House of the Week: $1.7 million for a green-minded home overlooking the Don Valley

House of the Week: $1.7 million for a green-minded home overlooking the Don Valley

ADDRESS: 118 Parkview Hills Crescent

NEIGHBOURHOOD: O’Connor-Parkview

AGENT: Raza Haider Naqi, Re/Max Vision Realty Inc., Brokerage.

PRICE: $1,749,000

THE PLACE: Designed by Toronto-based sustainable design firm Urbaneco, this open-concept home is the ultimate in eco-friendly modernism. Twelve-foot glass walls in the kitchen and living rooms retract to seamlessly integrate the interior living space with the professionally landscaped backyard, while the master bathroom overlooks the Don River ravine, creating the feeling of a pastoral oasis within the busy urban environment.

BRAGGING RIGHTS: Everything about this house is environmentally efficient. A grey-water system reuses shower water for toilet flushing (which can account for a whopping 27 per cent of a household’s water usage), and the steel-shingled roof is made of 56 per cent recycled materials. Heck, even the Bosch dishwasher is certified green friendly.

BIG SELLING POINT: The reclaimed staircase is made from a variety of different trees (pine, maple and walnut, to name a few), all felled by natural causes and repurposed by perennially cool furniture designers Urban Tree Salvage.

POSSIBLE DEAL BREAKER: If your friends are of the Hummer-driving variety (or, really, if they drive anything other than a bicycle or a Prius), they might be slightly intimidated by your tiny carbon footprint. Save them the embarrassment and invite some locavore vegans over instead.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• $1,749,000
• 12-foot by 24-foot glass walls
• 1 master bathroom overlooking a ravine
• 1 grey-water recycling system
• 1 EcoSmart ethanol-burning fireplace
• 1 steel roof with a 50-year warranty
• 1 custom kitchen with radiant heated floors
• 1 amazing staircase