Home of the Week: Infill that fills a buyer niche
Home of the Week, 1549 Dundas St. E., Toronto. Asking price: $1,187,500. Sold for: $1,146,000. Builder G Elrayyes found the property in the spring of 2013 and demolished most of the 1970s-era bungalow that sat on the lot. ‘Everybody opens up a modern home magazine and says ‘wow,’ ’ Mr. Elrayyes says. ‘But no one is willing to take that risk to build it … to just put on the market and see.’
Mr. Elrayyes built a modern house with a typical cubic exterior and an open-concept interior. The house is also very airy thanks to an open main floor. At the front door, the room unfurls in front of you. And with its 10-foot ceilings and the absence of any walls, pillars or posts, it feels much larger than its 656.5-square-foot imprint. The openness doesn’t just lend itself to rearranging furniture. It’s also ideal for parties, said Mr. Elrayyes, who once hosted a 70-person event in the house.
Small details inside stand out: all of the lights are LED, there’s a pot-filler tap in the kitchen and the wood for the floors was stained on site to ensure consistency.
Another example of how Mr. Elrayyes added to the house is his use of skylights. There isn’t a single room in the house (with the exception of the basement bathroom and mechanical room) that doesn’t have a source of natural light. That includes two boxed-in rooms on the upper floor. To give them light, Mr. Elrayyes added generous skylights with solar-powered blinds.
The master suite is Mr. Elrayyes’ favourite part of the home. It’s not an outlandishly big room. A king-sized bed feels appropriate, not lost. Flanking the bed are floating bedside tables and a boxy light fixture that runs the lengths of the headboard and can change to a number of colours, including lavender, baby blue and orange. These are attached to an accent wall made out of exposed pine, warming up the otherwise clean space.
The master bathroom is a mix of old and new design ideas. It’s got the separate water closet for maximum privacy and the traditional double vanity. But it also has a luxurious double shower and a stand-alone tub.
The master suite also has a walk-out balcony that overlooks the backyard and once the foliage comes in, it’s largely secluded from neighbouring yards.