204 Beech Ave - The Design + Construction of a modern accessible home

Unsurprisingly, our plans aren’t for everyone and those opposed are voicing their opinion in the previous post (comments are now closed). I tried to explain that addressing the issues, questions or concerns from those opposed was a fruitless exercise. Aside from the time it takes, we are never going to see this from each others perspective. This was interpreted by some as “the lengths to which I would go to deflect criticism of the destruction of this neighbourhood gem”. Against my better judgment, here’s a little more info and background…

Why not Elmer?
Tearing down and rebuilding Elmer wasn’t an option. Elmer had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in it. It was essentially a new home that wasn’t accessible and couldn’t be made accessible without tremendous additional costs and trade offs.

Why 204 Beech?
Price, scarcity and lot size. The last three years has ha d us essentially living in a hospital, a rehab centre and now a small condo. We held off making any huge changes in the hopes that my wife would have recovered to the point where she could use her arms and/or legs to get around Elmer – that hasn’t happened yet. 18 months ago we started looking at houses/properties. In that year and a half I’d guess there were around 8-10 properties on 50’ lots that came up for sale. (25’ lots don’t suit our needs as they aren’t wide enough and usually require going to 3 floors). Of these properties, all of them had inaccessible 3+ bedroom houses on them and were priced over 1 million dollars – I’d guess the average price would have been about $1.5 million. Beech was the first home that came up in that period that had a 50’ lot priced under $1m. There hasn’t been another one since to my knowledge and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last.

Perceived value is impossible to measure as it differs from person to person, which is why this is such a hot topic of debate.

Why build new when you can renovate or restore?
Cost and value. Renovating and making a home accessible is no easy feat. As I said above, it comes at considerable cost over and above that of building something new. Which brings us to the point where things go off the rails…Value.
Based on the difference in sale prices between 204 Beech and other homes on similar lots it’s not hard to figure out that the house is the least valuable thing about the property (I won’t get into why, that’s a topic all its own). Of course, I’m speaking of monetary value here, not perceived value. The monetary value is low – MLS data and home assessments substantiate this. Perceived value is impossible to measure as it differs from person to person, which is why this is such a hot topic of debate. For us, the perceived value is very low since the home does nothing to satisfy our needs or requirements (without considerable real or perceived costs). To some opposed the perceived value is very high, since their needs and requirements might be about preserving the past. Those opposed could have put real money against something they perceive so much value in by buying it. But they didn’t because it’s perceived value. In other words, It’s unrealistic for them to buy something that doesn’t meet any of their REAL needs or requirements (without considerable real or perceived costs).