Home for the Holidays tour is a well-loved event

Share this Story : Home for the Holidays tour is a well-loved event Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Breadcrumb Trail Links Life Homes Home for the Holidays tour is a well-loved event Author of the article: Laura Byrne Paquet Published Nov 15, 2024 • Last updated 39 minutes ago • 4 minute read Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account. Dave Grummett and Sandra Idone’s new home in City View features an in-law suite above the garage and a backyard made for entertaining.

Photo by HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Article content Open house fans, take note: You can stroll through seven gorgeous homes in McKellar Park, Manotick and elsewhere in Ottawa on this year’s Homes for the Holidays tour.



The popular Hospice Care Ottawa fundraiser is taking place from November 15 to 17. Last year’s event attracted some 1,200 visitors and tour co-chair Sharon Lalonde hopes this year’s edition will be equally popular. “People love this event, because who doesn’t want to go into people’s houses and walk around?” she says with a chuckle.

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“They’re great supporters of hospice,” says Lalonde. Extensive renovations to Rnea Garrah’s Rockcliffe Park home included installing a new limestone façade. Photo by HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS Flowers Talk Tivoli will be decorating two houses this year, including Sandra Idone and Dave Grummett’s stunning new home on Joan Street in City View.

The couple and their two children, now aged 16 and 12, moved into the 5,000-square-foot home a year ago. The property includes an in-law suite above a large garage. Grummett runs Epcon Homes, an Ottawa home builder and renovation company, so the house incorporates lots of innovative features.

One of the coolest is the butler’s pantry, which you enter through a door designed to look like a set of kitchen cabinets. A door designed to look like a wall of kitchen cabinets opens into the butler’s pantry in Dave Grummett and Sandra Idone’s home. Photo by LAURA BYRNE PAQUET The couple loves to entertain, and Idone says the pantry—which features a sink, ample storage and counter space, and a microwave—allows her to do her prep work behind the scenes.

“Then I’ll shut the door!” she says. In the kitchen, a huge white quartz island is an inviting place to gather, as is the large wooden table positioned against a window seat. The open-concept space blends into a family room with leather couches and chairs, reclaimed wood ceiling beams, and a large limestone fireplace.

Off the family room is a three-season sunroom, which opens to the backyard. Advertisement 3 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content “We love being outside, so the backyard and the pool and the entertainment space outside was really important to us,” says Idone.

Along with a hot tub and an inground pool, the backyard includes a pool house with a wood-burning fireplace and a bar, where visitors can hang out even when the weather isn’t great for swimming. “It’s a cool space,” says Grummett. A limestone wall is a farmhouse-style focal point in Sandra Idone and Dave Grummett’s dining room.

Photo by LAURA BYRNE PAQUET Throughout the home, stone, wood and other natural materials create a modern farmhouse vibe. Limestone has been used to striking effect on the fireplaces, and accent walls in the dining room wall and the primary bedroom’s ensuite. Another house on the Homes for the Holidays tour—this one in Rockcliffe Park—also makes spectacular use of natural elements.

Rnea Garrah and her partner purchased the home on Manor Avenue during the pandemic and planned to do a few renovations. However, once they began, they discovered all sorts of issues with the 1930s-era house, such as asbestos in the stucco and problems with the foundation. Garrah kitchen credit Ula Muntean Ula Photography (4 photos): The open-concept kitchen with its large marble island is the centrepiece of Rnea Garrah’s ground floor.

Photo by MUNTEAN/ULA PHOTOGRAPHY In the end, the renovation extended to just about every part of the house. Garrah, founder and principal of Ottawa’s Studio Garrah, drew on her years of experience as an interior designer throughout the project. Advertisement 4 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Article content She and her team relocated the front door, created a more open-concept main level, widened hallways on the second floor, added an upstairs bathroom, and opened the walls of one bedroom to create a cozy den with a vaulted ceiling. Even the basement was remodelled to add a wine cellar and expand the below-grade garage. The result is a light-filled home that wows visitors as soon as they step through the front door.

At their feet in the foyer is a custom mosaic floor created from cut-down marble tiles. Opening off the foyer is a sleek kitchen with a huge marble island. The same black-veined white marble is used for backsplashes in the kitchen and the adjacent butler’s pantry.

Footed cabinets give the kitchen a classic feel, and hardwood flooring from Ottawa’s Logs End ties the whole space together. “It being a period home, we didn’t want to have ultramodern finishes or materials. Even though, the way we’ve designed it, it does have a contemporary feel,” Garrah explains.

A geometric mosaic in the foyer welcomes visitors to Rnea Garrah’s Rockcliffe Park home. Photo by MUNTEAN/ULA PHOTOGRAPHY Another highlight is the main-floor billiard room. The coffered ceiling is original to the house, but Garrah extended the windows to the floor to let in more light.

A built-in bar features eye-catching cabinets with metallic inserts. Advertisement 5 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Article content During Homes for the Holidays, the home will be decorated by Capital Florist, a new participant in the year’s tour.

If seeing these festively decorated homes puts you in the mood for Christmas shopping, drop by the Homes for the Holidays pop-up shop on November 15 and 16. This year, the shop will be in a new location: the Community Building of the Ruddy-Shenkman Hospice in Kanata. You don’t need a tour ticket to browse the shop for chocolate, honey, jewellery, soap, shoes, wood carvings, books, baked goods and other treats.

Tickets for Homes for the Holidays are $65 per person and are available at hospicecareottawa.ca/homes-for-the-holidays-home-tour. Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Home for the Holidays tour is a well-loved event Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Comments You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.

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