When Trevor Speis first returned to Toronto in 2019 after four years in Sydney, Australia, he knew that he wanted to put his stamp on the city. A partner in both the and The Good Son restaurant, the financier had long been invested in his hometown, but this was different. If he was going to abandon the white sands of Bondi Beach for the white winters of his youth, he needed to put down some roots.
He needed to build a home. Conveniently, he knew exactly where he wanted that to be. “I’ve always thought that Palmerston Avenue is one of the nicest strips in all of downtown,” he says.
“It’s proximity to everything you need, including Trinity Bellwoods Park, which I love, is amazing. I’ve just always been drawn to it.” For two years, Speis bid on properties as they popped up on the street, eventually closing on a 1500-square-foot brick three-storey with both a lot of history and potential.
“In the 70s, they always had the coolest sunken living rooms and couches and every time I would see those photos, I’d be like ‘Damn, I wish I had lived in that time! Now I do,” says Speis. Speis was immediately taken with the huge front doors that were first used to accommodate horses when it was a carriage house in the 1860s and then later large commercial delivery trucks. “It’s not the fanciest looking, but it’s one of the houses that definitely catches your eye.
When I got inside and saw the raw elements: the exposed beams and different elevations, I was like, ‘I.
