National Post

The grace of a small, elegant house is a wonderful thing. The pressures placed on a house by dense populations in and around it are enormous and constant; materials erode and finishes wear away. Over a lifetime, a house can lose everything that once made it elegant and interesting, as homeowner after homeowner tries to make it larger, warmer, easier to maintain and brighter. After a century or more of this sort of piecemeal -- albeit well-intentioned -- alteration, what began as a beautiful exterior is often left shrouded under a thick disguise. This series examines several Toronto house types and describes their original facades. Regency cottages are a rare and highly prized form of early Canadian architecture among those who know them. Their refinement never fails to surprise me, given the period in which they were built. Life in early 19thcentury York would hardly have provided even the bare minimum of comfort that I've come to expect from the battered teardown I call home.