9 Charles St - $295,000 (and sold).

THE ESSENTIALS

A renovated three-bedroom Inner Harbour townhouse at an increasingly rare price. The last of its kind, perhaps.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

MPAC, that bastion of up-to-dateness and accuracy, has it that 9 Charles St, one of a row of seven, went up in 1880. The seller thinks it more like 1895. Whichever is true, the date will surprise most of you.

It’s the thin veneer of yellow brick that deceives the most. It suggests a much more modern building, late mid-century, perhaps. There are a few rows like this in the city - on Quebec St and on Concession, those are the two that spring quickest to mind - and they’ve been wrapped up the same way. I haven’t traced ownership back that far but reasonable to assume the same landlord presided over all of them at some point, and had a real thing for the old angel brick.

I don’t mind it myself, and it’s what’s inside that matters anyway. And knowing that the interior dates back 130 years or more pleases me immensely. It’s like digging a real antique out of the junk drawer.

I live on Charles St, just west of these townhomes, and wouldn’t have it any other way. I see more houses than most, and some of them are real beauties, but unless you could plonk it down pretty much where mine is, I think you’d have a hard time persuading us to move. We love that the river is a block away and that we can wheel the kayak down there most of the year. And that Doug Fluhrer park, with its graffiti and its turtles, and the rather wonderful Woolen Mill, is a stone’s throw from our front door. In the other direction we’ve got the Elm Cafe, and we’re seven or eight minutes from McBurney Park, maybe ten from the brilliant Central Public School.

We’ve got it all, in other words. Which is one of the reasons why prices have risen so dramatically in recent years. And I don’t remember the last time a good, eminently livable house, sold in these parts or under $300,000. It’s a price-point we’ve pretty much given up on. Which is a crying shame, with so many first-time buyers wanting desperately to stay within walking distance of the downtown core, and throwing up their hands at recent offerings, the vast majority of them pushing well into the four and five hundreds.

9 Charles is here, then, to give you a little hope. Because it’s a smart place as much as it’s a well-priced one. There have been some significant improvements made here in the last few months, all of which combine to create a turnkey experience. There’s a sky-blue metal roof and a big front window has been replaced so the ground floor fills up with light. New hardwood has been laid down in the living and dining rooms. A new ceiling has been installed over that hardwood, with potlights in smart places. You put an armchair beneath one of those and bang, there’s your favourite spot in the whole of the city. The kitchen is smart and functional. There are three bedrooms with refinished parquet flooring (did that happen at the same time as the outside brickwork, I wonder), and an all-new bathroom.

What differentiates this from the lovely red-brick townhouse we just sold on Bagot St is that this one has parking at the rear. You enter the lane up at 21 Charles and swing around the back of the whole block. I like that and I’m not sure exactly why. It seems like a secret only you and your neighbours know. It’s a way of binding you together. On the most basic level, of course, it gets you off the street and I could show you my unholy stack of parking tickets to explain why that’s a good idea in Kingston in the winter.

The plan is to show off the house all week and then review any offers on Friday the 17th. We want everyone to have a chance to get through. There is an iGuide tour here, and those are always evolving; ten minutes turning this way and that in those virtual rooms and it’s like you’ve lived there a year. And the basic nitty gritty is here with the MLS® listing. If you’ve still got questions, call your realtor. Or if you don’t have one, call us. We’ll meet you over there and sing its praises some more.

A GALLERY