Mid-century makeover in Uplands
The 1950 split-level needed TLC, but Stephen Bond saw lots of potential, and embarked on a three-year reno
It’s hard to believe this house was once considered a teardown, but that’s how it looked several years ago when its new owner first set eyes upon it, and before a massive renovation began. “It was a great price, considering its Uplands location and water glimpses in the winter,” said Stephen Bond, who retired this year, after moving here from Vancouver five years ago. “I liked the style and the living room blew me away. I could see it had lot of potential, but it looked like the house had not been maintained for 30 years and the garden was horribly overgrown.”
Built in 1950, the mid-century modern home was typical of its era, but tastes change and Bond wanted a place that was attractive, practical and functional.
He didn’t like the closed-in kitchen with its low, flat ceiling, so he did what many do these days and opened it up to the dining room, and had his builder carry the vaulted ceiling through from the living room.
Max Huxley also extended the dining room by two feet, since the foundation there was inadequate and needed replacing anyway, and the result is a roomier feeling on the main floor, also thanks to a wall of sliding glass that beckons to a back patio and a new garden scene designed by Robert DeGros Landscapes.
“It was your usual old house with no flow into the garden,” said Huxley.
“And I think it scared people because there was so much needing to be done. It had not been maintained well.”
But, he added, the split-level style is very workable.
‘We don’t build splitlevel homes anymore, but it’s actually very efficient, because the upper floor is not up a full flight of stairs, and the lower level is not deep in the ground. You can still walk out at grade.”
The owner loves his new home, although it took a while to achieve.
“I budgeted the renovation so it was done in phases over three years,” said Bond, 49, who was raised here and moved to London with a degree in information systems.
He became a partner in a consulting firm that did program management for large British financial institutions and also worked in New York, Washington DC, Houston and San Francisco.
The three-part reno began with the upper floor, and included all the “heavy lifting” throughout the house — replacing the oil heat, electric wiring, plumbing, taking out an old chimney and putting on a new roof.
In the second year came the main living area, entry, kitchen and dining room, which used to be three rooms, including a vestibule and small den.
The third year saw creation of a large family room and office downstairs. “That area was horrific to begin with — all wood panelling, with a gigantic wood-burning stove and horrible tile,” Bond said.
“We took the whole house down to the studs, removed all the old panelling, which was everywhere except the kitchen, and had been wallpapered, and painted, and wallpapered and painted.”
Parquet was replaced with engineered walnut flooring in the 3,400-square foot home, upstairs windows were almost tripled in size, a skylight was added to the master ensuite and a five-metre-wide sliding door was installed in the dining room.
The bedrooms previously had almost no closets, but by removing a central chimney, old pantry and laundry cupboard, they gained more
The master bedroom was previously a huge open area with a narrow closet running down one side, and a small bathroom with cedar walls. The space now has a large walk-through dressing room, builtin shelves and roomy new ensuite.
Toronto designer Rodney Deeprose, a long-time friend of Bond’s, agreed to help, although he typically works on mega-million dollar homes back east.
“In doing renos like these, you have to take problems and turn them into features,” he advised.
For instance, the original fireplace had an awkward area at the left, so he designed a built-in cabinet to fill the dead space and painted the brick to match the wall. He also extended the raised hearth to the wall and topped it with black granite.
For the living room floor, he designed a colour-blocked carpet that was custommade but inexpensive, as Bond was reluctant to spend a lot of money on it.
“He has a cat that rules the roost.”
Because it needed to be large, a hand-made one wouldn’t suit. “So I used a standard broadloom in a variety of colours and had the installer bind the edges.”
The carpet adds a pop of colour in the neutral-palette house.
While Deeprose believes in the maxim that form follows function, he was also aware of budget concerns and ensured the carpet pieces were large, to require less seaming. The total cost was $1,750.
“If a person were game, they could try doing this with remnants,” he suggested.
When Deeprose first saw the house, he was startled — “I thought Stephen had made a mistake” — but he is pleased with the result.
Bond paid a significant amount of money to do a total gut, and lived through all the renos, which is not something he would recommend to anyone else. “But it was a great project and turned out beautifully.”
The home is located between two roads, with a broad garden at the front and narrower one in the back.
It required a major makeover, because it was completely overgrown, said Rob DeGros, who designed all the hardscapes and plantings.
“But what the garden had going for it was a nice Garry oak woodland feel with a high canopy, and beautiful dappled shade.”
Under the high oaks, he added mid-level plantings of magnolias and Japanese maples, for a light, airy feel and softer foliage. Beneath that, he used a variety of tassel ferns, soft shield ferns and sword ferns. “The mix is interesting and gives different textures and colours for a more natural look.”
A giant laurel hedge off the lower family room was removed, since it used up too much space It was replaced with a side patio fringed with Japanese forest grass and Himalayan boxwood.
A stream in the back garden has a waterfall that flows into a collection of river rocks.
It requires less space and maintenance than a large pond, but still offers beautiful sound and movement. “It helps bring life to a garden,” said DeGros.
Bond spent about $170,000 on exterior landscaping, including sound-deadening, pre-cast concrete fencing, patios, pathways, plantings and more. Renovations to the home totalled about $630,000, but he said he has likely tripled the value of the home.