Real Estate

For $1.9 million you can buy this luxe container compound on Ontario's Grape Island

Refurbished shipping containers dotting the sprawling property help give new meaning to the phrase “island life”

(Photos courtesy Sotheby’s/Ross Halloran)

Just a stone’s throw across Lake Simcoe from Victoria Point and the town of Orillia lies Grape Island, home to roughly 40 cottage properties—including this secluded, water-access getaway, which is on the market for $1.89 million. 

 

 

Located just 90 minutes from  Toronto—including the three minutes from dock to dock crossing Simcoe from Orillia’s Victoria Point—the property is a rare double lot dotted with shipping containers that have been turned into three cozy sleeping quarters. There’s also a modern, custom-designed, two-storey lake house, plus the main home.

 

 

Imported Malaysian hardwood walkways connect the five buildings, including this children’s bunkie and a laundry and gym building nestled on the back of the property under the shady treeline. 

 

 

The property’s unusual design is inspired by the owner’s travels to the Caribbean. There are ready-to-lounge-on daybeds on walk-out patio decks, a western red cedar barrel sauna from Northern Lights Cedar Tubs and Saunas in Winnipeg that fits six, and a sleek and elegant outdoor concrete-topped Acadia wood-legged dining table from Seven Continents in Manhattan that seats a dozen people next to two outdoor fire pits. 

 

What else does the $1,895,000 price tag come with? Five bedrooms, four bathrooms, 3,000 total square feet, 200 feet of unobstructed waterfront views and all the trappings of a refined summer home: screened-in porch in the main dwelling, custom-built touch cabinets, sliding glass doors and a deep, square, white cedar Japanese soaker tub in the main bathroom.

 

A safari-inspired glamping tent custom-built on-site comes with an open-air standing shower.

 

If having a roof is more your speed, the boathouse offers a loft-style sleeping space with a full bathroom and unparalleled morning panoramas.

 

A retractable dock and vessel storage comes with the property, so owning a boat is a must to get the most out of this island home. Have multiple family members or friends en route for the weekend? Several residents operate a water taxi to ferry additional guests and residents back and forth (or “scoots,” hovercraft-like vehicles that navigate through the channel in inclement winter weather).

You can’t drive on the island. A walking path provides access to a shared public dock and connects residential property lines. Some owners have lived full time on Grape Island since the ’50s, so you’d be joining a close-knit community.

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