Home of the Week: Laneway house takes the high road
A back-alley shack is turned into an impressively spacious house filled with sun and wood
Home of the Week, 2 Miles Place, Toronto. Asking price: $829,000. Selling price: $829,000. When owner Jeff Pangman, an actor and TV producer, discovered it on a walk with his dog in 2006, the building was a pink, vinyl-siding garage with a few misplaced windows. “A shack,” Mr. Pangman says. “Just a shack in a laneway.”Brad Quan
Mr. Pangman bought the property for $159,000. After that he lived in the shack while he started on his “scribbles,” sketching out different ideas for what could stand in same tiny lot. “I knew that I had to live with the original footprint, so that’s how the cantilever idea came to be,” says Mr. Pangman. “I figured if I cantilevered out over the driveway, I’d be able to maximize the living space by going up and making something interesting.”Brad Quan
Inside, the home has a modern aesthetic. “I really wanted to design something with clean lines and I was big into wood,” Mr. Pangman said. And rich, warm Douglas fir and oak woods are all over the house: staircases, window and door trim, even the ceiling.Brad Quan
Mr. Pangman says one of the most peaceful spots in the house is the staircase from the main living space on the second floor to the rooftop deck. ‘[During construction] I spent the most time at the top of those stairs,” Mr. Pangman says, “just staring down, looking down at the space.”Brad Quan
The glass doors that connect the rooftop deck with the barn roof allow natural light to flood the interior. “The sun carves across and into the house – even in the winter – all day through those sliding glass doors,” Mr. Pangman said.Brad Quan
Brad Quan
The ceiling on the second floor, which is one multi-purpose open space, has a barn roof shape. The idea came after Mr. Pangman took his drawings to architect Terence Van Elslander. He suggested he vault the roof up and curve it out.Brad Quan
From the outside, the house has an industrial feel, with its exposed steel beams, wooden and corrugated metal sides and asymmetrical windows.Brad Quan