It works for their lifestyle, in other words. And that’s to say nothing of the music room, the craft room and the elevator.
Knowing what one wants is a privilege of age. Both now retired, when Ms. Milrod and Mr. Grant put their Toronto house up for sale about four years ago, they took their time searching for the perfect spot to spend their golden years. They also hired Tom Knezic of Solares Architecture to vet their choices. While their first thought was to have a one-storey bungalow built near Cobourg, Ms. Milrod quips that “it felt like all of Toronto, at that time, was looking for property out there.
So, off to Southwestern Ontario, where they found a lot “rather quickly.” The only wrinkles? Since it was a severed piece of the neighbouring lot, it was too narrow to build a bungalow, plus, it sloped upward. Continuing to employ Solares because they wanted a “21st-century” sustainable house, architect Christine Lolley and designer Lilia Sosedova came up with a rather novel solution: a small “tower” house, complete with an easy-peasy, at-grade front door right off the driveway.
From the street, the main floor – which contains the living room, a small powder room and that large kitchen – reads as the second floor. This allows the couple to watch the sunset from their street-facing living room, since there are no homes across the street, only the treed slope that eventually leads to the Nith River and Trail. The third floor contains the project/craft room and a somewhat small master bedroom, which allows for the master bath’s generous walk-in shower, a urinal for Mr.