Popular HGTV, Discovery, and WFN Host and Designer Emmanuel Belliveau describes his renovated eco friendly Toronto house as “a labor of love for the last 12 months.” Emmanuel describes in his own words his work of the past year: We bought the property with the intention of doing an Eco Friendly Flip because there is a misconception out there that “green” is either granola or a million dollar home. We knew we could offer a quality reno that is affordable, beautiful and green (eco friendly and energy efficient) when you compare it to most flips jobs on the market. After traveling to various parts of the world to see some of the world’s greenest homes first hand, i knew we could create at the very least a modest example of what green homes can look like within a budget. Most green homes you see today are designed/built by the end user, so normally its architects or environmentally conscious private owners who bought a property with the intention of building there own green home. We took this route to give the consumer out there an environmentally friendly alternative when choosing their next home.

The property is located just off the Danforth on the east side of Toronto. It’s an eccletic area just minute away from Greek Town and the Beaches. At less than 1300 square ft of living space, this 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home has a lot going on. Great attention to detail has been put into every inch of this renovation. We completely gutted the original home, old materials were sorted and sent to recycling or salvaged. Inside, we sistered joyces for strength and level squeak free floors. We used closed cell Eco friendly spray foam insulation on all walls and attic. All reframing was done with FSC certified wood. All windows were replaced with energy efficient operable ones. Plumbing and electrical were upgraded. Radiant floor heating was installed through out the entire main floor and radiators are used in the bedrooms for maximum efficiency. The original ductless air conditioner was cleaned up and reused. An HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator) was installed to efficiently ventilate the home with fresh air. The house is roughed in for Solar Hot water panels with conduit going from the roof to the mechanical room.

Main Floor

Traditionally this home had walls dividing all the major living spaces and a staircase against a wall leading up stairs. This design requires a hallway to get to the front room and reduces the sizes of all the rooms adjacent to it. To maximize the space all the walls on the main floor were removed and the staircase was moved to a central location in the home to maximize room sizing upstairs. The central stair case acts as a physical and visual division for the living and dining rm. It also is a light well and ventilation shaft for passive lighting and heating/cooling due to an operable skylight that is installed above. The main floor is now a large open space that allows you to cook in the kitchen and see all your guest wether they be in the dining room or living room. On the second floor there are 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom and bathroom have vaulted ceilings with transoms to allow passive lighting in from a skylight. The basement has a family room/media room, a laundry/second 3 piece bathroom and the mechanical room. As well, a large outdoor living/eating space was added just off the kitchen through sliding doors.

Kitchen

Esthetically, we honor the original home by maintaining the majority of the traditional exterior design. The major update outside was covering the angle stone that was added years ago a the previous owner with Extira paneling. The inside however was a different story we went for a modern open concept experience. The interior is finished with a number of eco friendly materials. Floors are covered in bamboo except for the basement which has 100% wool carpet over eco rubber underlay that is mildew resistant. Kitchen is prefab and formaldehyde free. Sink is made from recycled granite. Countertops throughout the house are remnants from a solid surfacing importer that would have otherwise been destroyed. Appliances are energy star. Responsibly harvested teak was used to build a headboard that is a disguised radiator cover to maximize space in the master bedroom. The teak was also used as accents in the main bath and bedrooms. Walls were painted with Low VOC paint and tung oil was used to finish all wood surfaces. Steel and glass where used to build the staircase.

Second Floor

Sistered Joyces, Radiant Flooring and HRV

Radiant Floor Heating Board. Showing Spray foam and HRV lines

This project took longer and cost more than we anticipated….and i did anticipate that! But, we did learn lots. There is a medium that one must attain on a project like this since we are in the end doing this for a profit. When you get into this industry there are plenty of fingers pointing our way and when that happens i always say the same thing. ” the importance of being Green isn’t about being perfect, it’s about participating in the movement”.

Bathroom

Basement

Emmanuel Belliveau: contactemmanuel@gmail.com
MLS Listing: Here

Tags: Eco-friendly, Emmanuel Belliveau

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 11:06 am and is filed under Design, Prefab, Press, Real Estate, Renovation, Sustainable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.