My Place
By Alex Molotkow
Photography by David Waldman
THE BIG HOUSE
WHO: John Turner, 36, documentary producer for CBC-TV, freelance journalist, media columnist and blogger (parkdalepictures.blogspot.com); Miriana Di Quinzio, 35, executive producer; Antonia, baby.
WHAT: A three-floor, 3,300-square-foot Victorian-era house.
WHERE: Parkdale.
HOW LONG: Three and a half years.
FAVOURITE THING: It's a streamlined space with Old World bonuses. “I can spend the whole day jumping from room to room and floor to floor and always experience something different,” says Turner. “But mostly, it's sitting in the kitchen and watching my wife work up a home-cooked Italian meal” over the Viking six-burner stove.
LEAST FAVOURITE THING: “The lack of outdoor space for my daughter.”
THE STORY: At first glance, John Turner's home looks bare and immaculate. It's not until the guided tour that one realizes how much hard work and planning has gone into making the space a minimalist sanctum; it is, after all, 125 years old. “The people that owned it before us were really into the Victorian-ness of the house. Not us,” Turner says. “It looked like an old woman lived here – an old, old woman.” Stripping floors, tearing down wallpaper and repainting gave way to a complete room-by-room overhaul. “With an old house, it never really ends.”
Turner dislikes “the middle ground,” an unexpected sentiment coming from a thirtysomething family man, but an attitude reflected throughout the house. The couple prefer to juxtapose extremes than to moderate them; their home is a mishmash of urban and rural motifs, homemade art (paintings by Miriana's sister, Lisa Di Quinzio, and family friend Jennifer Murphy) and high-end modern design (Artemide lamps, a Philippe Starck toilet and pieces from Commute Home). A Plexiglas deer head, perched over the dining room table, perfectly symbolizes the household goal of pairing opposites without compromising their effects.
Similarly, Turner's career has been marked by sharp, albeit lucky twists. Born in Toronto, raised in the suburbs and the country, Turner got his start interning at The Nation in New York City during the year of Bill Clinton's re-election. An unexpected call from Evan Solomon brought him, reluctantly, back to Toronto for what became a seven-year stint at Shift Magazine. His inaugural assignment for CBC-TV happened to be the decade's biggest news item; he took a last-minute van ride down to New York to cover 9/11. “I met my wife about four and a half years ago, and we fast-tracked ourselves into a home and a beautiful new baby,” he says. The site of their Parkdale domestic bliss was procured under equally fortuitous circumstances: an open house scheduled over Easter weekend ensured they were the only bidders. It was the luckiest stroke yet: “I can't imagine anywhere else I'd want to raise [a child] in this city.”
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