News

Sean and Rebecca O'Hara were taken aback when they arrived at their new house in west-end Toronto to find a neighbour had dug up their tree.

"I hope you don't mind," the neighbour said. He had moved it to another part of the garden to protect it from getting run over by the moving van. Then he offered to replant it in the original spot.

The O'Haras, who gave up their big house, big commute, pool and yard in suburban Caledon, Ont., for a more compact house and lifestyle in Bloor West Village, admit to being astonished by the congeniality of city neighbours compared with those they left behind.

"I thought people in the city would be more into their own thing," says Mr. O'Hara. "It's the very opposite to what I thought it would be."

The O'Haras were looking for a more lively environment for their three children, who range in age from 9 to 17.

"You buy the lifestyle here," says Ms. O'Hara. "This neighbourhood has a huge sense of community that we were unable to find in suburbia."

For real estate agent Nutan Brown of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., the circumstance the O'Haras describe is becoming surprisingly familiar. She helped find properties for two other families this summer who gave up monster homes in the suburbs for houses one-third to one-half the size in Toronto. Ms. Brown was struck by how similar their stories were: In each case the parents had grown weary of commuting, consuming, cleaning the pool and driving their kids to friends' houses.

"One family after another," says Ms. Brown, indicating her busy summer. "They all wanted to be in before the school year started."

Tom Poldre and Jane Lawton moved with their two sons from Oakville, Ont., to the Baby Point neighbourhood in west-end Toronto. Both parents work in central Toronto and found the commute draining.

"It was a lot of time on the GO train or sitting in the car," says Mr. Poldre.

The two also disliked the rigid GO train schedule and the search for a parking spot at the GO station in the morning. "When I leave my office now, I'm not saying, 'Oh my God, I've got to get the 5 o'clock,'" says Ms. Lawton.

Mr. Poldre and Ms. Lawton also sought more heterogeneity. "We were interested in their being exposed to different cultures and perspectives," she says of their teen-aged boys. "At both of their schools, there is a lot more diversity."

Now the family enjoys walking to dinner at El Arriero, a nearby Colombian restaurant, which offers more interesting ethnic dining than they typically found in Oakville.

The boys, Karl and Anton, haven't complained about giving up the swimming pool — they don't want to socialize at home anyway. And while they were worried about leaving friends behind, they now enjoy the independence of being able to walk to Bloor Street.

But Mr. Poldre and Ms. Lawton, who had lived in Hong Kong and Singapore before moving back to Canada about nine years ago, also wanted to cut back on their consumption of just about everything.

Ms. Lawton is executive director of the Toronto branch of the Jane Goodall Institute. The institute supports wildlife research and conservation, and Ms. Lawton was finding her ecological footprint increasingly hard to justify.

"We had way more space than we actually needed," she says. "There was a lot of energy being sucked up by our family."

The family downsized from 2,500 square feet to 1,700. Ms. Lawton recalls that for days after they learned that their offer on the new house had been accepted, she kept asking, "What have we done?"

"I was quite panicked afterwards — it was my indicator that I had stayed far too long in one place. I believe in change — that's how you grow. That's how your life stays interesting."

But the family underwent a massive purge to get ready for a smaller house.

"You've got to get rid of a lot — you've got to be brutal," says Mr. Poldre.

"Actually, that's incredibly freeing," adds Ms. Lawton. "When you've lived overseas and you come back to North America, it's astonishing what people require."

Meanwhile, the couple has received their first hydro bill, which is less than one-third of the amount of their bill in Oakville. They're also not using up water to fill the pool or water the lawn. And Mr. Poldre points out that he's finding all kinds of free time that used to be spent looking after the pool, grounds and driveway.

The family is also happy to live just moments away from the parks and trails that line the Humber River. "You walk down there and you just can't believe you're in the centre of the city," says Ms. Lawton.

Diana Hatzepetros traded her minivan for a Jetta when she moved from Oakville to Bloor West Village with husband David Middleton and their boys, J.D., Christopher and Matt.

For Ms. Hatzepetros, the catalyst to move came when one of her sons got a job.

"I was driving from my job in Toronto back to Oakville to drive him to work," says Ms. Hatzepetros. "It wasn't much of a life for me." With the boys old enough to work, the couple wanted them to be more self-sufficient.

But it turns out the parents have more freedom, too.

Mr. Middleton likes the fact that he can walk to restaurants, shops and bars. They walked down to Lake Ontario to watch the air show on Labour Day weekend and made a spontaneous decision one Saturday to go to the Taste of the Danforth street festival by subway.

In the suburbs, people tend to live their lives inside their houses, Mr. Middleton has come to realize, while in the city, they go out.

While they gave up a 3,600-square-foot house and a kidney-shaped pool, their new house has a gorgeous backyard with a terraced patio backing onto a ravine.

"We don't miss it at all," says Mr. Middleton of the swimming pool. "It's a money pit."

He figures the pool cost $3,000 to $4,000 a year in maintenance — and that's not including the time he spent.

Now the boys are looking forward to skating on the outdoor hockey rink in High Park.

The family has also used www.craigslist.com to rid themselves of excess gear. "I had six extra beds that I gave away," says Ms. Hatzepetros.

The family's five televisions start at 52 inches and work down.

"The worst part was the surround-sound equipment we had, which we don't need because you can sit in any room in the house and hear the TV," says Ms. Hatzepetros.

The family says that some changes are not for the better. They have seen their house and car insurance rise, and they were hit with the so-called "Miller tax" on land transfers, Mr. Middleton says.

Ms. Hatzepetros is struggling without her walk-in closet, and Mr. Middleton misses the suburban garage.

"Where do you put your Christmas tree?" they asked the neighbours. "You buy one every year," was the advice.

Still, Ms. Hatzepetros, who is a teacher, finds her commute one-quarter of what it was.

"Getting home is the best part. It used to take an hour. Now it takes 15 minutes whether there is traffic or not."

Now the couple say they are working on persuading their friends to move. They keep an eye out for new real estate listings in the area.

In the O'Hara household, Ethan, Nigel and Jamie were somewhat reluctant to make the move, "but there have been lots of good connections made very quickly," says Ms. O'Hara.

Mr. O'Hara acknowledges that he had to be talked into giving up a gorgeous 3,500-square-foot house with a pool for a smaller home with burnished wood trim and gracious rooms in Toronto.

And when the family arrived at their new house, they found they couldn't get a gas connection for a barbeque or stove. But that seems like a minor problem, they say now.

"Along with the character comes unknowns," says Ms. O'Hara. "We'll put in a great kitchen and we're good to go."

Mr. O'Hara can already see the benefit to the teenagers. In Caledon, they used to walk a mile down a busy highway to catch a bus to Brampton, he said. Now they can hop on the subway and head downtown.

"They feel freedom and we feel just as much freedom with that," she says.

After four years, the novelty of having a backyard swimming pool had worn off. Ms. Brown says she has seen a lot of families grow out of their pools as kids get older.

"They get to a stage where they have so many options of things they can do," she says.

The O'Haras find their commute to work easier because they're heading against the traffic. They may sell a second car. And the couple believes they have made a sound investment in real estate.

Still, they acknowledge that the transformation wouldn't be for everyone.

"Other people think we're having a midlife crisis," Ms. O'Hara laughs.