JANUARY 14, 2024

Dear reader,

Winter finally showed up, and we won’t be able to enjoy the sweet scent of Toronto’s world-class forest until I’d say about Easter. I’m not the snow-pants type, so I like to visit the city’s many indoor gardens to give my seasonal depression the old one-two. My favourite is U of T’s Terrence Donnelly Centre, home to a living, breathing bamboo forest in its soaring greenhouse-like atrium.

Raising indoor plants—trees, gardens and living walls—is a great investment in both property value and health. Along with bringing a sense of calm, plants clean the air, which is especially important when everyone’s stuck inside avoiding the slush.

Green is the way for Curb Appeal’s top post this week, a $45,000-a-month Bridle Path rental not too far from Drake’s house. At its heart: a thriving fiddle-leaf fig crowned by an enormous skylight.

Also in today’s newsletter: a pentagonal oddity in Woodbine Corridor. Plus, $21.5 million for a King City castle. And a tour of a Mississauga lodge with its own ravine. For all of our real estate coverage and more, visit torontolife.com or subscribe to our print edition.

—Barry Jordan Chong, city and real estate editor

A five-plus-one-bedroom, nine-plus-one-bathroom estate sitting on about three acres of land, two streets over from Drake’s Bridle Path mansion. Built for the rich and famous, the house comes with a wine room, a hot tub, a tennis court and a skylight in almost every room—many of them with 16-foot ceilings. Check it out. 

Here’s a 2,100-square-foot built-from-scratch detached close to St. John’s Norway Cemetery. It comes with sneaky storage, a smart thermostat, a wet bar and a finished basement that walks out to a backyard deck. 

This 18,000-square-foot mansion in King City sits on 56 acres and has a giant pond, intricate millwork, an in-ground hot tub, a grand sunroom and horse paddocks. 

What suburban hideaway would be complete without a jukebox, a cigar room, antlers, 27-foot chalet ceilings, reclaimed barn wood, a pool with a curvy slide and a boardwalk to its own personal ravine?

In the latest issue: the ultimate try-anything-once, antidote-to-doomscrolling bucket list for 2025. Plus, a ranking of the city’s best new cookies, up close and personal with the Beaches, and more. Still not receiving Toronto Life at home? Subscribe today.

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