This was the luckiest find ever! The original house I rented turned out not to exist, so I went searching for a new place to spend just over a month. I lucked into finding Daniel's house.
The house is in a great location with shopping and restaurants all a quick walk (including Scaramouche, one of Toronto's best restaurants.) The location, including parking, is ideal for access to both Downtown and Highway 401. We routinely got down to Bloor and Avenue in less than 5 minutes.
The house itself is huge and gorgeous - I believe around 4,500 square feet. The main floor has a kitchen, great room, eating area, two desk areas, a bathroom and spacious living room. The middle floor has three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room. The top has stairs to a rooftop deck with gorgeous views. This is the first house we've stayed at that had enough room so my kids could be in different areas and not annoy each other!
The house is tastefully decorated and feels like a real home. The bedrooms have large and comfortable beds and there are 5 beds spread across the 3 bedrooms. The welcome was amazing. At every bathroom sink were packages with toothbrushes, mouthwash, toothpaste, and bars of soap. An amazing touch since we always seem to forget to bring toothbrushes and end up having to buy them - this time they were included. The towels were much nicer than any other Airbnb I have stayed at, the same with the sheets and blankets.
As for Daniel, our host, he was incredible. He was always available, communicative and helpful. You can tell that he cares a lot about his property and his guests. We had one minor problem (a local internet outage, not the huge Rogers outage,) and Daniel was right on getting it fixed and getting wifi back up and running without any delays in taking action. He also saved us - when our first Airbnb turned out not to exist, it was hard to find a last minute replacement. Daniel didn't hesitate to welcome us.
Now that I've gushed about what a great place it is, I do have a couple of caveats... there are a lot of stairs, there was one painting on an easel that kinda got in the way, and the only coffee maker was a french press. That's it.
When we come to Toronto next we will make sure to see if Daniel's place is available. We want to stay there again.