46 GLEN OAK DR., Toronto
Asking price: $1,199,000
Taxes: $4,709.91 (2015)
Lot size: 40 by 100 feet
Listing agent: Diane Speer, Broker, Royal LePage Urban Realty, Brokerage
The story of how Andrew Siegwart and Jonathan Kitchen found 46 Glen Oak Dr. actually starts a few blocks north on Gerrard Street.
Back in 2011, Mr. Siegwart had bought a house along the busy east-end strip, just west of Main Street. It was his first move out of the downtown and he loved the extra room of a bigger place and the fact that it was conveniently located next to a streetcar track that would zip him back into the core.
At least he thought he’d love it.
“I hate living on the streetcar line,” Mr. Siegwart said. “The noise drove me nuts.”
But then he and Mr. Kitchen were exploring the surrounding neighbourhood while walking their dog when they came across the serene street of Glen Oak Drive. And on this winding road, one house really stood out.
“This is always the house that we were in love with and thought it would be nice to buy this home one day,” Mr. Kitchen said.
The back story
Then – almost on cue – the For Sale sign sprouted up when Mr. Siegwart biked by one day.
“It was a very emotional buy,” Mr. Siegwart said. “We just had to have it.”
One of the things they loved about it is that it provided a space for all of their activities: Its three bedrooms worked out to be their master bedroom, a guest room and an office.
On top of that there are three spaces that can be configured as living rooms and family rooms, one on the main floor, one in the back addition and one in the finished basement.
“The one thing I think is really great about Georgian-styled homes is the use of functional space,” Mr. Kitchen said.
He mentioned that one of the problems with their last home on Gerrard was that there was a lot of wasted space – massive landings, a giant foyer, et cetera – and that cut into the rest of the house, resulting in things such as a smaller kitchen.
“Now in this space, everything is used very efficiently and you’re able to maximize your space,” he said.
Being built in the 1940s, the home is technically of the neo-Georgian style (also known as Georgian revival). But it has all of the trademarks of that classic 19th-century design: the pitched roof, the multipaned symmetrical windows, the squared structures and the centre door.
And because it’s an older design, there are a lot of discreet rooms in the house.
“What I like about the style of these homes is that you still have some private spaces,” Mr. Siegwart said. “Jonathan can be working in his office upstairs and I can be in the living room downstairs and the sound isn’t going to travel.”
Over the 70-plus-year history, the house had undergone quite a few changes. In 1997, there was an addition put on the back of the house, opening it up to the backyard. And the previous owners updated the kitchen and two three-piece bathrooms in 2008.
In the nearly three years of their ownership, Mr. Siegwart and Mr. Kitchen have made a number of their own changes, including adding a gas range and new appliances in the kitchen; installing an air filtration system; adding some new light fixtures and a new hot water tank and building a vegetable garden in the back.
But the crowning jewel of their changes is the front door. The front door of a Georgian-styled house holds a lot of importance because of its perfectly centred position. And the old door was just that – old. It was a solid, six-panel wooden door that let in a draft and had a useless peephole. “It really closed off the front of the house,” Mr. Kitchen said. “The door prevented us from having all of this beautiful [southern] light coming in.”
So they decided to go for a full glass door and found a leaded glass door from Home Depot.
“We felt it really tied into the Art Deco feel of the house,” Mr. Kitchen said. “The way the triangles, circles and squares speak to other shapes in the house.”
“Like the octagonal window above it,” Mr. Siegwart added.
Now the light streams through and the door acts almost like a prism showering the entrance in rainbows.
Favourite features
“The light in this house is one of its best features,” Mr. Siegwart said.
“When we bought the house we were wondered whether we should upgrade the windows but when we moved it in, we started to appreciate how beautiful they were and the great light they let in,” he added.
The most impressive feature of the house’s original windows is their size. On the main floor, the windows have 21 panes and on the second floor there are 20.
The windows weren’t the only things the couple considered changing at first but then didn’t. When they initially bought, they had a dream of raising the roof and adding a third-floor master suite. They also thought about building out an extra-large entrance in the front.
“But then we lived in it and realized we didn’t really need to do anything,” Mr. Siegwart said. “And we didn’t want to mess with the style of the house.”
And that’s because all of the transoms, or detailed trims, just like the leaded windows, are more than just décor features. They give 46 Glen Oak a sense of character. And that is one of the things that Mr. Siegwart and Mr. Kitchen value the most.
“I think we’ve been stewards of this house and its design,” Mr. Siegwart said.