Surreal Estate: $4.4 million for a glass treehouse with a wine tower at the foot of Casa Loma

Neighbourhood: South Hill
Price: $4,395,000 Size: 3,434 square feet Last sold for: $3,410,000 in March of 2022 Bedrooms: 2+1 Bathrooms: 3+1 Parking spots: 5 Real estate agents: Paul Maranger and Christian Vermast, Sotheby’s International Realty

The Place

A three-storey, two-plus-one-bedroom, three-plus-one-bathroom glass treehouse in South Hill, the idyllic neighbourhood at the foot of Casa Loma. The home comes with a 170-square-foot walk-in closet and dressing room, a wet bar with a wine tower, and a rooftop garden with tremendous views of downtown. It’s surrounded by parkettes and green spaces and is within walking distance of the Nordheimer Ravine, Yorkville and Dupont station. And motorists are a short drive from both Davenport and Avenue Road.

The History

The house was built in 2011. When the current owners took occupancy in 2022, they immediately started renovating: pushing the backyard fence out to create a lounge, updating the kitchen with restaurant-grade appliances, transplanting additional trees to cloak the home, refinishing walls and floors with high-end materials, and revamping the top floor into one grand suite.

Related: $20 million for a fine-art sanctuary in Rosedale with a car elevator

The Tour

The home sits on a quiet corner lot facing Boulton Drive Parkette. Its façade comes encased in tinted glass, which lets residents enjoy the lush gardens from inside.

In the foyer: Calacatta marble floors and well-lit ivory walls for displaying art.

Down the hall is the kitchen. It includes top-of-the-line Thermador appliances: an oversized 48-inch stove with six gas burners and a griddle, two ovens, a warming drawer, and a panelled fridge and freezer. Note the custom wall system designed to hold ingredients and tools.

The other side of the kitchen has quartz counters, a large fixed-pane window and a cozy sitting area in view of the side gardens.

In the dining room, the owners added a recessed marble feature wall and a cocktail station.

Moving to the backyard reveals the dining area and lounge, all of it shaded by greenery.

Here’s the view from the back.

Back inside on the second storey, the family room is outfitted with white-oak floors and a half wall that peers into the sunken living room.

Opposite the family room is this generous wet bar, with a large ice maker, a glass washer and a wine fridge the owner likes to call “the champagne tower.”

Here’s that sunken living room, with 10-foot ceilings. That’s a mahogany accent wall on the left, which brings warmth to the space.

This is the guest bedroom, featuring sunny views of the backyard.

Now for the third storey, all of which is devoted to the main bedroom as well as its ensuite bathroom, dressing room and walk-in closet. That one-of-a-kind dresser is equipped with a roll-out accessory drawer and smoked glass top.

The main bedroom’s wall-to-wall wardrobe is currently used to display bags and purses.

The enormous walk-in closet comes with custom-built shelving, track lighting, bronze-tinted glass display cabinets and soft leather-faced drawers.

And it keeps going. Here’s the shoe section, with a window-side seat for lacing up.

The ensuite has marble slab floors and a deep walk-in shower that allows for both privacy and natural light.

Updating the ensuite also meant swapping out the cumbersome sink with this modern floating vanity.

Here’s the 712-square-foot rooftop terrace, with abundant greenery. For protection from the sun, there’s an awning on the left that can be drawn over the seats.

The interlocking wood deck can be easily removed for cleanup or repair.

Zooming out shows the rooftop’s 270-degree views of the neighbourhood and the Bloor skyline. It’s like the fanciest treehouse you’ve ever seen.

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