The perfect dream home for mom
Renovation of Oakville bungalow a labour of love and gratitude
How do you repay your mom for her sacrifices and constant support? Giving her a dream home is a pretty good way to start.
David Cholewinski, 26, wanted his mother Danuta, 47, to know just how much he appreciated everything she’s done for him. So last year, he renovated their Oakville home from top to bottom.
“My mom worked a lot in her life, sometimes three jobs when I was younger,” Cholewinski says, explaining that Danuta immigrated to Toronto from Poland when she was just19. “I always wanted to pay her back, but I didn’t know how.
“She never really had a house like this before, so I wanted to make sure it was done exactly how she wanted.”
Cholewinski and his mother bought the four-bedroom, backsplit bungalow together for $510,000 in spring 2015. He and his wife, Rania Anani, now live there with Danuta.
Initially the plan was to begin working on a few projects here and there, but it soon became a full-time job for Cholewinski, who had experience as a general labourer.
Cholewinski ended up doing a total renovation and spent six months living and breathing the process — and drinking a lot of coffee to keep the momentum going.
“I didn’t have time to do anything other than renovate,” he says. “You don’t realize how much work it is until you actually start.”
Cholewinski tore down the dated balcony at the front of the house, replaced all the windows and redid the exterior with stucco and accented the front with limestone.
He removed the wall dividing the living room and kitchen. Old brown carpeting was torn up and replaced with oak hardwood, stained chestnut brown to match his mother’s Victorian-era style of furniture.
Cholewinski says his mom is in love with all things Victorian, and even re-upholstered all of her furniture to match the style named for Queen Victoria. It’s also what led them to dub their newly renovated home “The Oakville Clarence,” after the era’s closed, horsedrawn carriage.
Yet Danuta has also become a big fan of modern design, thanks to her passion for home improvement TV shows.
Two of her favourites — The Property Brothers and Love It Or List It — have fuelled her fetish for Swarovskilike crystals, crisp white kitchens, subway tiles and stone veneers.
Combining his mother’s polar-opposite-style tastes was a challenge for Cholewinski, but the end result turned out surprisingly well.
In fact, he hopes to start a new business renovating for others now that he’s proven to himself he can do it.
“This was a wake-up call for me,” he says. “If I did this for my mom, I could do this for anyone.”
He’s most proud of the modern grey-and-white kitchen, with its quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances and crystal light fixtures.
“When she turns on the lights in the kitchen, the crystals shine on the ceiling and give off these nice rays of light,” he says.
“Everything she was seeing on TV, she started to see in her own house. I’ve never seen her that happy before.”
While Cholewinski did most of the work himself, with some assistance from his handyman father, he hired help to install the quartz countertop and to put up a glass shower door.
His mother also has six brothers, each with their own trade, so Cholewinski also called upon his uncles.
While the materials for the renovation cost about $350,000, much was saved on the 4,000 hours of labour that Cholewinski estimates he and his father put in, combined.
“The hardest part about the renovation was definitely the fact that I’m living in the same place I’m renovating,” he says.
“You’re basically living in hell. Everything’s dusty. You’re moving everything around and covering certain places up. Everything was kind of all over the place.”
Danuta, meanwhile is thrilled with her dream home. Instead of waiting for the reno to be finished, she invited friends over after each room was completed, proud to show off each stage of her son’s work.
“I feel so happy,” she says. “That was just my dream to live in Oakville; we have a lovely house with the beautiful huge backyard.”
And her only child is forever in her good books.
“I’m really proud of him,” she says. “I hope he’s going to continue his business.”