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Major renovations to a 1913 duplex on a constricted pie-shaped lot on Home Street in Wolseley.  The house is sandwiched tight against the diagonal laneway – which fortuitously provides a very welcome southern exposure – in opposition to the more characteristic northern neighbour, mere feet away.  The interior of the onetime rooming house had seen better days so the upper floors were gutted and reconfigured.  The primary structure is brick, so windows sizes were not altered, but new skylights were added, flooding light into the core of the home’s compact double-height stairwell.  A new recessed, crescent-shaped, third floor balcony was added to complement the existing protruding bay window below and animate the previously rather flat street facade.  Existing back porches were rejigged to create a new third floor bedroom, and second floor mudroom accessed by a winding exterior stair.  The separate main floor suite maintains its original character and charm, with beamed ceilings, leaded beveled glass windows and an abundance of rich red oak, so was cleaned-up but largely left intact.

XYZ Design International Inc.