00:05 Hi all. Uh, welcome to what I consider a Sosna house. Uh, it’s been renovated top to bottom uh, from Sosna Incorporated and I really love it here. I hope you do, too. We’re going to start in the basement where Sosna started. Come on down. So, it certainly didn’t look like this when uh the first flood happened in 2009.
00:36 This was uh not a basement that we really enjoyed. Uh it did have a two-piece bathroom, but there wasn’t all this excellent storage that Sosna helped to create under here, and I can hide away all of my uh decorations for Christmas. And likewise, underneath here, things that I don’t need very often. Next to Sosna, we’ve got storage here over there where there was a workbench.
1:01 And we have a lovely three-piece bathroom that makes use of every single inch. The door just closes, a circular shower. I couldn’t ask for better fixtures that uh it just works in this bathroom. And especially when you knew what it looked like before, it was barely serviceable, you might say. And uh we have had um additions made in the 2013 second time there was a flood here and that uh a gas fireplace was added.
01:33 And most recently in 2024 the floor needed to be replaced again with the yet the third flood of a century which happens when you’re living really close to the lake as this house is. Um but each time Sosna has somehow managed to improve it. I’ll give you an example. Uh, under this flooring, which is a vinyl luxury plank, there’s a subfloor, which most basements would have.
02:00 And, uh, the fellow who put it down, he knew that the cement underneath wasn’t exactly level. He went to the additional step of making sure it was level so that that subflooring wouldn’t wobble and that the vinyl flooring would be steady. Uh, again, who does that? I’m just so pleased with everything that Sosna has done here.
02:20 They’ve made this room not only my work space and where I have more storage and also a laundry room, but they made it a space where I can do exercises, where I can work and watch TV at the same time. And uh we treated ourselves with a great big TV after the uh 2024 uh flood just a couple years ago. And I just like to add when that flood happened here in South Etobicoke, you couldn’t find a contractor to even come and give you an estimate.
05:50 When I called Andrei, it didn’t take 10 minutes and he said, “Joan, don’t worry. We’ll take care of you. You’re our client.” And I so appreciate the fact that maybe he let some other jobs go, but he came and he did this really quickly and we were back in business enjoying our basement where other people didn’t even have an estimate yet. So, I’m really grateful.
03:11 As I say, it started here in the basement with uh Sosna helping us after the first flood in 2009 and it continued right into 2024. Much appreciated and I can only say marvelous things about everything they’ve done down here. It’s made it a usable space. It’s increased our house space by a third just by having a live livable basement.
03:32 All right. I didn’t mention this uh room before, but Sosna also helped with the flooding that was here. We have a sump pump here. A battery backup was put in to increase the hopeful chance of never having a um a problem again. The guys crawled in under here, removed the drywall only partway up. They had to work around this.
033:56 At one point they took some of it out, put it back in. They help with the workbench and even at one point created the opening from this room into what was originally just a little pantry and now is a a wine cellar too. Sosna has done everything here for us and we so appreciate it. So we’ll go to the orchid bathroom next.
04:18 Chronologically speaking this room was next and I still call it my orchid bathroom. I’m so grateful to Olga the designer and to once again Andrei who understands when people are going through a renovation how difficult it can be knowing that in my life at that time my late husband was suffering from terminal illness it’s called mesothelioma it’s caused by asbestos which is something contractors get and do understand so I wanted to actually redo the kitchen Andrei said to me oh Joan that’s going to be so disruptive and
04:52 John is so ill you really should consider maybe something smaller, a project that you can see completed in a more, you know, smaller time frame. So, we worked on this bathroom. Olga came in and she said, “Okay, we’ll put the shower over here. We can take care of that window. Put that out. We can maximize space.
05:11 ” And I said, “Wait a minute, Olga. This is my best window in the house for orchids.” And I I really can’t do without that window. Not only did she listen to me, she created a window that is a teardrop shape. exactly like the bathtub unique teardrop shape and the countertop also that sort of teardrop shape and it’s still my best window in the house for orchids.
05:35 I so appreciated that they listened that I did want to have Yes, you can have the shower feature here with a rain shower, but I wanted to have the opportunity to have a soak in a tub every once in a while. Not everyone wants to get rid of their tubs. Not only did she listen, she created the very best tub.
05:52 I don’t know where she got this tub. I’ve never seen it on the market anywhere and I love it. I also want to mention at the time, as I said, my husband was very ill and uh the fellow who cut the tiles, he took every single piece of tile outside and cut it outside so that he didn’t disturb John who was quite quite sick at the time.
