The listing: 13 BINSCARTH RD., TORONTO
Asking price: $3,150,000
Taxes: $12,991 (2015)
Lot size: 31 ft. by 150 ft.
Agent: Alan Dudeck, salesman, Sutton Group-Associates Realty Inc. Brokerage
“The moment we saw it, we loved it,” Dhimant Patel says. “We loved the history.”
Love at first sight is what all home buyers dream of, but like any romance after you’ve paid the first few bills and some problems appear, it’s easy for all of the fuzzy feeling to fade away.
When Mr. Patel bought 13 Binscarth Rd. at the end of 2008, he already knew the North Rosedale Victorian had problems. He could see its “mature” (read: overgrown) garden, the outdated kitchen and the white paint smeared over the home’s brick exterior.
But none of that mattered.
“When we came in the first time, it was that front entrance, the height of the ceiling, the crown moulding, all of that just grabbed your attention,” he said. “Plus, we saw the potential – what it could look like with some work.”
The back story
Even though he knew he wanted to fix a few things right away, such as the kitchen and the basement (which was largely unfinished), he also knew he wanted to respect the 126 years of history of the home.
“We tried very hard to keep the history,” Mr. Patel said. “It didn’t matter that some of the floors are squeaky, we kept them.”
The history begins in 1890 when 13 Binscarth Rd. was commissioned by Forsyth Grant and later served as the clubhouse for the Rosedale Golf Club from 1901 to 1909.
According to an unofficial historical document about the home, after its short life as a clubhouse, the six-bedroom, five-and-a-half-bathroom manor has been occupied by a handful of families, starting with Dr. George Edison, a professor of philosophy, and his wife, who lived there for 40 years with their son, dog and two cats, Gin and Tonic.
A little later, there was a family named the Wilsons, who left their mark on the home in a literal way. There’s a door frame that leads from the kitchen to the dining room on the first floor with scribbles on it. The darkest, clearest ones read ‘Maya’ (Mr. Patel’s daughter) but beneath them in a fainter ink are a series of marks that read ‘James.’ James was one of the Wilson’s sons and their family used that doorway to chart their sons’ growth in the early nineties.
“When the Wilsons sold it, they asked: ‘Can we take the door frame with us?’” said Mr. Patel said
But he loved that detail too much (and knew he would want to track his daughters’ progress on it). In deciding to keep, he also made a big decision about how he was going to renovate the kitchen. By keeping that entrance way, he nixed any plans his kitchen designer had that would blow out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.
Instead Mr. Patel, who knows his way around a kitchen, figured out how to make the closed kitchen work and restore some decor that blended with the old character.
“One of the things I decided early on was to put the sink in front of the window,” he said. “And then everything else fit in around that.”
He also changed the white, 1980s feel of the kitchen and brought it back to deep tones of maple wood and matched the detailing on the cabinetry to the woodwork of the door frames throughout the main level.
The kitchen was one of the first things he renovated. That was back in 2009. Then, over next six years, he conquered many things, including the floors (lightly sanded and stained), the basement (finished), landscaping (tamed), backyard brickwork and patios (restored), the lighting (updated), the lead underground pipes (removed and replaced) and he added in a 250-bottle wine cabinet in the basement to celebrate his 40th birthday.
But the biggest endeavour was restoring the original exterior brickwork. When he purchased the home, the exterior was all painted “blah” white, agent Alan Dudeck recalled.
So, Mr. Patel had an expert do three test strips along the eastern wall to assess the damage. The tests revealed that some of the bricks would have to be replaced, but “we didn’t know how much it was going to be until that paint came off,” he said.
That paint removal process took about eight weeks. The home essentially got a chemical peel; solvents were applied, the house was wrapped, and then a gentle wash of water loosened and removed the layers of white paint.
Then came the first surprise: They found tar under the paint. That had to be removed. Then the true devastation hit. Many of the bricks were so distressed that they had be replaced. Mr. Patel’s mason said the original bricks were from England. So Mr. Patel flew in about 450 bricks from England to do the job right.
In total, the project lasted from early spring to the end of fall in 2012.
“If I look at how much we’ve spent on the home, it would have been cheaper for us at the time to keep the façade and just gut it,” Mr. Patel said. “But that wouldn’t have been right.”
“He could have ignored the infrastructure but instead he didn’t,” Mr. Dudeck said. “It’s money that’s buried. But if you respect the property, you do it.”
Favourite features
Mr. Patel has more than just respect for his home, he has unbridled passion for it. And so it’s easy for him to list off spaces that he treasures.
“Number one is the family room [in the south back end of the house] because of the way the sun streams in,” he said.
“Every time I’m here it’s just so tranquil,” Mr. Dudeck agreed. “Even when there’s activity in this room – whether it’s kids playing or having the TV on – it doesn’t take away from the tranquility.”
Among other places that rank high on Mr. Patel’s list of favourite spots is the back patio walkout beside the waterfall and the living and dining rooms on the main floor with their large original curved storm windows. But it’s the combination of all of these elements that make this a special place for his family.
“You really get a sense that this is a home,” he said.
“There are 900 houses in North Rosedale and there is no other one like this,” Mr. Dudeck added