79 HELENA AVE., TORONTO
Asking price: $1,169,000
Taxes: $5,762.38 (2014)
Lot size: 20 ft. by 140 ft.
Agent: Maggie Lind, Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage
In the early 2000s, modern detached homes were like Toronto’s elusive albino squirrels. They existed but were hard to find.
But that didn’t stop Michael Yeung. He was in charge of transforming 79 Helena Ave., in the heart of Hillcrest Village, and he had a vision for it. “The objective was to be ultra modern but simple enough so it wasn’t outrageous,” the designer said.
The back story
Being the first modern home on the block had its challenges.
“It was built at a time when people were very cautious about modern homes,” Mr. Yeung said. “So to have a perfect balance [of cold and warm] was a very interesting task.”
From the outside, the building has a classic modern home look. It’s tall, it’s grey and it has steel and glass details. But, the coldness of the outside is offset by the warm tones of wood on the inside, especially on the main floor.
The first floor has wood floors throughout and one wall that has wood panelling that functions not just as a space divider but also a piece of natural art. “The wood panels were cut into pieces and re-arranged, so we could use the grain of the wood as a feature,” Mr. Yeung said.
In terms of flow, the level has four “rooms” divided into two spaces. The front half of the home has a living room and dining room. It is separated from the kitchen by the wood-panelled wall. Off the end of the kitchen is a family room. And thanks to huge windows on either end of the house, the entire first floor is flooded with natural light during the day.
The second floor features similarly large picture-frame windows on both ends and 18-foot-high ceilings. The volume of vertical space on the second level creates a cathedral effect and erases the narrowness of the home.
It also helps create an ambience that current owner Nadia Serraf – who bought the home just after the redesign in 2004 – describes as airy and calming. “The house is happiness,” she said. “Even if you have a problem, when you come home at night you feel relaxed.”
The layout adds to the relaxing vibe by giving the two rooms on the second floor their own zones. The guest bedroom is on the north end with its own three-piece bathroom accessible in the hallway. The master suite is at the other end and elevated by a few steps, making so that it is perched just above the rest of the floor.
The only major change Ms. Serraf added was to close off the third floor.
Originally it was a balcony area that looked down on the second floor. But after adding some walls and closets and another large window – all the while matching Mr. Yeung’s materials as much as possible – Ms. Serraf created a third bedroom.
As a nod to its original design, Ms. Serraf left a little peek-a-boo window along the inside wall so that you can look down on the home from the loft space.
Favourite features
One of the things that makes the home so special for Ms. Serraf is the level of thoughtfulness that went into the design.
Aesthetically, the home adheres to the principles of modern design: simple and linear. Many of the lines are vertical, enhancing the home’s height. An example of this is a wooden detailing on the wall in the living room. In essence, it’s a rectangular sheath to encase a light fixture. But Mr. Yeung added vertical cutouts to let the light out and draw your eye up.
This motive is also echoed in the vertical nature of the soft fringe of a textile detailing at the bottom of the staircase. It divides stairs from the living room but also added another dimension.
“[Mr. Yeung] put a bit of a different element here,” Ms. Serraf said. “He was quite refined. He only added a drop.”
Beyond the beauty, Ms. Serraf appreciates all of the functional details, especially the ample storage. The family room, kitchen, both bedrooms and the master bathroom have towering built-in closets that go all the way to the ceiling.
And to make it possible to actually use all of the space provided, Mr. Yeung installed spring-loaded levers through the upper parts of these closets, allowing Ms. Serraf to store anything she could put on a hanger up in the air.
“You have no reason to be cluttered because of all of the storage,” she said.
Another one of those details is in Ms. Serraf’s favourite room: the kitchen. Above the sink, there is an extra-long cabinet with one long door that raises up like an old, manual garage door. Behind it, there’s a drying rack with a hole strategically cut out over the sink; so dishes can dry and be hidden.
There is so much storage in the kitchen that Ms. Serraf jokes that she was discovering new drawers within cabinets up until a few years ago.
But beyond an organized person’s dream house, Ms. Serraf is thankful for the comfort of living that comes from Mr. Yeung’s design.
“It’s a pleasure to be in this house,” she said. “It’s easy.”