06:11 And I really appreciate the thoughtfulness. A lot of contractors will they don’t even seem to care that they’re in your space. They’re wrecking your house at the same time they’re fixing it. But Sosna workers have always been very understanding and I so appreciate that particular time in our lives.
06:29 So that’s the orchid bathroom. Um that was 2013 beginning 2014 and then in 2014 unfortunately John did pass away and uh I started wanting to change the house a little bit to kind of start a new life for myself. We had flooring redone in this hallway as well as in uh a couple of bedrooms and um they the team also repainted for me and put up uh some insulation on the inside walls of the hallway and uh that was also helping me to make it make it mine and improve it.
07:09 So much appreciated. 2015 comes along and uh we did the kitchen and I say we it was really me by myself at that point. So one needs to understand that at the time this was a window that looked into the backyard. The house in 2015 ended here. There was a sliding door that looked onto a deck behind me. And this room did not exist in 2015.
07:37 It was just a deck. beautiful as it was, it was um not my plan at that point to change it. So, in 2015, I was focused on the kitchen and updating a sorely needed change to this room. I can’t say more about how, you know, here we are 11 years later. I still absolutely love this kitchen. It’s just perfect.
08:02 Olga even measured how big was my Cuisinart would fit in this drawer. Making sure that the uh dishwasher uh there was a handle at the time in the old dishwasher and the uh drawers would open. Uh an error was made in that respect and Andrei and the team replaced my dishwasher rather than changing what had been agreed upon as the kitchen cabinets.
08:29 I mean, that’s really going the extra step. Uh, I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate how they stick to their word. And honestly, that contractor you can trust is true. You really can trust them. I still love the kitchen. I love that we were able to blend modern and that the Sosna team understood. I wanted some of the features of the house that date back to the 1922 build.
08:56 And some of it I had refinished some of the wood and uh it just it’s a good combination for me. It works. And I guess that’s what renovations are all about, that they’re a good combination that they work. Uh keep in mind that uh the dining room now used to be the living room. And uh when the addition was added, which we’re going to get to in a minute here, we changed things.
09:21 And I’m really quite happy to have this room now as the living room. If you sit in a certain spot, you can actually have dinner and look at the lake and see uh boats go by. Just the beauty of our neighborhood in South Etobicoke. I’m grateful too for people like Roman on the team who’ve helped not only as a project manager, but also in little details like how do you get an old wooden door on a wall? I think he calls it a butterfly um a butterfly cleat and it allows us to change that wooden door.
09:57 The photos are my own and I change them oh every month or two and they represent the holidays that we’ve been on and the adventures we’ve had. But again, it’s been helpful to me to have the Sosna team listen to me as a client and is there a way I can do this? And yes, Roman said, “There’s a way we can do this and he did it himself.
10:19 ” I really do appreciate that. At the same time, in 2015, my life was changing and uh I’m grateful that I have a new partner in my life. Um Peter has come on the picture. There he is out in the back. He uh had also lost his spouse and the two of us wanted to join our homes together. Much of the furniture that’s now in this house is from Peter’s house, even including the light fixture in the dining room.
10:51 And with Peter coming to the house and moving in more furniture than I had, I guess, uh, we wanted to add where there had been a deck, a sun room. And we do use this room a lot, not just on a sunny day. Even in the middle of winter, it’s delightful to have the light come in. There’s something about light that makes us feel feel better.
11:12 And I appreciate again the advice I had. Let’s do wall-to-wall glass. You’ll like it, Joan. And absolutely true. Um I don’t regret that for a minute. But next, I want to show you my wow edition because this is an Andrei idea. When we started talking about the design, Andrei I said, I’d like to have a downstairs bathroom.
11:35 This house could use that, especially as I age. and he said yes but it has to be special uh it has to be something where people will say wow and indeed with Olga’s help great designer that she is we have I think made this like wow how unique is that the wallpaper is actually one of my own photos the wood on the vanity and the wood on the shelving unit where I have a grow light uh are pieces of wood that are my own from my own cottage age.
12:07 And how can you help but say like, “Wow, I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.” Like, who else has that something that unique? I use the um Brolite shelf more in the winter time. I just love the bathroom. There’s nothing I could do to change that to make it better. It’s just like, wow. Thank you, Olga.
