797 Woodland Drive

A house built by the people who live in it

This house was commissioned by the people who live in it, not built on spec.

Its current owners commissioned it in 2011 — Tech Home Ltd. built it, Kimberley Morris Interior Design shaped the interior — and they have lived in it ever since.

That distinction shows up in the decisions. A spec build optimizes for the widest possible resale. This one answered to a particular family on a particular piece of shoreline, and that particularity is the point.

The orientation is the first thing to understand

The lot faces east. On Lake Simcoe, buyers ask about sunsets almost by reflex, and in doing so they overlook what an east-facing property actually offers: the sun comes up over open water and straight into the great room.

It is a morning house. Coffee at the glass, light on the water, the whole day in front of you — and by late afternoon the living space is cool and shaded while the deck is still warm. That is a genuinely different way to live on a lake, and it is not a compromise. It is a preference, and the people who share it should know this property exists.

The property sits in the Township of Oro-Medonte; our Oro-Medonte community page covers the township’s shoreline and what else comes to market along it.

The great room reads as one volume — by design

Vaulted ceiling. Floor-to-ceiling glass along the water side. A natural gas fireplace anchoring the left-hand wall as you enter.

The detail worth noticing is what you cannot see: the staircase is concealed, so nothing interrupts the room. It is a deliberate interior-design decision, and it is the difference between a great room with a staircase in it and a great room that simply is the room. Stand in it and the eye goes to the water, which is the only place it should go.

The shoreline is a family shoreline

Shoreline character on Lake Simcoe varies enormously from lot to lot. Bottom composition, depth, exposure and shelter can all change within a few hundred metres, and they matter more to daily life than almost anything inside the house.

Here: over 110 feet of frontage on a sheltered bay. Rocky at the water’s edge, then sand. Wadable, with no sudden drop-off. Shoreline, exposure and depth vary widely around the lake; our Lake Simcoe waterfront guide covers what to look at shore by shore.

For anyone bringing children or grandchildren into the water, that combination is what matters. It is also why the water in front of this property behaves differently in a blow than an exposed shore two bays over.

The layout answers the question downsizers are actually asking

Three bedrooms, with the primary on the main floor, plus a media room and a home office.

The main-floor primary is the feature that matters most to a particular buyer — the one moving from a large home in the GTA who does not want the primary suite upstairs. It means the principal rooms all work on one level, with the second storey there when it is wanted rather than needed.

The ensuite carries heated floors, a jetted tub and a glassed-in shower. The kitchen is finished with a quartz island and quartz countertops. A mudroom with its own outdoor entrance handles laundry and the business of lake living, which is the room people forget to ask about and use every single day.

Outside

A cedar deck under a covered overhang, with a gas line run for year-round barbecuing. A drilled well serves the house; a separate seasonal lake-fed line handles irrigation. Paved driveway, 2025. Year-round road access off Line 15 South.