In Toronto, there's stiff competition when it comes to having the city's most interesting house. Between heritage homes and properties with over-the-top amenities, plenty of listings really seem to have it all. But there's one Toronto house that just hit the market that has something no other listing does: its own postal code.
The house, located at 1 Greig Avenue in Toronto's Riverside neighbourhood, is a charming two-bedroom laneway home that looks more akin to something you'd find in Cape Cod rather than in Canada's most populous city. And as listing agent Kimmé Myles points out, it's the only house in Toronto to have the M4M 1T6 postal code.
"It's a laneway house but it's also not because it has its own private street and its own postal code, so it's really, really rare," Myles said. "I think this is probably the only house in Canada with its own postal code."
Peter Carruthers, who has owned the house with his wife Mary Beth Schofield since 1994, noted that "even Justin Trudeau doesn't have his own postal code."
The house came on the market on Wednesday, asking $2,649,000. For that price, the home offers a slew of attractive features including soaring ceilings, a wood-burning fireplace, oversized windows, a finished basement, and a large backyard with manicured gardens. The couple renovated the kitchen in 2015 and designed it in a French bistro style with serious chefs in mind, Schofield says, being sure to include high-quality appliances.
As intriguing as the home is now, its history is even more interesting. The front of the house overlooks a parkette, which in the late 1800s, was the location of a firehall. And where the house itself stands now, Carruthers says, is where the stables used to be that housed the firehall's horses.
"You can see historic photos in the archives of Toronto," Carruthers said. "It was a beautiful sort of Victorian structure with a tall clock tower."
The current house was built in the early 1980s by fashion designer Michelle Lloyd and architectural contractor David Bermann overtop of the foundation of the stables. It changed hands a few times over the years until a friend of Schofield's came to own it. When the time came for her friend to sell the property, Schofield and Carruthers had been on just three dates, but they decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
"After three dates, you're still kind of like 'What's your name again?' kind of thing," Schofield joked "But Peter came over and my friend said 'Well, can you see yourself here with Mary Beth?' and he said yes, and I kind of went into an emotional coma."
Specs:
- Address: 1 Greig Avenue, Toronto
- Bedrooms: 2+1
- Bathrooms: 2
- Price: $2,649,000
- Listed by: Kimmé Myles, Sotheby's International Realty Canada
Schofield and Carruthers say that the home is a great space for entertaining -- they even had their wedding there. Schofield compared the home to Harry Potter's room of requirement -- a room that turns into whatever you need it to be -- perfect for gatherings of any type, big and small. The gardens, however, are one of the couple's favourite parts of the home for entertaining.
"It's very much a beautiful-looking urban garden," Carruthers said. "It's probably got about 2,000 hydrangeas in the summertime surrounding an oval garden with a very high white fence."
The home's outdoor space isn't only limited to the backyard -- there's also a large balcony off one of the bedrooms as well as a cozy front porch. Both overlook the parkette, which Carruthers says gives the neighbourhood a "sense of a little Piazza where people gather and you have that chance to share barbecues and to share stories with the kids." In fact, the couple loves the neighborhood feel so much they're planning to move just a few blocks away.
Whoever does end up with this property, Myles says, will have one of Toronto's rare gems.
"It’s the type of property people will wait for," Myles said, "It’s one of a kind and very, very exclusive."
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