REBUILDING FROM WITHIN
Modern home emerges
In 2006, Chris Timura saw a 1930s Colonial house for sale by owner while he was out walking in a neighbourhood with one of his sons.
Drawn by the back yard with a pond and easy access to the subway, he and his wife, Elise Frasier, moved quickly to buy it. But they outgrew the house.
The circuitous configuration of the interior made it difficult to get from the living room to the back yard to enjoy their garden and patios.
In addition, because the house had only two bedrooms, their two sons, ages 10 and 12, had to share a bedroom. “An important thing was to gain a bedroom,” their architect, Robert Gurney, said. The couple also wanted more open space and views of the outdoors.
The original above-grade house was approximately 2,300 square feet, including the lower level.
The couple ultimately reached a crossroads and had to decide among several options: move; renovate; renovate and enlarge; or tear it down and start from scratch.
Ultimately, money helped dictate their decision. They took an unusual approach: They opted to rebuild within the footprint of their house, using the original exterior walls and constructing a 700-square-foot addition.
“We weren’t interested in building a massive house,” said Timura. “We had a budget we had to stick within. Otherwise, it was out-ofpocket or do it ourselves.”
They both wanted a house with “a modern sensibility,” so Frasier began to search for an architect who specialized in modern architecture. They liked Gurney’s work.
“We knew the spaces we needed, but we didn’t picture what they would all look like,” Frasier said. Each son would have his own room, there would be an office for Frasier, who is a development editor, and an open living and dining space and kitchen.
For Timura and Frasier, the most important goals were to be able to enjoy their house and their outdoor space. “We were spending about all our time in one room of the house. We wanted more usable space,” Frasier said.
The couple had sketched out their idea of what could be done with the house. But Gurney had his own vision of how to get the most out of the house. “The centre stairwell had to go,” he told them. “There were elements that he could see right from the beginning,” Frasier said. “This wasn’t a teardown. It was a renovation.”
The original footprint of the house remained, but the Colonial style was replaced with a modern cube with windows that created a light-filled structure.
The upstairs space was reconfigured into four bedrooms — the master with a bath, a separate bedroom for each of their sons and, the fourth, to be used as a home office for Frasier. It also doubles as a guest room. With an additional workroom/bedroom on the lower level, the house was transformed from its original two bedrooms to five.
Windows bring in plenty of light on the first floor, and two clerestory windows in the upstairs hallway draw in even more light.
They agreed with Gurney on the “overall esthetic” of the house, Frasier said. The challenge was how to transform it within their budget. Timura and Frasier declined to disclose the cost of the renovation, but experts said similar renovations could cost US$300 to US$400 per square foot. “We all initially thought we’d have to preserve the facade of the house at the front — the Colonial look — and concentrate only on the interior and rear exterior,” Frasier said. “When we realized that it would be within our budget to revise the full exterior, too,” they moved forward.
Gurney was able to translate their dreams into a home that works for them.
The lower level used to be reserved only for doing laundry, but the renovation renewed the space. “We wanted to get a lot out of a small area — a functioning workshop that doubled as a guest room, a separate living and entertaining area with a wet bar, a laundry room, a bathroom, and storage space,” Frasier said. “The whole basement area gets a ton of everyday use now.”
Although the couple sketched out ideas for what they wanted, they realized Gurney’s expertise could create something better than they had imagined.
For example, Gurney explained to them that the centre staircase should be eliminated to optimize living space and light.
The key to the transformation is Gurney’s signature style of using as much natural light as possible.
“They wanted to incorporate green, sustainable elements into the project,” Gurney said. So the house relies on glass throughout to capture natural light. Insulated glass keeps the heat out during the summer and in during the winter. Between the windows and the frame of the house, spray-foam insulation expands to fill gaps. A rain-screen system creates an airspace between the back of the siding and the actual wall of the house to “let the house breathe a lot better.” In short, that means the house does not retain humidity, Gurney said.
The combination of the wood siding with grey stucco and charcoal fibre-cement panels allows the house to “recede into the leafy, tree-lined street,” Gurney said. The result is a compact structure that subtly draws the eye.
The first floor houses the main living spaces with an open floor plan. Windows at the front of the house light up the dining area; across the back of the house, floorto-ceiling windows in the kitchen and living space intensify the light and showcase views of the back yard. Four bedrooms are on the
second floor, where ceiling heights vary between approximately 14 and 15 feet in the bedroom of one of the couple’s sons to 10 feet in the other son’s bedroom.
Neither Frasier nor Timura
say the project was easy, but they think the results were worth the effort.
“It is a relaxing place to be,” Timura said.