MAPLE LEAF & MAPLE LEAVES
Leaside 33 Heather Rd. (Bayview and Moore avenues) Asking price: $3.495-million Taxes: $16,895 (2011) Bedrooms: 4+2 Bathrooms: 4 MLS# C2408813
Nick Kypreos saw the size of the property and imagined his kids playing hockey in the driveway and on a rink in the backyard. He was sold.
Mr. Kypreos, who played eight seasons in the NHL and is now a hockey analyst, lives, eats and breathes hockey. When not talking hockey at Sportsnet’s Rogers Campus location (less than 10 minutes by car unless he gets caught at a couple of stoplights) he can be found enjoying his hockey-related pastimes at home.
A turret — part of an addition at the back of the house — is outfitted with leather chairs that provide great front row seats to the backyard rink and a place to gather and talk sports while enjoying a warm beverage, says Mr. Kypreos, whose career highlights include playing with the Toronto Maple Leafs and winning the Stanley Cup as a New York Ranger in 1994.
The landscaped 80x150-foot lot, which widens to 92 feet at the rear, has swings, gardens and a stone patio, and serves as a great summer gathering spot. Minor hockey parties have been held in the yard and the kids’ faces light up when they see the size of the yard, he says.
“It’s one of the last properties of its kind” because it offers a large lot and a large house that’s in move-in condition and because of its “walkability,” says Realtor Charlene Kalia of Chestnut Park Real Estate, who has listed the property with Erin Ashby.
Living in a similar home in Moore Park or Rosedale means having to get into the car every time you want something at the store, Ms. Kalia says. “From this home, you can walk to get milk. It’s also walking distance to Bayview Avenue, schools and amenities.”
Mr. Kypreos and his wife, Anne-Marie, bought the house in 2004 and “renovated to the brick,” Ms. Kalia says.
The 10-month renovation was designed by Kelly Lem and reconstructed by Jeff Steinberg Construction. “We didn’t feel like we were renovating, we felt like we were enhancing the beauty it always had,” Torontoborn Mr. Kypreos says.
The home has generous principal rooms that provide a flow for entertaining and sophisticated living, Ms. Kalia says.
The 5,400-square-foot home has a panelled dining room, a fireplace and a walkout to a patio from the main-floor family room and a circular living room. The eat-in kitchen has a pantry, a built-in desk, a centre island and French doors.
The master suite/sitting room has a walk-in closet and a five-piece ensuite bathroom. Other features include built-in speakers, a fireplace and a walkout to the yard from the lowerlevel media room, where Mr. Kypreos watches hockey games on his 130-inch television or plays table hockey with the kids, Zachary, 13; Theo, 11; and Annie, 8.
A wrap-around porch reflects the home’s beginnings as a farmhouse. It was built in 1902 for John Edmund Lea, grandson of John Lea, who came from Lancashire, England, in 1819 and for whose family the neighbourhood of Leaside is named, Ms. Kalia says.