838496 4th Line E, Mulmur, Ont.<\/p>\n
Asking Price: $4,250,000<\/p>\n
Taxes: $9,254 (2026)<\/p>\n
Land Size: 50 acres<\/p>\n
Agent: Suzanne Lawrence, Royal LePage RCR Realty<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
In 1991, Marylou Morgan and her husband impulsively purchased 50 acres of idle pasture in the rolling hills of Mulmur, Ont.<\/p>\n
The couple had no plans to buy a country property at the time, recalls Ms. Morgan, but the renovation of their Toronto house forced them out of the city for a few days. To pass the time, they looked at real estate.<\/p>\n
The parcel carved out of a traditional 100-acre farm along the Niagara Escarpment had already been sold, but the purchaser was trying to back out of the deal, the agent informed them.<\/p>\n
The time wasn\u2019t right, Ms. Morgan says, but the couple figured they might never have another opportunity to acquire land with a panoramic view that stretches as far as Toronto when the light is right.<\/p>\n
The couple faced another dilemma: Ms. Morgan was an interior designer with a particular affinity for the Regency era, which influenced architecture roughly from the early 1800s until Queen Victoria took the British throne in 1837. They had always lived in older houses, but her husband was not keen on updating gnarly plumbing, wiring and heating again.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband wanted a new home, and I wanted an old home.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple put off building while they concentrated on funding the schooling of their five children. <\/p>\n
The delay gave Ms. Morgan a few years to assemble furniture and architectural elements from abandoned historic homes scattered around the province.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had items stored all over,\u201d she says of the collection piled up in storage spaces in Lindsay, Kitchener-Waterloo and her mother\u2019s garage in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The elegant wooden staircase is one of several architectural elements salvaged from historic homes across the province.Mitchell Hubbel\/Modern Movement Creative Inc.<\/p>\n During a visit to Bowmanville, Ont., Ms. Morgan learned from an antiques dealer that a nearby property with a Regency-style house dating to about 1840 was in receivership.<\/p>\n Ms. Morgan negotiated with the accountants to gain access to the old stone building, then returned with a builder friend to carefully extricate the elegant wooden staircase, fireplace surrounds, decorative trim and front door.<\/p>\n The substantial door became the starting point for determining the proportions in the new house. <\/p>\n \u201cIt told me how high the ceiling had to be to accommodate the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n The house today<\/p>\n When the couple was ready to build, Ms. Morgan turned to architect Jamie Wright to choose a site in the undulating landscape and design a house in the Ontario Regency Cottage style.<\/p>\n The Toronto-based firm of Young + Wright was part of a partnership that designed the city\u2019s SkyDome stadium and other notable buildings, but occasionally Mr. Wright took on residential projects for friends.<\/p>\n Ms. Morgan asked the architect to design a T-shaped building with living and dining areas at the front of the home. Visitors would arrive at a gracious veranda with a bellcast roof.<\/p>\n After more than one year of construction, the couple moved in in 1995.<\/p>\n Today the two-storey house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms, plus two additional bedrooms on the lower level.<\/p>\n