When the Second World War ended, much of North York was still farmland. The decades that followed covered it with crescents of bungalows, split-levels and raised ranches, a planned community at Don Mills and, later, a high-rise centre on Yonge Street. Those houses were built around separate rooms and a basement rec room, and reworking them for how families live now is most of what we do here, along with older condo suites and offices near Yonge and Sheppard.
Post-war houses with room to rethink
Don Mills, laid out in the 1950s and often called Canada's first planned suburban community, set a pattern that spread across the former township: curving streets, generous lots and modest one-storey or split-level homes. Bathurst Manor and Bayview Village were built up over roughly the same years, largely with bungalows, ranch-style houses and split-levels. Many of these homes are well built and structurally simple, which makes them good candidates for a thoughtful renovation rather than a teardown. Early Don Mills houses were often designed with clean, low mid-century lines, and owners there tend to want to keep that character while the interior catches up.
A kitchen that joins the rest of the house
In these bungalows, the wall owners most want gone is the one that shuts a small kitchen off from the dining and living rooms. That wall often carries the ceiling joists, so taking it out usually involves an engineer-designed beam and a permit from Toronto Building. We coordinate the sequence, frame the opening exactly as the engineer specified and then carry the project through drywall, flooring, tile and paint, so the result feels like one room rather than three rooms with the walls taken out.
What to do with the wood-panelled rec room
Below many North York houses is a basement finished decades ago with panelling, a drop ceiling and carpet laid straight on the slab. Rather than covering it again, we prefer to take it back to the concrete, look for signs of past moisture, and rebuild with insulated walls, a proper vapour barrier, new drywall and flooring suited to below-grade conditions. If water is actively coming in, a waterproofing specialist needs to fix that before we finish anything. Finishing a basement from bare walls is usually a four-to-eight-week project.
In Willowdale especially, many original bungalows have been replaced by much larger new houses, so a 1950s home can sit beside a recent custom build. Renovating what you already own is often the way to stay on a street you like without starting over.
Towers and offices on the Yonge Street spine
The high-rise strip between Sheppard and Finch is there by design. From the 1970s, the former City of North York set out to build a second downtown on Yonge Street, putting its civic offices, a public square and a central library on the west side. Towers have gone up around them ever since; Empress Walk, with its mall, cinema and two condo towers, was finished between 1997 and 2000, and the same corridor carries on north of Steeles into Thornhill. Suites in the older buildings often keep a closed galley kitchen and parquet glued to the slab. Once that parquet is lifted, the concrete usually needs patching and levelling before new flooring goes down, and we price that preparation as its own line.
The same stretch of Yonge, along with Sheppard Avenue, is lined with offices, clinics and ground-floor retail. For business owners, tenants and property managers we handle interior fit-outs and refreshes: steel-stud partitions, drywall and ceilings, flooring, painting and repairs between tenancies. When a business needs to keep its doors open, we talk through doing the work in phases, and any added work is priced and approved before it happens.
