1 Balmy Avenue, Toronto

Balmy Avenue is one of those Beach streets you don't know about until you know about it: a short cul-de-sac off Silver Birch, and 1 Balmy is the first house in. The boardwalk and the Balmy Beach Club are a four-minute walk. Queen Street and the 501 are seven. Kew Gardens is twelve if you take the boardwalk, and you'll WANT to take the boardwalk. It's detached, which down here is rare. It has parking, which is rarer. The last owners renovated every floor and underpinned the lower level, so the ceilings down there are full height and there is nothing on the to-do list. For a Beach three-storey, that's the rarest thing of all.The main floor is hardwood front to back, with custom built-ins, an electric fireplace and a Sonos sound system throughout. The kitchen is the room you'll spend most mornings and evenings in. With the sun shine until late afternoon and the appliances people say they'll buy and never do: Sub-Zero fridge, Wolf cooktop and convection microwave, Miele dishwasher, built-in Miele coffee maker. Quartz counters, obviously. It walks out to a south-facing deck with a hot tub. On a Beach lot, "private deck" usually means a fence and some optimism. This one is private.Three bedrooms on the second floor, and the front one has its own balcony. The third floor is the primary suite. All of it: custom closets, a fireplace and a five-piece ensuite under a skylight, so you can lie cozy in the tub during a storm...while it rains on someone else. The lower level has a three-piece bath, a proper storage room and a rec room that feels like part of the home, not "the basement". On a January night it's where everyone actually ends up. By the numbers: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a 23 x 70 ft lot, front-pad parking, central air, central vac, gas heat. Balmy Beach Community School is closer than the beach. A detached house in The Beach with nothing left to do. Yes, really. Open houses Sat Sept 26 and Sun Sept 27, 1 to 4 pm. Offers Tues Sept 29 at 6 pm.