House of the Week: $5.5 million for a custom-designed Rosedale home with a backyard pool

Address: 28 Dunbar Road
Neighbourhood: Rosedale
Agent: Barry Smith, Chestnut Park Real Estate
Price: $5,495,000

The place: A red-brick Rosedale home with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a wine cellar, a gym and its own pool.

The history: Built in 1893, the home has been owned by only two families in those 123 years. The latter family is responsible for the recent top-to-bottom renovation. That renovation, led by Bill Mockler of Drawing Room Architect Inc. and finished in 2013, included a two-storey rear addition. The sellers also lowered the basement floor.

Big selling point: The master suite takes up the entire second floor—all 1,393 square feet of it. The walk-in closet alone is bigger than many bedrooms, and a private teak terrace overlooks the backyard. The in-room washer and dryer is a bonus for those who don’t want to bring laundry down to the basement, where there’s a second laundry room.

Possible deal breaker: This is an older home, and it’s beholden to Rosedale’s strict heritage protections. If the buyer wants to make any significant changes to the exterior, they may need to clear it with their city councillor first.

By the numbers:

• $5,495,000
• 123 years old
• 4 bedrooms
• 4 bathrooms
• 4 fireplaces (three indoors, one outdoors)
• 1 wine cellar
• 1 outdoor pool
• 1 exercise room

The first floor has an open plan. This is the view from the living room, at the front of the house.

The floors here are made of oak.

The family room, at the back of the house, has French doors to the backyard. The fireplace is one of four.

The kitchen is next to the family room.

The kitchen has a giant marble island and a Wolf double oven.

The master suite takes up the entire second floor. The French doors in the background lead to a private terrace.

The walk-in closet is bigger than some entire bedrooms.

The master en suite has its own set of terrace doors.

The laundry room is inside the master suite, so there’s no need to lug dirty clothes downstairs. (Although realistically, in a place like this, the nanny would be handling the washing, anyhow. There’s another laundry room in the basement.)

The terrace overlooks the backyard. This is a heritage house, so you can be sure that all the brickwork has been carefully preserved.

There are two more bedrooms on the third floor. Here’s one.

The other third-floor bedroom.

The two third-floor bedrooms share this bathroom.

The sellers lowered the basement floor and installed this high-ceilinged exercise room.

And there’s a wine cellar that looks like it could have belonged to Henry VIII.

And the backyard has a tastefully tiny pool.