135 JAMES STREET

135 James St, in downtown's Inner Harbour neighbourhood, sits further back from the road than any of its neighbours, with a back-to-the-wall personality I identify with. There is an impressive symmetry to the place if you separate it from its garage. Renovated in the 1980s is my guess, and much loved, but about due another go.

There is a covered porch and a full-width living room with hardwood floors. A formal dining room and an old kitchen tucked away at the back. There is also a covered breezeway between the house and the double-deep block garage in which you can surely build your airship or your go-karts.

The three bedrooms gather around the upstairs bathroom. I think another unit built inside and possibly above the garage would make an awful lot of sense. Something to house the in-laws or help with the mortgage.

It's a future possibility that tugs irresistibly at the present, like a bright thread pulling lives together. But you could also just bring the kids and call it home, build vegetable gardens out front, make friends with the marvellous neighbours, walk every morning to the Elm Cafe and Daughters Grocery, or up Pine to the Sunday market.