4558 PORTLAND AVENUE - SOLD
The Essentials
A sweet three-bedroom home at the heart of Sydenham. Across the street from the grocery and hardware stores and backing nearly onto the Cataraqui Trail.
The Bigger Picture
The village of Sydenham is the New York City of South Frontenac, a buzzing metropolis with glass towers that dwarf the surrounding forest. It’s peopled on weekends and holidays by bejewelled chart toppers and Oscar winners. A fleet of Navigators and an unholy swarm of Ray-Bans. The calm inland waters are prettier by far than Lake Como, and George Bettis from just up Bedford Road, with his pair of battered pelican kayaks and his ever-present stoagie, has George Clooney and his custom cataraman beat hands-down.
Well almost. Sydenham is a pretty and fully-serviced village twenty minutes from downtown Kingston. You head north from the village into some of the the most outlandish wilderness landscapes Canada has to offer. The granite begins to rear up from the the forest floor about here. There is change in the air, in the way light swoops in over the pines. A Century ago it was a logging village and now it’s the launchpad for a weekend at the cottage, a serene paddle on the lake, or a hike to who knows where.
We like it, in other words; we could live here. And so could you.
We picture someone frustrated with the market and the sky-high prices, the absurd competition, looking at 4558 Portland and feeling like they’ve stumbled on a minor treasure hidden in plain view. It is an unassuming three-bedroom home across the street from the grocery and hardware stores. It also backs onto the Cataraqui trail, just about, and you peer through the trees to the river leaving Sydenham Lake at the dam. In other words the location is fantastic.
The house is in good shape too (although a touch busy inside right now) with a spacious modern kitchen, a renovated bathroom and laundry room, a new screened-in porch, and a large living/dining room with woodstove. Outside, the deck is tucked away to offer some privacy, and there is a large storage shed and vegetable gardens. With its metal roof and municipal water supply there really isn’t much to do here. You’ll set up an easel and paint, maybe, tinker a bit in the shed. Hollow out the old elm and fashion your own watercraft. Get the tent aired out and stock up on supplies for your own expedition. Thing is, though, when home is so convenient and so darned comfortable, and when the forecast is for clear skies with a chance of northern lights, you might find that your need to leave home at all is just spirited away like the morning mist.
The Gallery
Most of these (after the first four) pre-date the current month-to-month tenant)
