degree] views, which is awesome when you’ve got the wheat planted and our wildflowers,” said Mr. Sugarman. The couple runs an executive coaching business together called WYSIWYG Co. – an old computer science acronym for “what you see is what you get.” It’s both a coaching philosophy and a description of their approach to the home’s design.
“When you are looking at something and you believe it’s difficult and challenging, that’s a filter that you have,” said Mrs. Sugarman. “We help them see what their filter is, on themselves, on the world, and on the task at hand. When you can identify that they have the option to switch it to something that’s going to help them see what they want.”
And it’s not just a metaphorical change in perspective that helps: literally getting up and moving is beneficial to new thinking. The Sugarmans encourage clients to get away from the Zoom meetings and get outside for a walking meeting.
“Being in nature is really important for human beings to do,” said Mr. Sugarman. He says he can stand in almost any room in the house, turn his head, and have a new view into nature. “We wanted it to be a glass box; it feels like you’re outside.”
There are treasures inside the house as well. In the main room of the house, a happy accident led to the exposure of hundred-year-old wood beams in the ceiling.
“We had a tin ceiling with all this lead paint, and they just could not get rid of it. They said: ‘You’re going to have to take the ceiling down.’ But when they did, it gave us almost a foot more of height and the appearance – it was perfect,” said Mrs. Sugarman.
The contrast of sleek contemporary furniture under the hand-hewn beams from a pre-industrial era in the living room carries into the large bedroom (just past the old front door) on the main floor, with a very crisp and modern ensuite bathroom tucked around the corner of that room.
At the top of the stairs is an office/library made more cozy by the angled attic walls, but the primary suite takes advantage of the vaulting peak of the roofline (with some more exposed wood stringers) to provide a little more wow factor. Tucked under the eaves is a full ensuite bathroom with an infrared sauna.
A third bedroom is like a smaller version of this same room, this time with a claw-foot soaker tub in the ensuite (the laundry room is tucked under the other eaves).
The Sugarmans take breaks in their infrared sauna several times a week, at a minimum.Ben Spence/OneLook Productions Inc.
A warm glow
Perhaps the couple’s favourite room is the infrared sauna on the second floor, which they had removed from their Toronto home and installed here.
“It was the best investment,” said Mr. Sugarman, who jokes that his main goal was to use it “to survive the Canadian winter.” Sauna breaks have other benefits beyond warmth.
The couple takes breaks together in the sauna, have business planning meetings in the sauna; they find themselves taking to the heat several times a week, at a minimum. The speed of the infrared sauna coming to temperature is a major bonus.
“If we have an hour, you just turn it on and five minutes later it’s ready,” said Mrs. Sugarman. “Sometimes I’ll sneak a book in or maybe my phone. Oftentimes I have a nap … it’s rejuvenating.”
Don’t knock it till you try it, Mr. Sugarman said.
“We’re all in danger of getting too into our heads: a sauna puts you back in your body, it’s a real sensory experience,” he said.
The house sold early this week for $1,375,000.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said the asking price for the home was $1,375,000. The asking price was $1,386,000. (Sept. 26, 2025) A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the home sold for $1,370,000. The selling price was $1,375,000.