New home wears a heritage cloak

Listing: 304 Wellesley St. E., Toronto

Asking price: $1,890,000

Taxes: $6,977.08 (2017)

Lot size: 20.5 ft. X 100 ft.

Listing agent: Jen Tripp, salesperson, HomeLife/Realty One Ltd., Brokerage

When people tour Nicole Bell and Cory Graff's house, the couple usually get one of three questions: "When did the renovation happen?" or "Oh, did you completely gut your house?" or "How are your walls so straight?"

"Most people don't know that it is a new build," said Jen Tripp, the real estate agent for Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff.

That's because the two-storey yellow brick house echoes its Victorian-era neighbours so well, it fools people.

But fewer than 15 years ago it was an empty lot in one of Toronto's most sought-after downtown neighbourhoods.

The search

Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff started off looking for a home with two criteria that seemed contradictory. She wanted to live in an old neighbourhood – Cabbagetown being her favourite – and he wanted a new build because he had lived in a century home before and knew what challenges came with old houses.

"We looked everywhere because of our desire not to live in an old house and my desire to live in an old neighbourhood," Ms. Bell said.

"And we still wanted to be close to downtown," Mr. Graff said.

Eventually, they passed by 304 Wellesley St. E., a house that hadn't turned up on their listing search since they were looking for three-bedroom homes and this one only had two.

Nestled in the northeast end of Cabbagetown, 304 Wellesley is a few steps east of Parliament Street. The home was built on a vacant lot sold by the Church of St. James Cathedral (which owns the cemetery just north of the home) in 2003 for $250,000. It features a yellow brick façade that is inspired by the Queen Anne architectural style found throughout the neighbourhood. Over its three above-ground floors, it had three bathrooms, two bedrooms (both on the second floor), a family room (on the top floor) and a kitchen, dining room and living room on the main floor. The finished basement also had another full bath, a rec room and a bedroom.

As Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff walked through the home during the open house in early 2011, they noticed all of the architectural flourishes that kept the historical feeling alive inside of the new house, which also featured new amenities including a second-floor laundry and a dual-climate, 98-bottle wine fridge discreetly incorporated in the media console in the living room.

"As soon as we found this place … we were like, 'Oh, this is our house,'" Ms. Bell said. "It was this unicorn of a property."

The renovations

While the home was only six years old when they bought it, Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff knew that there were some things they wanted to change.

The first was the backyard. Originally, it was dominated by a pergola whose draping plants obscured a large mulberry tree that sat just behind their property line. "We found it was too dark," Ms. Bell said, adding that any plants they tried to grow wouldn't survive because it was so shady.

So in the spring of 2012, they hired Ron Holbrook, a landscape architect. The finished product puts the mulberry tree on full display, while providing privacy with wood fences covered in greenery. The owners love that new space so much that they had their wedding photos taken there.

The other part of the home they knew they wanted to change was the third floor.

"We really never used the space – it had become a repository for nothing," Ms. Bell said.

So, starting in 2015, they worked with a designer to reconfigure the family room into the master bedroom. A backyard deck was removed to make way for an addition to house the master bathroom.

"We went through three or four different layouts but this one worked the best," Mr. Graff said.

Now, the master suite covers 544 square feet and includes a sleek four-piece bathroom with heated floors, a walk-in closet and enough room for a king-size bed.

To complete that renovation, the pair had to get approval from the Cabbagetown Heritage Conservation District Committee. That included the brick used to enclose the bathroom addition; they took pains to ensure its shade of yellow matched the rest of the exterior.

"That was important to us – we didn't want it to look like an addition with stucco. We wanted it to fit in," Mr. Graff said.

"We bought into this idea that this neighbourhood has a sensibility," Ms. Bell added.

"And that requires a level of craftsmanship," Mr. Graff said.

The neighbourhood

Established in the 1840s, Cabbagetown is one of Toronto's oldest neighbourhoods and got its name when some of the original Irish settlers, who were fleeing the 1840s potato famine, began growing cabbages (and other vegetables) in their front yards.

In 2004, the area designated Cabbagetown North – which runs roughly south of Bloor Street East, north of Carlton Street, east of Parliament Street and west of Bayview Avenue – became a heritage conservation district. It includes about 700 homes, many original, and a few new, including 304 Wellesley. Regardless of when they were built, the homes are now subject to certain restraints to the front façades, such as window sills and shapes.

But for Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff, they didn't see these regulations as limiting; rather, they appreciated the work the Cabbagetown Preservation Association (and its offshoot, the heritage conservation committee) do to keep the Dickensian flavour of the neighbourhood.

"I feel like you can walk around the streets of this neighbourhood for your whole life and always see something different," Ms. Bell said.

"There is a lot of pride in this neighbourhood," Mr. Graff said.

The price

The neighbourhood's cohesive character and cachet are elements that Ms. Tripp, listing agent, took into consideration when she decided on the price of 304 Wellesley. But the biggest factors were that this is a detached home and that features new construction.

"This isn't a first-time purchasers' home," Ms. Tripp said of the $1,890,000 price tag.

She believes that, given its size at just less than 3,000 square feet, the home may appeal to many buyers including families looking to upgrade, or downsizers from the suburbs looking to give their car a break and move into a more walkable neighbourhood.

For Ms. Bell and Mr. Graff, though, there are a number of features that are invaluable to them, such as the window seat in their daughter's bedroom. "We watch the world go by from that perch," Ms. Bell said.

But as they move on, the couple have one hope for the new owners: "Enjoy this house."

"It's not a prim-and-proper, everything-is-too-pretty-to-touch type house," Mr. Graff said. "It is meant to be lived in."

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