69 Otter Cres., Toronto
Price: $4,849,000
Taxes: $19,960.68 (2025)
Lot size: 55 by 192 feet
Listing agent: Nora Rosemond, Chestnut Park Real Estate
This North Toronto neighbourhood is quiet with a diverse variety of homes and no sidewalks.Robert Holowka/Robert Holowka/Birdhouse Media
The backstory
For thirty-plus years, the Rastrick family have held innumerable barbecue parties in their North Toronto home, entertaining neighbours, the sports teams of their three children and business clients. The secret sauce for successful hosting: don’t do the grilling yourself.
“I hate to barbecue,” said Roy Rastrick, who said he felt the pressure of competing with his wife’s cooking and also found it easier to entertain guests if he handed off the tongs so he could circulate. “My wife is a perfectionist, it’s tough to match what she can do in the oven with the roast beef. She’d tell the fathers ‘Don’t make eye contact with Roy, otherwise you’re barbecuing for the day.’”
When they first bought the home in 1993 the back garden already had a pool, but the pool house/cabana had seen better days and the house was a more modest bungalow. They lived in it for a few years, “to find out what’s wrong with it” said Mr. Rastrick. They completed a renovation in 1995 that almost doubled the house’s size, revamped the patio and pool deck, added a hot-tub and new cabana (complete with bar, showers and washrooms) and launched their career as a neighbourhood destination.
“We made it very private,” said Mr. Rastrick. “We put a lot of trees down both sides of the property so if you walk into the back garden you don’t see anyone.” There’s a gazebo at the bottom of the yard that has even been used for weddings, including Mr. Rastrick’s sister.
“We have this magnificent willow tree, and we were able to bunch it up and gather it and tie it with silk bows,” said Barbara Rastrick, who also keeps a greenhouse on the site. She admits much of the plantings are perennials and landscapers have helped the couple keep on top of the lush setting over the decades.
They’ve made changes over the years but haven’t chased trends, aiming for a timeless home that doesn’t feel dated.
“I think our house is cozy, very comfortable,” said Mrs. Rastrick. “People feel at home here.”
The Rastrick family bought this Toronto home in 1993 and renovated it in 1995, almost doubling the size.Robert Holowka/Robert Holowka/Birdhouse Media
The house today
Otter Crescent is one of those streets in Toronto that crams in a variety of classic home designs while also feeling semirural, with huge trees and no sidewalks.
The Rastrick house is two storeys with a full basement, but its roofline is lower than its neighbours so it retains a bungalow-like feel.
This house has echoes of a cottage in the English countryside that’s been added to over generations. It’s not like some contemporary homes that feature large atriums – it has chambers and pathways, rooms you walk through to find other rooms. On the second level, some of the attic-like ceilings with slants and angles add to the feeling of a cozy cottage. Everywhere there is the sort of solid wood trim and crown moulding and cornices that are decorative without being baroque and fanciful.
The front entrance (under a columned portico with a small balcony above; columns do reappear as a motif elsewhere in the home) opens to a foyer in travertine tile with a staircase that climbs upstairs at a 90-degree angle from the entryway. To either side, the house opens into wings: on the right is a front sitting room with a fireplace that connects to the formal dining room, which in turn takes you the long way to the back of the kitchen.
The kitchen has a deluxe Aga stove and breakfast nook that faces the street.Robert Holowka/Robert Holowka/Birdhouse Media
The quicker way to the kitchen is around to the left, where an eat-in breakfast nook facing the street connects to the kitchen behind that holds down the centre of the main floor plan. The always-on Aga stove (with its different drawers of cooking temperature that Sunday dinners can be shuffled through in phases) anchors the room and an L-shaped run of cream-coloured upper and lower cabinets bracket the central island in rustic green. The back wall is a series of windows and doors that open out into the back yard.
Off the kitchen is a powder room and mud room (with connection to the garage), and on the back of the house is another sitting room that extends into the patio with more double doors facing the pool; a little bit like a Muskoka room with its fireplace. This is Mr. Rastrick’s refuge spot.
“Sitting there I’ve got the pleasure of watching my wife cook with a glass of wine on a Sunday,” he said.
Upstairs there are four bedrooms, all done a little different; one still bright chartreuse pink from one of the two daughters, with its own pink-accented ensuite bath; another is a bit more restrained with beige bookshelf-lined walls. The primary suite looks onto the backyard and has a large his-and-hers ensuite bath (sink and vanities on opposite walls leading to a large soaker tub and walk-in shower) attached.
In the basement, there’s a huge L-shaped recreation room with billiard table and media space (once decorated like a secret garden for the children, says Mrs. Rastrick, these days a more sedate brick-red like a pub) as well as a fifth bedroom and office space with another fireplace.
Golden years
There’s probably not one trick that is the secret to a married couple enjoying the same home for 30 years while raising three children; but amicably agreeing to watch TV separately appears to help.
“I find Roy and I have different tastes in what we like to watch; we have two different rooms, he can stay in one and I go to the other,” said Mrs. Rastrick, who tends to take the TV room in the front of the house, while her husband camps out in the TV room next to the kitchen. For family watching events, they might all crowd into the basement media room.
The plan is to downsize now and give over the barbecue duties to a new family.