989 AUDEN PARK DRIVE $ 649,900
THE ESSENTIALS
A spacious and very special family home in a very desirable area in Kingston’s west end, near the lake and the shops. Four bedrooms up (and two below, if you need them). An in-ground pool set like a sapphire into an already luxurious garden. Over $100,000 in recent, stylish renovations.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
On the way out to this brilliant home this afternoon from my downtown office, a family had pulled over lakeside to take some pictures. The water was spread before them like a steel platter that rose and fell gently, as if set atop the earth’s breathing belly. The rain was belting down on Wolfe Island too, by the look of it, and the stark white windmills over there were like forks of lightning.
And that’s the sort of drive you can look forward to regularly if you buy this house and work downtown, or even if you just come down once in a while for one of the festivals, or for a movie at The Screening Room and a damn good meal.
If you miss the turn at Bayridge Drive you’ll pass the airport and then the farm, and then all of a sudden you’ll be at Lemoine’s Point, that rather wonderful patch of real forest in the city.
Come the other way, though, down Bath Road, and you’ll pass the west-end hub that is Gardiners Road with its string of big box stores and its thriving shopping centre.
You’ve got choices, that’s what I’m saying; you’re close to it all, including good schools, an executive golf course, even a community swimming pool with its concrete pad and some very funky old diving boards.
And then there’s the house itself. Which dates to 1985 but which, with $100,000 in recent renovations, shows like something out of the Globe’s Friday real estate section, set under the headline Updates Done Stylishly And Well.
You know you’re in for something special as soon as the door opens. You’re aware of the gracious way the house is arranged around you. And then you catch sight of (or at least become unconsciously aware of) the Sonos soundsystem set into the ceilings and all the new potlights, and the distant living room fireplace (one of three in the house).
There’s also the first glimpse of the fabulous sunroom at the back of the house which looks brightly over the in-ground pool. The well-designed kitchen is kitted out with granite, and stainless appliances, and the hardwood throughout this level is pale and unmarked.
There are four very good bedrooms upstairs (the master has an ensuite, of course) and another couple down below, along the hall from the large rec room.
The garden has had the same sort of attention paid to it, and there is intricate interlocking brickwork around the pool and lovely landscaping besides. I’d be out here for the next few months, I know I would, swimming lengths and working on a sketchy sort of freestyle.
But enough about me. How you spend your summer depends, I suppose, on how quickly you act on 989 Auden Park. If this sort of spacious family home (2200 s.f. above grade) is your goal then we sincerely doubt you’ll find better.
THE GALLERY
