{"id":949393,"date":"2026-10-28T12:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/949393\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T12:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T12:46:09","slug":"saving-no-97-from-the-flippers-in-torontos-little-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/949393\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving No. 97 from the flippers in Toronto\u2019s Little Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Philippe Blanchard and Katie McCormack were living with their three boys in Toronto’s Little Portugal when when they decided to purchase this home on the same street.MSDS Studio<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were planning on, I think, putting stucco on the whole front,\u201d begins Philippe Blanchard, interim dean of OCAD University\u2019s faculty of art. \u201cAnd then a mirrored glass [from the] ground floor to third floor, like, along the bay windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA real shopping mall vibe,\u201d Katie McCormack, partner and co-owner of Bridgeable, says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saved this house, I\u2019m not joking,\u201d says designer Jessica Nakanishi of MSDS Studio.<\/p>\n

Mr. Blanchard, Ms. McCormack and their three boys, you see, had front-row seats. Living in a similar, but smaller, bay-and-gable across the street (they prefer not to mention the street name) in Toronto\u2019s Little Portugal, they watched as No. 97 went up for sale. Thinking about purchasing a second property, they considered it. However, since it was \u201cuntouched since the sixties\u201d and would require a great deal of renovation, they passed and instead purchased the house immediately next door, No. 90, which had the same owner. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The kitchen’s sapele cabinetry was fabricated by a furniture maker rather than a millworker.MSDS Studio<\/p>\n

As they were busy with that renovation, they watched as No. 97 sold, and a builder\/flipper gutted it. They watched as a band of bricks \u2013 in the wrong colour \u2013 were added to the top in order to raise the ceiling height of the third floor. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor a while, there was no roof on the house,\u201d says Mr. Blanchard.<\/p>\n

Once the new roof went on, they watched No. 97 sit on the market. Real estate photos showed a raw interior with roughed-in plumbing and illustrations of the \u201cdream\u201d interior that would be built. Actually, say the couple, there were a few options for interiors, one just as tacky as the next. A few years passed. Finally, with two of their three boys approaching teenhood and about to \u201ctake up a lot of room,\u201d the couple sold their two properties and purchased No. 97. Not only was it larger, but that clean slate meant they could tailor the design to their specific needs. <\/p>\n

But, as with all things real estate-related, timing was tight. Would it be possible to find a firm that could deliver a finished interior within four to six months?<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. McCormack\u2019s home office offers a peek of this sculptural tub tucked into a gable.MSDS Studio<\/p>\n

\u201cJessica was wonderfully understanding and flexible,\u201d says Ms. McCormack about the designer. And although most of what the couple has seen of MSDS Studio was commercial \u2013 an office for Shopify, House of Anansi Press and a delightful ping-pong bar called Spin Toronto \u2013 it was their \u201cuse of colour\u201d that resonated with Ms. McCormack. After the pandemic, however, MSDS had taken on some residential projects, so Ms. Nakanishi and her life\/business partner, furniture designer Jonathan Sabine, were able to show the couple that their mojo worked just as well in that regard.<\/p>\n

So, it went from completely raw to completely fabulous on all four floors \u2013 basement apartment, main floor, second-floor \u201cboys\u2019 wing\u201d and a third-floor parental suite. And despite the rush in getting it done, there was no surge pricing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hire a designer, you hire their Rolodex, right?\u201d Ms. Nakanishi says with a smile. <\/p>\n

That means, in the kitchen, the acres and acres of sapele cabinetry (which looks like mahogany) with incredible bevelling and detailing were fabricated by a furniture maker rather than a millworker. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t do this too often because it\u2019s too much for him, but for some of our projects he works with us,\u201d says Ms. Nakanishi. That work carries over to a sideboard\/bookshelf in the living room.<\/p>\n

It means, too, that when one quote for the new staircase metalwork (there were only construction stairs) came in at $90,000, MSDS was able to spin their well-thumbed address wheel to find a company that could do the work for $19,000.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The home is designed with a delicate balance of scale, different types of lighting, tactility, busy spots versus restful spots, writes Dave LeBlanc.MSDS Studio<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why, says Ms. McCormack, the total came in at around $600,000: \u201cI think it could have been much more if we hadn\u2019t had Jessica\u2019s support; just getting to a decision quickly, having drawings in place to communicate, and [to] work well with everyone we pulled into the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking through the house, thoughts of valuations vanish and are replaced by the oohs and ahhs generated by good tradecraft, thoughtful design, abundant texture, and the warmth of lighting and art (much of it prints by Mr. Blanchard).<\/p>\n

While the first floor is open concept, there is a hidden powder room, paths to walk, partial obstructions to offer \u201cwhat\u2019s around the corner\u201d surprises, and places to pause and linger. On the second floor, each boy has his own space, there\u2019s a small office for Mr. Blanchard, and the laundry pair, conveniently, is located inside a hallway closet \u2013 which means the corridor becomes the \u201croom\u201d when it\u2019s wash day.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to the bathtub, the adult floor ensuite comes equipped with a water closet, a shower and a woodsy sauna.MSDS Studio<\/p>\n

The pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance is the adult floor ensuite. Standing in Ms. McCormack\u2019s home office, a tantalizing peek of a sculptural tub tucked into a gable offers the first clue to washroom divinity. Through the threshold, one discovers compartments for different functions: there, the water closet, here a shower, and what\u2019s that? A woodsy, welcoming sauna! And speaking of surrounding oneself with wood, wrapping the walls and ceiling around the tub wasn\u2019t easy, says Ms. Nakanishi: \u201cNothing was aligned. \u2026 They came, they put up whatever they had to put up on top of the frame, it was just this ugly corner that we had to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now beautiful \u2013 like the rest of No. 97 \u2013 this corner has become \u201cone of my favourite spots,\u201d Ms. McCormack says with a laugh. \u201cYou presented this vision \u2026 and we trusted you implicitly; it\u2019s such a cozy space.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to create cozy. It\u2019s a delicate balance of scale, different types of lighting, tactility, busy spots versus restful spots and a hundred other intangibles the builder-flipper never considers (this writer knows he\u2019s stumbled into a builder-flipper house when he spots 100 pot lights where a half-dozen would\u2019ve sufficed). <\/p>\n

So, thank you, MSDS, your Rolodex, and your very thoughtful clients, for saving No. 97. And, more importantly, the neighbourhood thanks you, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Philippe Blanchard and Katie McCormack were living with their three boys in Toronto’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[967,76,354,355,49,48,356,75,968],"class_list":["post-949393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architourist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}