A long, low composition of limestone and glass facing Lake Ontario. The house holds the horizon rather than competing with it.
01The Bronte Residence
- Location
- Oakville
- Architectural style
- Modern Lakeside
- Size
- 8,400 sq ft
- Year completed
- 2024
Custom Home Builder — Oakville · Burlington · Toronto · Muskoka
Built with precision.Finished with purpose.
Start Your Project
A small number of homes each year. Each one finished completely.
About
We build slowly, on purpose.
Cortona Construction takes on a small number of homes each year. Fewer projects means our senior people are on your site — not spread across twelve others. It means decisions are made once, correctly. It means the home is finished when it is right, not when the schedule says so.
Every budget is open-book. Every selection is documented. Every trade on site has built with us before, most for more than a decade. This is not the fastest way to build a home. It is the right one.
“A home should outlast the people who built it. That conviction is in every footing we pour and every joint we cut. When you build with Cortona, you deal with me — at the first meeting, at the framing walk, and on the day we hand you the keys. We answer for everything, because we built everything.”
[Founder Name], Founder
Craftsmanship, transparency, and attention to detail — not as values on a wall, but as line items you can audit.
Selected Work
A few of the homes we are proud to have signed.
Custom homes, full renovations, and design-build — from the lake to the city to the Canadian Shield.
The same Forest Hill facade before restoration — weathered brick, failing mortar, painted-over stone lintels, overcast flat light.
BeforeAfter02Forest Hill Renovation
- Location
- Toronto
- Architectural style
- Heritage Restoration
- Size
- 6,200 sq ft
- Year completed
- 2023
A 1912 home returned to itself — original brick and plasterwork restored by hand, a quiet glass addition concealed at the rear.
Cedar, granite, and glass set into the shoreline rock. Built across two winters; barged in, piece by piece.
03Stillwater Point
- Location
- Muskoka, Lake Rosseau
- Architectural style
- Contemporary Cottage
- Size
- 5,800 sq ft
- Year completed
- 2024
Pale brick, deep window reveals, a courtyard at its centre. A new house designed to feel like it has always stood there.
04The Rebecca House
- Location
- Burlington
- Architectural style
- Warm Minimalist New Build
- Size
- 7,100 sq ft
- Year completed
- 2025
Process
Five steps. No surprises.
Discovery
We begin with conversation, not contracts — your land, your life, and what you want a home to do for both.
Design
Working with your architect, or ours, we shape a home that belongs to its site as much as to you.
Planning
Budget, permits, and schedule are settled in full — and in writing — before a shovel touches ground.
Construction
One dedicated site team, weekly walkthroughs, and an open book from first pour to final coat of oil.
Completion
A measured handover, a complete home manual, and a builder who still answers the phone years later.
Craftsmanship
Luxury is decided at the beginning.
Not applied at the end. It lives in what the home is made of, and in who is allowed to touch it. These are our standards — visible and not.
Rift-Sawn White Oak
Floors, stairs, and millwork drawn from the same lots, so the grain reads as one continuous thought through the house. Sawn for straightness, finished with hardwax oil, made to be refinished by your grandchildren.
Honed Natural Stone
Limestone and marble honed, never polished — light should rest on stone, not bounce off it. Slabs are sequenced and book-matched where the eye lingers, and cut on site to the millimetre.
Bespoke Millwork
Built in our own shop and installed by the hands that made it. Mitres you cannot find with a fingernail. Doors weighted to close with a sound you will come to recognize as home.
The Envelope
Triple-glazed European windows, continuous exterior insulation, every penetration sealed and blower-door tested. The quietest luxury is a house that holds its temperature — and its silence.
Clients
In their words.
“We interviewed seven builders. Cortona was the only one who talked about the house before they talked about themselves. Three years on, every door still closes the way it did the week we moved in.”
“A heritage renovation is a thousand opportunities to cut a corner. They took none of them. Our home is itself again — only built better than it ever was.”
“We built the cottage from overseas. The weekly reports were so thorough that arriving at the dock felt like a formality. It was the home we had imagined, down to the grain of the boards.”
Contact
Begin with a conversation.
Tell us about your land, your timeline, and what you want your home to be. Every inquiry is read and answered personally — within two business days.