12:24 So much appreciated. And great idea, Andrei. We needed to make this a special bathroom, not just a little powder room. It really is special. So this is our living room that is part of the sun room, living room, whatever you want to call it. It’s a part of the addition that came when Peter joined me in this house in 2017.
12:47 So this is a 2017 edition and it um kind of would say it reaches its height in our um main bedroom upstairs. So let’s go back upstairs to where that main bedroom is. As we go up the stairs, you might think it’s a little bit strange to have carpeting. People tend now to refinish them or you know it’s painted. This is kind of old style.
13:07 But again, Sausna listened to me. At the time we had two older dogs. They’ve now since passed, but I said the dogs can’t go down the flooring when it’s slippery. We need carpet on this flooring so that it’s safe for the dogs. And thankfully Sausno listened to me and we have carpeting that I’m still happy to have.
13:28 This is uh the main bedroom which as I said is directly above the sun room and it too has a great feature with floor to mostly it’s not ceiling by any means but a really high window that gives us that illusion of even more space and a beautiful view into the back gardens. It makes us feel like we have that much more to our house when we have this kind of space.
13:58 I seriously feel so at home in this room. Even though it’s not an original part of the house, Peter and I have made it our room. Great place for music and lounging at uh nighttime. And I uh I know that it suits Peter better because he came from a big house in Mississauga and he wanted to have more space in the main bedroom and I think we did that.
14:25 I still have space for a great big picture on the wall. But one thing that you wouldn’t notice that I have to explain here in the corner is that uh Sosna listened to me and acted on my recommendation too that as we age, we might like to have our laundry here in this little space, saving us from walking downstairs and upstairs as older people have more trouble with that.
14:49 So, I know that I have an outlet already for a dryer, and I could put a washing machine here. And I have a picture, so I know it’s right about here. We cut out the drywall. The plumbing is already in place for me to put a washing machine here. And uh I’m grateful that they would do little things like that so I can plan ahead.
15:09 Heaven forbid that I can’t do stairs and laundry down there, but it could happen. And it certainly would make life easier. It’s also nice that we have uh one more unique bathroom. I don’t call this one the wow bathroom cuz that one’s downstairs and it’s not the orchid bathroom, but it’s unique in one way cuz Olga again had the idea, why don’t you use the other barn door, Joan? You can get one of those barn doors and put family photos in it.
15:37 And uh it’s a way of saving some space and as you enter into the bathroom, it uh it works. You don’t have to have a door jutting out into the hallway. There are enough doors around already with shower doors and so forth. Again, I love the um I love the skylight here. It was my idea. The architect said yes. By the way, that was a great architect that Sosna sent to us and he designed things for this uh addition.
16:01 Believe it or not, this used to be uh one of my daughter’s bedrooms uh along with the closet that’s opposite. But we love the space and thanks to Olga again, I have a little niche on the other side here for some more orchids. And she has uh she’s designed it just perfectly. We’ve absolutely love this space.
16:22 This is great to have the blind, too, when it’s super sunny hot, but nice in the night time you can see the stars, and I’m so happy about that. And uh in the winter time, too, you see the snow coming down. So, it’s good in all seasons. Opposite are a couple of closets which again contribute to uh our having great space but also the fact that SA listened to me and said let’s not waste any of this space.
16:51 It’s a small house. We need to have as much as possible every little corner used. So we can actually walk through one end of it to the next leading us to the middle bedroom. And that kind of takes you on a tour. So, I don’t know whether I’ve answered all your questions. So, why would I recommend Sosna after you’ve seen the house and heard a good portion of my story? I think sometimes it’s the little things.
17:22 You don’t really think that that’s important. But my gosh, when you’re going through a kitchen renovation or adding an addition, all those little things add up. For example, if they say they’re going to arrive 8:00 a.m. and they actually arrive at 8:00 a.m. or they say the work day will end at 5 and it does end at 5 and they are out of your house and you have some of your house back at that time.
17:44 Like it’s such a good feeling and just the respect that they give your house too. um making it such that there are plastic walls up with zippers that are going to keep the dust out of the rest of the house, but you could walk through with that zipper pathway or wearing protective gear on their shoes, not entering the house with the part. It’s not under renovation.
18:03 That is not entering that house with uh without wearing the protection on their shoes. Just being really respectful of a renovation is disruptive and they made it the least disruptive possible. I really appreciate that. It’s one of the reasons that I would definitely always recommend Sosna.
