From rooming house to roomy house

THE LISTING 222 Markham St.

LISTING PRICE $1,698,000

TAXES $4,266.00 (2016)

LOT SIZE 16.17 by 131 feet

LISTING AGENTS Lori Bennett, Broker, and Ali Jalili, Salesperson, Royal LePage Signature Realty, Brokerage

The moment Marlin Rose walked into 222 Markham St. in 2016, she knew she had a big challenge on her hands.

The old Victorian semi was being used as a rooming house and had its share of problems, some which Ms. Rose could see as she walked through it: kitchens on almost every floor, decaying carpet and a painted brick exterior.

But the ceiling on the main floor caught her eye. She realized it was dropped and its true height was higher than eight feet.

"I started walking through the house and I could see myself removing the ceiling and putting back the mouldings," Ms. Rose said. "I wanted to bring this house back to its Victorian tradition."

The back story

Despite the problems she could see – and knowing there would be some she couldn't yet see – Ms. Rose bought the house for $1,015,000; a full $16,000 over asking. There was no bidding war.

Right away, she realized the house had undergone so many alterations over the years that there was very little of the original interior left.

"This house was lived in by too many people over time," Ms. Rose said. "I had to go back to basically the bricks because we had to do the structure properly."

And when she did peel away the layers, she found trouble: water-damaged ceilings, unsupported joists and no fireproofing with the other side of the semi, just for starters.

"Nobody sees the stuff behind the walls, but that's really where the issues are," she said. "So behind the wall took a bit more money than planned – but that's okay."

Ms. Rose knew repairing the structure of the house was critical to executing her plan.

"The house was originally built in 1890," broker Lori Bennett said.

"What she wanted to do is keep the integrity of the house but make it look modern."

"But preserve the Victorian style," added Ali Jalili, Ms. Bennett's business partner.

The key to this plan was restoring the original façade. When bought, the house was beigey-white paint.

"That was another debacle," Ms. Rose said.

"There were so many layers of paint. It used to be white, but underneath the white it was blue and then it was green."

In total, brick-restoration crews removed eight layers of paint, then repaired many damaged areas.

Once the outside was restored, Ms. Rose brought back the Victorian feeling inside, first by restoring the single-family-home layout, then by removing the dropped ceilings and restoring the original 10-foot height on the main floor. She also added some modern perks, such as heated floors in the kitchen.

The main floor now features a living room and a dining room that has been slightly shrunken to make space for a powder room and coat closet. Behind that is the kitchen, with white wooden detailing, a copper sink and a granite kitchen island.

"The kitchen is not quite 100-per-cent Victorian, but it's close to it," Ms. Rose said.

Behind that is a laundry room with an exit to the backyard and garage.

The second floor has three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. The master suite is off the front of the home. In order to add the master bathroom, Ms. Rose had to sacrifice some space in one of the smaller bedrooms; however, it's still large enough to be a nursery and has a full double closet.

The top floor is what Ms. Bennett and Mr. Jalili call the "loft" space. At the top of the stairs is a five-by-eight-foot walkout deck overlooking the western side of the city. At the other end is another bedroom complete with an ensuite bath and a reading nook under a dormer window.

Ms. Rose also renovated the basement to work as a guest suite. While it doesn't have a kitchen, the roughed-in plumbing is there should a future owner decide to use the space as a separate suite.

The basement also contains the only thing Ms. Rose could salvage from the house she purchased: a three-piece bathroom.

"The best part of the house was the bathroom in the basement – it was in really good condition," Ms. Rose said.

"I was impressed."

Over all, Ms. Rose describes the new 222 Markham as an updated Victorian.

"As agents, we see a lot of renovations where they have mixed up the style a lot and they don't match," Ms. Bennett. "We didn't have to tell Marlin that. She knew."

Favourite features

For Mr. Jalili, one of the selling points of the house is how flexible it is. For example, the third bedroom on the second floor could be a TV room. Or the nursery could be an office. Or the loft space could be a master bedroom.

"Personally, I'd use that space as a master," he said, adding: "I like the design of the room, with its angles and the beautiful washroom."

And the clawfoot tub in the loft bathroom is a symbol to Ms. Bennett about how much Ms. Rose considered every detail of her design.

"She faced [that tub] in a particular way on purpose. She figured that when you're in a bathtub you don't want to deal with people," Ms. Bennett said. "And if you walk in on someone, you see their back first."

But Ms. Bennett's favourite room is the kitchen. "I like the kitchen the best, I think it'd be a great space for entertaining," she said. "It's cozy and it has an elegance to it with the decor."

For Ms. Rose, the kitchen is the heart of the home – not just because it's where families often spend most of their time but because it's the stylistic pulse of her design.

"It's just the right feel to the house and just flows with the house," she said. "I hope nobody changes it because I think this kitchen belongs to this house."