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Like most people, Sheldon Burshtein craves a sunny beachside holiday when the strains of work start tugging at his soul. But unlike most people, the Toronto lawyer doesn't need to track down resort prices to sate his need for sun and sand; he just steps out his back door.

"I'll often come out here in the morning with a cup of coffee," he says. "It's like taking a vacation before I go to work."

Peering across Mr. Burshtein's deck in north Toronto, the first thing you see is a lifeguard tower, then a dock, and finally a small pool of water surrounded by cobblestones, shells, beach grass and a dump-truck load of sand. A sign reads Cape Cod. The nautical theme persists with maritime flags, lobster traps, life-saving rings, oars, hawser fences and a ship's wheel all accessorizing the scene.

You almost expect to spot a Kennedy sunbathing on the beach chairs.

While the water is only 20 inches deep - the maximum permitted by the city without classifying as a full-fledged pool - that doesn't stop Mr. Burshtein or his neighbours from dipping their feet in circulating water.

"One Saturday, I came home from the grocery store and there was a friend lounging in the water."

That wasn't the only unannounced guest Mr. Burshtein has seen this summer.

"People just show up now," he says, standing on the dock in a polo shirt and Bermuda shorts. "I actually need to get some new shells because my friends' kids will hang out in the sand and take them home."

Mr. Burshtein decided to build his urban oasis two years ago, shortly after abandoning plans to buy a cottage.

"I thought about a place up north, but the cost and the commuting time, it was just too much."

What he wanted even more than a northern cottage was some holiday time in Cape Cod. That's when the idea struck.

"Instead of me going there, why not bring it to me?" he recalls thinking.

He went over his plans with an architect, and by last fall contractors were carting sand to the western portion of his yard. On a recent summer day, piano music played from his dockside stereo as birds chirped accompaniment from a nearby linden tree.

"I prefer being around here in the summer," he says. "My neighbours have a backyard pool and they just spent 10 days in Florida. Now what's the point of that?"

In the coming months, he plans to extend the Atlantic atmosphere with a seafood party for friends.

"Maybe I could bury some clams in the sand."