17 Westmoreland Road

If you stuck a pin into the heart of Strathcona Park it's likely you'd land somewhere right around 17 Westmoreland Road, or in the playing fields behind the house. It's a bungalow, one of those with the garage tucked in underneath and direct entry into the lower level (which is no afterthought here, it must be said, with its big, splashy rec room and fourth bedroom, a custom laundry, three-piece bathroom, and mud room). If you get home tired, and come inside this way, there's really very little need to head upstairs. Our guess, though, is you'll make that Herculean effort because the reward is just so darned handsome. The house has been professionally renovated from top to bottom in the last half dozen years, with a bright open plan, quartz counters, subway tile, a gas fireplace, heated floors in the main bathroom, modern lighting, and engineered hardwood floors. The fresh shingles (May) and furnace (2021) mean there really is nothing left to do, except perhaps retreat to the private, exquisitely landscaped grounds. The effect outside is stately. Where I grew up I saw more modest houses with iron fences wrapped around them and herds of domesticated deer being fed by children on day trips. This is not like that, but it's close.