Some homes ask you to slow down. 10 Springbank is one of them. Set on a rare king lot in Birch Cliff, it is wrapped in mature trees, natural stone, and a quiet you forget exists this close to the city. Inside, the layout breathes, then opens to an interior courtyard made for long dinners under the trees.

It holds a crowd and still gives everyone their own corner. Two primary suites. A table that runs late. A basement made for movie nights. Mornings drift toward the Scarborough Bluffs. Evenings settle on the new stone patio.

Birch Cliff is an established lakeside pocket of Scarborough in Toronto's east end, set atop the western Scarborough Bluffs along Lake Ontario, with Kingston Road's shops minutes away. Catchment schools include Birch Cliff Public School and Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute, subject to current TDSB boundaries. Location and commute: About 13 km east of downtown. The 12 Kingston Road bus reaches Kennedy Station, and Scarborough GO on the Lakeshore East line reaches Union Station in about 20 minutes.

This is not a house you move into. It is a quieter way to live, trees overhead, the lake down the incline, the city within reach.