Cabbagetown Renovation and Attic Conversion

Outdated kitchen, awkward layout and an enormous attic begging to be turned into a living space.

Our Clients

Anne and Damion had been living in their home for nearly a decade and while they had enough space, every floor was awkwardly laid out. The basement stairs were at the back of the house (not stacked under the main stair), a powder room broke up the flow of the main floor and the second floor was really tired and outdated.

But the main impetus for the renovation was the attic. With headroom of nearly 14 feet there was so much potential that it couldn’t be passed up!

LOCATION
Cabbagetown, Toronto

PROJECT GOALS

  • Turn attic into entertaining space

  • Modernize kitchen

  • Upgrade bathrooms throughout

APPROXIMATE COST
$1.4M

What we did

The basement stairs were reconfigured to stack underneath the main floor stairs which allowed a much better flow both in the basement and on the main floor. Both 2nd floor bathrooms were reconfigured to maximize space while allowing a beautiful walkthrough closet leading to the ensuite.

The existing attic had been framed using two sets of roof trusses. Since the goal was to leave the roof itself intact, we had to surgically remove the trusses, piece-by-piece, while inserting new beams to carry the roof loads.

Custom cabinetry was installed throughout the house creating a unifying effect. The main design anchor though is the custom steel staircase running from basement to the 3rd floor. The same wood flooring that was installed on the floors was used to create 4-sided stair treads.

The Details

Approximate Cost

$1.4M Plus HST

Approximate Duration

12 Months

Property unoccupied during construction

Architect

Design Distillery

Project Challenges

This project would have been easier if the entire roof could have been removed. But being a semi-detached house, the risk of water damage to the neighboring house with no roof on was too high. The process of shoring up the roof structure, then removing pieces of the trusses and replacing them with new beams was incredibly tedious.

Additionally, the rest of the house had not been built well originally so there was a lot of remedial framing work to bring it up to our standards.

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