A renovation to grow into
Leslieville house becomes a modern family dwelling
Tessa Steenstra and her husband, Andy Saavedra, prove the theory that opposites attract.
While she was raised in a six-bedroom farmhouse surrounded by acres of land in southwestern Ontario, he grew up in an apartment in London, England, that didn’t even have a balcony.
Their contrasting childhoods made for interesting conversations when it came time to find a Toronto home in which to raise their own family.
Six years ago, when Steenstra was eight months pregnant with their son, Mattias, the couple finally settled on an eclectic four-bedroom, one-bathroom semi-detached home in Leslieville.
Saavedra, 41, immediately dubbed it a “mansion” with a “palatial-sized garden,” while Steenstra, 39, admitted it had good bones.
It was the type of house their family — which now includes 3-year-old daughter Emme — could grow into without having to build a third storey or any new additions.
But growing into the house meant a ton of work.
A previous rec room addition to the back of the house needed to be redone and properly insulated.
Another previous owner built a second garage addition that he used as a workshop, so a major overhaul was needed to make use of that extra space, too.
Plus, the inside and outside of the house had been painted in various shades of purple, blue, red and orange.
“What we saw was that it was a little unique; it had so much potential,” Steenstra says.
The couple, who work for Scotiabank, paid $580,000 for the home in 2011. And since money was tight with two maternity leaves so close together, they decided to wait and get out of the baby phase before throwing themselves into costly renovations.
In 2015, they were selected to participate in an HGTV home renovation show called The Expandables, but the city of Toronto wouldn’t issue permits in time because of questions over the previous additions.
“It all fell apart two weeks before filming,” Steenstra says. “It was so heartbreaking!”
Since they had to go to the Committee of Adjustment, get the land surveyed and have all of the drawings completed, it took another year to regroup and prepare for the renovations. The work finally began this past January and was completed 3- 1⁄ months later.
2 “That kind of allowed us to figure out what we wanted the space to be, rather than rushing into a reno up front,” Steenstra says. “It gave us five years to just live in the space and dream about it and think about it. I really like the way it worked out.”
The family found a $2,000-amonth Airbnb rental home in the neighbourhood for the duration of the renovation, which was led by 3 Stones Custom Homes.
“Our contractors were amazing; you hear about all these projects that go on and on and on, and never end; they were right on schedule. Everything was awesome,” Steenstra says, adding they spent $10,000 on plumbing, $11,000 on electrical and $21,000 on HVAC.
Designer Lesley Brookes was hired to turn their reno dreams into a reality, creating a beautiful new openconcept kitchen, dining and living space.
Half of the garage was also converted into a large mud room with second bathroom. And what was once a cold rec room is now a warm sunken TV room with heated flooring and a full wall of built-ins.
“Renovations in Toronto are very expensive these days, so we had to keep budget in mind,” Brookes says.
She says a lot of IKEA cabinetry was used throughout, and was made to look more customized by blending it with some custom work from their contractor and adding expensive fixtures.
The bathroom also got a more customized look, thanks to a new skylight. “When it’s daylight and the sun is coming into the bathroom, it shines on the floor on a nice pattern,” Brookes says.
The kitchen budget came in at $27,000, with the family splurging on their countertops so the space would have a more customized look.
“They put in a faux marble quartz countertop, which a lot people are doing these days because it doesn’t stain like a true marble would,” Brookes says, adding the veining in the countertop makes it look like marble.
And since Steenstra was concerned about having dirty dishes on display while entertaining in her new openconcept kitchen, Brookes came up with an idea to raise the island and hide the mess.
“One little part is raised so that when you’re in the living room and you look toward the kitchen, you don’t see what’s on the island, you just see these cabinets with the countertop,” she says. “You’re still open, but you’re not really seeing the dishes and what’s going on.”
Steenstra says having the huge island in the kitchen for her whole family to eat together is one of her favourite features of the renovation.
“I love the set up that it’s two and two; we’re not all sitting in a line,” she says. “I can be cooking and they can be sitting there and we’re all kind of chatting. It’s become this real central hub where everyone just kind of congregates and hangs out!”
Steenstra now believes their home would list for up to $1.3 million thanks to the current market and all of the work they’ve done.