12 REDAN ST - $649,000
The Essentials
A beautifully renovated open-plan three-bedroom, two-bathroom, semi-detached home steps north of McBurney Park on one of the neighbourhood’s most desirable streets.
OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY APRIL 6, 2-4 PM
The Bigger Picture
I’ve known for at least a couple of years that it was likely I’d be asked to list 12 Redan St. And that isn’t the rarest of situations. I’ll often put an address at the bottom of a whiteboard at the office, and watch it slowly rise towards an eventual meeting with its own listing date. Some houses write their bylines more quickly than others. But it’s very rare for me to watch that rise, like a bubble of air through water, with such anticipation.
12 Redan strikes me as a rare sort of house. Unusually pretty, for one thing. That siding like a charred Japanese cypress, like a nod to Kubrick planted on that soft hillside behind the park’s old burial ground and its new slides. Perfectly located, then. Both bracingly modern (all those Marvin windows) and traditional. Open-plan but still warm. Bright, but with strategically placed shadows I want to sit in with a Rachel Kushner book, or slowly turning a single-malt whisky. A main floor perfectly organized on two similar levels around the kitchen, all butcher block and stamped tin so ably assembled by local legend, Tim Soper. There is a minimalist gas stove warming the corner between the front window and the front door. It has the feel of a sentry, a guard against the cold. Nothing will get in the way of 12 Redan offering a pitch-perfect example of domestic harmony.
The room at the back of the house is a modern addition, an engineered gallery held aloft by light from the garden (as well as bird song, if you crack the windows) and serene views over the rough-cut stones that mark a path to the back shed and divide the lawn, the perennial beds, north from south. A steel beam has been left exposed along the seam, like a perfect plum scar.
A year ago the city subsidized the installation of a top-notch heat pump and new furnace, so the HVAC specs are top-notch here, and the monthly utilities average $315, which hits as low-ish but not remarkable until you realize the Prius is getting plugged in most nights too.
The upper bathroom was re-done last year with hexagonal tile and a long-legged chrome sink. The softwood floors are beautifully refinished insomuch as the history of the house, the century of stories, hasn’t been completely obliterated. It is a house that chooses to sit comfortably alongside its own past, like a couple holding hands at the cinema.
The Virtual Tour
The Gallery
The Floor Plans
The Map
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