Continued from previous post:
This old house has a third floor. Curiously the staircase does not go up from the upstairs hall, but from one of the large bedrooms. This severely impairs the utility of that bedroom in my mind, since the third floor is itself a marvellous room.
The third floor was totally flooded with light. Skylights abounded, with gorgeous tree-house-living views. The white-washed ceiling beams kept the volume of space large. The deluxe bathroom fixtures made this attic room seem more like a retreat … except the toilet is totally open to the rest of the room … and I don’t recall a door to this loft either.
No doubt you noticed the lack of handrail on the stairs and any safety railing around the stair well. Personally I feel aggrieved every time I see a decor mag with no stair railing or one that doesn’t meet the building code. How do they get away with that, and indeed what homeowner wants to have an open stair well like this? Maybe it is to be custom-designed and installed for the buyer.
There is a very strong urge amongst amateur unlicensed bloggers to pick on professional bloggers for errors, or the newspaper, or from readers of this blog who don’t hesitate to point out errors (thankyou, BTW; I fix them so I don’t look so stupid to the next reader…) or false reasoning. So it is with looking at builder’s condos or sales rooms or model homes such as this … I just can’t help thinking “why on earth did they do that? They should’a done this …. Now maybe the renovator expects the incoming buyer to request banisters, stair rails, and other minor odds and ends. Or maybe it’s up to a home inspector.
If this was my home, a really easy change would flip the bottom few steps of the third floor stair 180 degrees to arrive in a small room off the hall rather than taking up a whole bedroom. The remainder of that small room could then be rolled into the master bedroom bathroom to make it bigger. After all, if I’m buying a million dollar home I want a really big bathroom. With heated floors. See — I’m renovating the renovation!
There were some other surprises too. Some pleased me and educated me; others gave me an opportunity to ‘cluck cluck’.
For those who want to delve deeper into this old house porn, try these sites:
http://www.freeottawainfo.com/585churpics.html
I’m amused by the single-hung (i.e. openable) window above the staircase. From the photo I can’t see any way to open that without risking your neck!
That lack of a railing is worrisome. Especially when you consider that you may be slippery when coming out of a bath…or a bit weak if you have been soaking a while, which this tub and arrangement look conducive to doing. Still, it is a lovely space. I agree with the comment on the last post about the price. It’s a nice house. But if you have a million dollars for a home do you really want to live on Churchill? It’s an ok street but it is a heavy traffic area. This house has sold in the past for half the list price now so it is a bit of a stretch to renovate it and try to double the price. I guess we shall see.
Hi Eric,
Thank you very much for blogging about my home! The sites (grapevine + 585churchill) have much better pics by photographers. We are in Ottawa Citizen tomorrow, Saturday March 5 2011. Answer with regards to the railings: we are both young adults and we like no railings at all. But for the potential buyers, we decided to put it as a condition (type of railings to be decided by the buyer – glass, forged metal, wood, etc.) Cheers, have a great weekend!