167 PINE ST - $339,000
The Essentials
A very pretty downtown home at the corner of Pine and Lansdowne. A gentle breath away from the Memorial Centre splashpad and Sunday market. Two bedrooms, stylish new kitchen, a detached garage, a park across the street, and even a climbing wall.
The Bigger Picture
I’ve walked past this house most Sundays for the last couple of years. I’m usually on my way to the brilliant Memorial Centre market for some bread or some stupidly fine churros, a brown bag of potatoes with the dirt still on them, or some pale pierogis laid out in their Styrofoam bed like little dead ghosts, for my son who’s still at home dreaming his Xbox dreams. I walk back the same way, my daughter chattering away, my lips and fingers covered in sugar.
You never know what’s coming, that’s my not-very-clear point, and which houses might end up part of the job. Which half-lit face moving behind the lace curtains could become your next best friend.
But I’ve long noticed 167 Pine. In summers past it’s been eaten up in June by bushes and trees, as if a downtown forest wants it back. A dappled cottage out of some fairy tale, then: everywhere you look it’s picnic baskets tipped over on the carpet of pine needles and wolfish grins lighting up the deep shade; a fur-draped sled parked out back for the White Witch.
It’s not so much like that any more.
The yard has been tamed and mulched. The house inside was taken back pretty much to the studs and reinsulated, replumbed, rewired. A lovely kitchen has been installed with a deep thick white sink that you’ll want to just stand in front of and wait for the dishes, and butcher block counters and a subway tile splash, knife racks. It’s the creative hub of this downtown home.
The dining room is used these days as a bedroom except, well, there’s a climbing wall in the corner with a mattress beneath it and I don’t really care whether you like it; I think it’s absolutely marvelous. Imagine the memories you’d make.
The master bedroom is also on the main floor, and there’s a second directly above it, next to the small room I’d write poems in, really filthy toasts to Trump, maybe.
There are potlights and two full bathrooms, a pleasing floor plan conducive to social moments as well as more meditative solitudes. We like it very much.
Important to mention that there’s a serious garage here too. Workshop comes to mind. Or insulate it and it’s a studio for your painting or your blacksmithing, your late-night podcasts.
There is work too. The roof needs reshingling on main house and on the garage. The skinny back porch needs sorting out. And maybe you replace some windows. But the heavy lifting has already been done here, and the price is fantastic.
Of course, there’s a more down-to-earth description on Realtor.ca (or will be any second). And the iGuide is worth a thousand words
Any offers will be reviewed at suppertime on Monday May 13.
