A PIECE OF PARIS
Glebe home transformed
Andrew Cameron and Susan D’Antoni planned on living in Paris for only two years.
They packed their belongings, said goodbye to their friends and locked the doors to their Glebe home thinking they would return in short time.
But two years quickly became two decades.
The couple, who have now been together for 35 years, fell in love with the Parisian lifestyle. The culture. The art galleries. The opera. In one of their apartments they could peer out of their windows and see Napoleon’s Tomb on one side and the Eiffel Tower on the other.
Cameron and D’Antoni described leaving Ottawa for Paris as a “new adventure” but after twenty years, were ready to embark on another one — retirement.
“One of my colleagues from Eastern Europe said ‘you can have comfort for the body or comfort for the soul where you live, but you can’t have both’ and I think that’s right. Paris was definitely comfort for the soul but it was rough on the body at times,” said D’Antoni.
At a time when they needed a home that would allow them to age in comfort, the house they returned to after twenty years didn’t fit the bill.
It just so happened the house directly across the street from them was up for sale. They bought it, knowing it would take a lengthy and costly amount of work to transform it into the home of their dreams.
To make their vision a reality they hired veteran renovator Christopher Simmonds of Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc. to transform the nondescript, outdated Glebe house into an elegant and bright home reminiscent of their time in Paris.
And that he did. Floor-to-ceiling windows, cast iron railings and greyish-white stucco make the exterior of the home look as if it’s a timeless piece of French architecture nestled between two classic Glebe homes with red and brown brickwork.
The newly renovated home has five bedrooms, three full bathrooms and two powder rooms. There is a finished basement, two main floors and an attic with a bedroom for the homeowner’s grandchildren.
The interior is decorated with cool, neutral tones and boasts a selection of artwork and furniture from Paris. Double French doors separate many of the rooms. The exterior of the home overlooks Brown’s Inlet, adjacent to the Rideau Canal.
“It’s an appropriate setting that we couldn’t have designed,” said Simmonds. He aptly named the renovation ‘A Piece of Paris’ and it was chosen as the 2017 GOHBA Housing Design Awards winner in the category Renovation $500,001 and over.
It was also designed so that Cameron and D’Antoni would be able to age in place. Simmonds and his team added a wheelchair accessible entrance to the side of the home, an elevator to move between floors, a walk-in shower and made all entryways wide enough to fit a wheelchair, if needed.
The complete renovation took over a year and the only elements of the original home that remain are wall and roof framing. The inside was a complete gut-job leaving only the original stairwell.
“The older the house the harder it is,” said Simmonds, to keep its original elements. This house in particular, built in the 1920s, had been damaged by a fire and needed a completely new basement after it became clear the concrete was not repairable.
Simmonds’s team also added an addition to the rear of the house, making it a five-bedroom home with three full bathrooms and two powder rooms, perfect for family gatherings and neighbourhood gettogethers.
While Cameron and D’Antoni can no longer stroll down the Champ de Mars, their fond memories of Paris collected over twenty years live on in their Ottawa home.
One of my colleagues from Eastern Europe said ‘you can have comfort for the body or comfort for the soul where you live, but you can’t have both’.