LISTING 101 Earl Pl., Toronto
ASKING PRICE $1,275,000
TAXES $4,634.84 (2017)
LOT SIZE 25.22 ft. by 46.96 ft.
LISTING AGENT Jack Cherry, Sales representative, Bernice Whelan Realty Inc., Brokerage
When the house first came on the market, the homeowners sensed potential.
Earl Place is easy to miss. Located a few blocks south of Bloor Street East and just east of Jarvis Street, it's a short, tree-lined street that is separated from its other half – Earl Street – by some cement dividers.
When Luke Marjanovic and Ginny Souligny moved into a condominium in the area in 2009, they had no idea Earl Place existed.
"We never noticed it," Mr. Marjanovic said. "There are condos all around and it's this little low-rise oasis."
"The street reminded us of New York," Ms. Souligny added.
New York is a special place for the couple: It's where they went on their first vacation together and then later got engaged.
The brownstone homes of Brooklyn started to get them thinking: "Could we find something like this in Toronto?"
Their first moves in renovating the townhome included replacing the carpet with hardwood floors and ripping out an old floor-to-floor intercom.
The back story
Fast forward three years and suddenly 101 Earl Place – a three-storey brick townhome – was on the market.
"When this came out, it instantly set off alarm bells," Mr. Marjanovic said. "We thought it had a huge amount of potential."
The home was built in 1981 and features two bedrooms and a full bath on the top floor, an open living and dining room on the "main floor" (which is one floor above ground), as well as a closed-off kitchen and powder room. The ground floor has a built-in garage, a full bath and a theatre room at the back. The basement is finished and contains two different storage rooms.
The theatre room leads out to the backyard.
When Mr. Marjanovic and Ms. Souligny purchased it, the house had carpeted floors, pastel walls and plenty of bulkheads. Stylistically, the couple felt it sadly out of date.
"We tried to incorporate a timeless, classic style into the house," said Ms. Souligny, who has a background in interior decoration.
To accomplish this, the couple set out on a five-year plan that methodically updated the home.
"We worked from the walls inward," Mr. Marjanovic said. "[The preparatory steps were] probably the least satisfying part, but it got the canvas ready."
Their first moves included replacing the carpet with hardwood, ripping out an old floor-to-floor intercom and systematically removing unnecessary bulkheads.
Ms. Souligny couldn’t remove the bulkhead in the living room, so she used it to create symmetrical shelving nooks.
"You kind of assume that bulkheads will have pipes running through them, but a lot of them were empty," Mr.
Marjanovic said.
Some, of course, had important contents, so where they couldn't flatten the boxey protrusions, Ms. Souligny worked with them – such as in the living room, where one bulkhead framed the fireplace; she used that to create symmetrical shelving nooks.
"You have to work with what you have," Ms. Souligny said. "That's really how we approached this house. We didn't buy it because we wanted to take it down to the studs."
They also worked to inject some New York sophistication into their townhome. Some of this was done through the simple black and white colour scheme and the repetitive use of geometric shapes – such as hexagons, which are featured in both the entrance and kitchen flooring.
The couple worked some New York sophistication into the home, with a simple black and white colour scheme and the use of geometric shapes.
One room where this urban-chic aesthetic is really on display is in the main floor's powder room, with its chevron marble floors and graphic wallpaper.
"That's where I really played with that Brooklyn vibe," Ms. Souligny said.
Over the course of their ownership, the couple transformed multiple aspects from the technical; a new electrical panel, to the functional; new closets in the bedrooms, to the pretty; a sleek marble mantle for the fireplace.
Their real estate agent, Jack Cherry, had helped them buy the townhouse in 2012 and knew they were planning to renovate. But when he saw it, he was shocked by the transformation.
The bedrooms got new closets during the renovation.
"It was such a surprise to see how well everything went," he said.
Now, Mr. Cherry has been faced with the challenge of valuing his clients' work.
"You look at the comparables [properties], then you take in what they've done and the quality," he said when explaining how he came to the $1,275,000 price tag.
Beyond the renovations, Mr. Cherry thinks townhomes are a hot commodity in Toronto's market.
"Two bedrooms, a garage and outdoor space while being in such an urban area is tough to find," he said. " Townhomes are becoming more attractive to families looking to stay in a city."
Favourite features
The couple spent three months turning the sideyard into a private oasis.
One of the biggest changes to the property was the outdoor space. Previously, the backyard had been a little pad directly off the theatre room. Mr. Marjanovic and Ms. Souligny worked for three months in 2015 to annex the side yard and make it into a private oasis divided from Jarvis Street by a new fence and a few tall trees.
"That was a huge amount of work," Ms. Souligny said. "But it was well worth it. In the summer time, we spend about 90 per cent of our time out there."
Now that a move and new home are on their horizon, Mr. Marjanovic and Ms. Souligny are having mixed feelings about leaving 101 Earl.
"It was always my dream to design my own home," Ms. Souligny said. "It's hard to let go cause we've put a lot into it. But we're excited to move on to the next adventure in life."