THE LISTING 94 Neville Park Blvd.
LISTING PRICE $1,780,000
TAXES $8,436.27 (2016)
LOT SIZE 30 by 140 feet
LISTING AGENTS Dianne Chaput, Colette Chaput-Villamizar and Brian Chaput, Royal LePage Estate Realty, Brokerage
The home is perched behind trees in a quiet Beaches enclave.
Often in fiction, the appeal of castle is directly proportionate to its inaccessibility. The higher up and more out of reach a castle, the more important and impressive it is.
So when you're climbing the 42 steps, which wind through greenery and trees, to get to the front door of 94 Neville Park Blvd., you expect a surprise.
At the top of the ridge, behind some evergreens, is a very large old Beaches house that owner Marna Gale calls her "castle in the trees."
"Every day I have a moment where I'm like, 'Ah, I love this house,'" she said.
The back story
The lane entrance to 94 Neville Park Blvd.
Ms. Gale has lived in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood for 25 years. About seven years ago, she and her husband decided they needed to upgrade their home. One day, her agent told her to go to the agent's open house for 94 Neville Park.
"I thought, 'Ugh, do we really even have time that day?'" said Ms. Gale. "But I went over and the minute I walked in, I just fell in love."
One of the things that wooed her right away was the old house's charm and quirky personality. Built in 1914, the house has seen quite a few changes and now boasts uncommon features such as different flooring in many of the rooms – including medieval-styled tiles interspersed with stone ones in one of the smaller bedrooms on the second floor. Mixed in with these renovations are original features such as the wooden trim, the staircase and a few hidden pocket doors on the main floor.
A living space at 94 Neville Park Blvd.
During her time there, Ms. Gale has also added to the history of the house. Her biggest contribution was transforming a small, cramped laundry space into a bright, bubbly laundry room complete with a literal marble-top counter (there are actual marbles suspended and visible in the countertop).
"The idea just came to me," she said. "But they had to go everywhere to find all the marbles."
The kitchen opens up to the dining room.
The laundry room is in the basement, just a few steps down from the side entrance. It also leads into a lower-level suite that has its own bedroom, full bathroom, living room and kitchen.
The main floor of the house holds the kitchen, which has been opened up to the dining room. There is also a breakfast eating area off the back that looks out onto the backyard and has an extralarge two-piece bathroom attached to it. In the front of the main floor, there is a living room with a grand fireplace.
The breakfast nook looks out onto the back of the house.
"It's like a parlour in that room," listing agent Colette Chaput-Villamizar said. "It's big enough that you can have two different sitting areas in here."
The second floor features three bedrooms – two smaller ones and a larger one that is currently being used as Ms. Gale's office. There is also a full bathroom on the floor.
The master suite is tucked away on the top floor and it features a dressing area and a dramatic four-piece bathroom.
The kitchen is on the home’s main floor.
"What really makes this home unique is its size and the versatility of the space," Ms. Chaput-Villamizar said, pointing out that the breakfast area could be turned into a mudroom as it's the first room you walk into when you park your car at the back, plus it has tile floor. Or the second-floor office could be a family room.
The house also has some features that other houses in the neighbourhood don't.
"A lot of Beach homes don't have a formal foyer or a third floor," Ms. Chaput-Villamizar said. "Every ounce of the house has been finished as well and has been thoughtfully laid out."
A mural of red velvet drapery wraps around the master suite.
Another defining feature of 94 Neville Park is its current aesthetic. The house features many dramatic shades of paint and culminates in a custom mural that envelops the entire master suite. The main area of the top floor features an outside-sky mural, whereas the bedroom has a red-velvet drapery mural across its walls.
"I wanted something dramatic and really fun," Ms. Gale said. "And I didn't want to be afraid of colour just because it's a small space."
As her agent, Ms. Chaput-Villamizar knows that this theatrical look may not be what every buyer wants.
"This is a specific flavour, but it's not for everyone," she said. "But everything is here for the next owner to make it what they want. And it's just paint; not renovations."
Favourite features
The second-floor office space.
For Ms. Gale, one of her favourite rooms is her second-floor office that looks out through the treetops on to Neville Park Boulevard and has its own fireplace.
"My husband always said, 'It'd be really cool to make this into our bedroom.' And it probably would," she said. "But I spend a lot more time working than sleeping. And that makes a really nice office."
For Ms. Chaput-Villamizar, the master bathroom is the most stunning room of the house.
The boldly-designed master bathroom.
"It's so unexpected," she said. "You have the beams, the vaulted ceiling, but it's modern, fresh and dramatic. It's not a bathroom you see every day."
And like the rest of the top floor, the bathroom is also painted boldly: red with black accents.
"I love this house because it has personality and it's not afraid to be what it is," Ms. Chaput-Villamizar said. "And that's refreshing."