House Proud Blog

In 2004 my wife and I were shopping for a house. We had lived in the High Park area of Toronto and were motivated to get a house there. Unfortunately we were competing against many other young couples hoping to do the same. The phenomenon of multiple bids was well under way and when we were in a house we like the first thing we asked was "when are you accepting offers?".

We didn't quite have stomach for the scene of realtors walking back and forth between the house and the multiple cars parked out front so we never did bid on  a High Park house, but we did learn a lot about house value through that process. As price and demand went up we found ouselves rationalizing 2 bedrooms with no closets, no parking and no basement. Did we really need those things?

But as we started looking at a less sought after neighborhoods we recognized instantly that there was hidden value in well located red brick 1930's bungalows. Imagine our surprise when we started looking at houses in a classic early 20th century neighborhood with 3 bedrooms closets and, gasp, driveways.

These houses, though in need of updates, had original gum wood trim, tasteful stain glass and double brick construction. Having previously toured updated houses that started with the same ingredients we definitely saw the potential. In one house in particular we asked when they were accepting offers. When the answer was "whenever you want", within 2 days we had bought a house.

I would love to tell you that I knew all about early twentieth century bungalows when we made the purchase, but it was through the course of the home inspection and subsequent trips to the library, that I learned about this kind of house. I always believe the saying that you don't make good right or wrong decisions. You simply make decisions, then you work at making it a good decision. Well you could say that after buying our house I worked very hard at proving that buying a double brick early 20th century bungalow was the best decision one could make. I researched their history, learned about the tennents of their construction, and figured out that aspects of their design actually had expansion in mind.

Much of this writing will chronicle the mental and physical journey we took over the course of 10 years, as we re-imagined an early 20th century home into an early 21st century home.

# posted by Brian R. Booth @ 5:39 PM