18:22 But more importantly, I think most people ask the big question, well, what about the price? What about, you know, the surprises? I’ve never had a surprise with Sosna, except a good surprise. For example, well, we made a mistake with the dishwasher. We’re going to replace it. Or, geez, we didn’t mean to forget that insulation.
18:40 We’ll put Stucco on the outside. We’ll give you insulation. And it’s not going to cost you extra. They stuck to their word. stuck to their timelines and you seriously can trust them. So when they use that tagline, a contractor you can trust, it’s true, like 110%. And I really appreciate having had them in this house so many times.
19:02 And I wish anyone well who chooses to have Sosna cuz I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all. They’re definitely worth it. And I think I’d like to end there. Just as a final word, I’d like to say thank you, Sosna. you’ve made our lives in this house the quality that I could not have imagined without all of your excellent work.
19:20 It has been superior and I really appreciate it. I’d just like to add that um there might be some people who feel that you know we can get a cheaper contractor in. I’ve heard too many stories and I know you get cheap workers, you get cheap quality work done, it’s just not that good and then you regret it.
19:40 I think when you hire a quality team like the Sosna team, you get quality results and that every day of the week is worth it 100%. Gosh, the life of a busy family with two kids where you wish you had more space is one thing we’d always dreamed of, but it was really having a flood in our basement in 2009 didn’t let us stall any longer. We had to fix the basement and um you know, you get some insurance money and that certainly helps.
20:06 Um, so that was the decision based on the need. But the decision to go to Sosna really was a recommendation from another company who had used them in their electrical uh showcase shop and thought that they did great stuff. And so my husband at the time, John, said, “Let’s try these people.” And that was 2009. And here we are now, nine renos later.
20:29 What brought you back to Sosna for your second renovation? Ironically, it was another flood in the basement. It was uh 2013 and uh they had done such a good job that we said, “Okay, let’s do it even better this time. We’ve got a little bit more money. Let’s add in um a fireplace and and some speakers for a sound system and we’ll get Sosna to come back.
20:55 ” It was carpet at that point and let’s just take out the carpet because this flooding situation in South Etobicoke seems to happen far too often. We had no hesitation about bringing them back. They did such a good job the first time. It certainly wasn’t their fault that we’d had another flood. >> Can you share a specific time when something didn’t go as planned, but the team completely had your back? >> Yes, indeed. I’m standing beside it.
21:15 The dishwasher. The uh design um was not taking into account that the dishwasher that we used to have here had a handle on it. And um I don’t think it was anyone’s fault. specifications did not include how far out the handle came and the corner of this cupboard needed to be um shorter by about 4 in, which would have made my drawers that much shorter.
21:41 And I said, “That’s going to look crazy. I don’t want to shorten the drawer and have a wasted space.” And Andrei said, “Well, I guess then we’ll just have to buy you a new dishwasher.” And he did. And I very much appreciated it because now I have that full drawer that uh that I really use.
21:58 And I’m glad we’ve made complete use of that space. That’s just one example. They have never disappointed me on anything that might have started to go wrong. They’ve always come through and done it right because you can trust them. They really will. >> What did you enjoy most about working with Sosna? >> It’s a great team.
22:15 I think uh from the design phase, Olga has been superb listening to my ideas. Architects that were hired for the addition also listen to the ideas. But it’s the day to day stuff. It’s the coming on time, leaving on time, being respectful of the house people are still living in while your renovation is happening. All of those little things add up and they mean a lot.
22:40 >> As Sosna celebrates 25 years, what do you think has stayed consistent about who they are as a company? >> I think it goes back to that tagline. It’s a company you can trust. I think there are other contractors out there who could give you a cheaper deal, but honestly, I know too many stories from neighbors and friends of how contractors can go awry, and you just don’t need that.
23:05 With Sosna, I received a scope and sequence document that let me know when payments were happening, what percentage of the payment was happening at each stage, that there were uh walkthroughs at a regular basis, project manager was always going to be there. I honestly felt from the beginning that I could trust them and I do to this day.
23:23 I have never regretted having Sosna come and help us out here. I can’t think of a reason that I wouldn’t recommend Sosna. How has this renovation changed your daily life? >> It’s made this house bigger and better and at the same time it has kept some of its unique old nature. You know, from 1922 when it was built, I don’t think all contractors are able to do that.
23:47 to see a vision of well this suits this couple. This is the way they’d like it and they’d listen to you and my daily life is just the way I want it here. It’s beautiful and I love the house thanks to Sosna.
