Two-storey tree rises inside Ottawa home
Rideau River residence draws the admiration of passing boaters,
“Hey, look at the tree inside!” “That’s my favourite house!” Mark Hogan and Joanne Young are used to hearing comments like that from boaters slowing down to admire their glass-walled home on the Rideau River in the south end of Ottawa.
“They were always talking over the noise of the motor and we could hear them,” explains Hogan.
There really is a tree inside: a 30-foot white elm that extends from the basement to the mainfloor vaulted ceiling. Now debarked and dried, it was once “growing wildly” in Hogan’s parents’ front yard 30 kilometres away.
To them it was an unwanted weed, he relates, “but I said, ‘No, it’s got beautiful shape.’ ” So the 3,000-pound tree was trucked in pieces to its new home where it was reassembled and lowered into the centre stairwell.
“We wanted to bring the outdoors inside. The tree was part of the design, a piece of art.”
Hogan and Young spent three years designing the home, to capture the beautiful views and incorporate natural materials they’d collected.
“We’d crack a bottle of wine and just sketch and sketch,” says Hogan, calling himself and Young “very visual people” who share the same taste.
Listed with Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties Inc. and Christie’s International Real Estate, the house recently sold for $3 million.
The floor plan and features the retirees came up with include a glass-enclosed wine room, a library with a floor-toceiling bookcase and a doublesided wood-burning fireplace centred in the open-concept principal space.
Built in 2018 in the community of Manotick, the residence showcases a spectacular array of wood and stone from around the world. One World Bazaar, a local and online shop selling handcrafted goods and furniture, has been a great source of unusual pieces, says Hogan.
There’s a wine bar of sono wood from Thailand, slate floors mined in the Himalayan mountains and a teak root sink pedestal from Bali.
The couple’s primary ensuite bathroom features a double live-edge walnut hanging fixture and vanity offset by onyx counters and a translucent marble wall with LED-coloured backlighting.
The 5,700-square-foot bungalow was to be their “forever home” until another property popped up in the Thousand Islands where the avid boaters spend every weekend, according to Hogan.
The thoughtfully built home’s beamed cathedral ceilings and walls of windows combine to create a “rustic chalet-chic feel,” said co-listing agent Reba Wilson. “Its unique contemporary design is redolent of west coast or mountain living.”
With the back of the house cantilevered, the need for posts in the corners of the great room and primary suite was eliminated, allowing unobstructed vistas, the broker explains. The window wall opening to the back deck further facilitates the indoor/outdoor transition.
Marilyn Wilson, founder of Dream Properties, dreamproperties.com/ describes her reaction seeing the interior for the first time.
“When (Hogan) opened the door, my jaw dropped,” she recalls. “There is the tree and textures of the house, the volume of space, and you see the water from the front door … It’s all incredible.”
The kitchen is the focal point of the “light-filled and dramatic” main floor, outfitted with granite counters, a coffee bar, two islands and counter seating facing the river, she says.
The realtors call the home a “true waterfront dream property” with unparalleled sunset views. While the sightlines into the home may also be unrivalled, Hogan notes that’s not the case at their new house. With more land and set back from their property’s 750 feet of waterfront, it won’t offer an eyeful to passing boaters.