For Family, By Family

STORY LEE-ANN CHOQUETTE l  PHOTOGRAPHY SANDY MACKAY l STAGING ANDREA BLACK

Standing on the first piece of granite he laid in the Muskoka room of the new family cottage, Jeffrey Allison smiles, tilts his head back, and scans the hundreds of cedar boards he mitred and tenaciously pieced to adorn the room’s 18-foot, five-sided cathedral ceiling. “This is the heart of the place, I love this room,” he says.

Jeff, with Sarasota Homes, and his uncle Mark, who owns Scottsdale Homes, built the new family cottage for Jeff’s mom and dad. Nestled amongst the towering pines and mixed hardwoods of the Haliburton Highlands, the 4,500 sq. ft. cottage overlooks Gull Lake.

“I grew up on this lake,” says Jeff’s dad, adding the cottage where he spent his childhood summers is only two doors away and now owned by his brother Mark. “The cottage life was something my wife and I wanted to give our family, and Gull Lake is where we wanted to be, so we bought that cottage in 1993,” he says, pointing to the 1921 cottage, a stone’s throw from the new cottage.

“We raised our families in that cottage. All three of our kids had summer jobs at the Miners’ Bay Lodge, including Jeff, who was the handyman there,” says Jeff’s mother, recounting when Jeff was in Grade 1 and would use his “little saw” to build boathouses from small pieces of wood. “For Jeff, building was innate. He took a three-year building and renovating college program, and while going through school Jeff worked with his uncle Mark.”

In 2016, Jeff’s parents met with architect Tom Spragge of Spragge + Company Architects, and took nearly a year to land a final plan. In November, 2017 the foundation went in and framing started in spring of 2018. They moved in on the Canada Day weekend in 2019. “We did not have much furniture, but we had a bed,” Jeff’s mom recalls.

The couple wanted to be able to live on the main floor, and have three bedrooms upstairs. To fit the footprint of the land, and to have a cosy, warm feel to the space, they opted for nine-foot ceilings on the main floor and eight-foot ceilings upstairs. They spent time watching the sun, positioning the cottage to ensure sunset views and lake vistas from all bedrooms.

Placing an importance on family and gatherings, the couple wanted a very open space with a big kitchen and eating area. Jeff’s dad is one of four children, and his mom is one of seven. “We have a lot of family here. Also, my brother and my husband’s two brothers have cottages on the lake. We decided to build this place because our family is growing. We wanted to have the new cottage adjacent to the old one so we could be with our three children and our grandchildren,” says Jeff’s mother.

Other must-haves were the Muskoka room and a screened porch. “This is Canada,” she says. “We wanted to be in the woods and there are going to be bugs. We feel like we are outside in the screened-in porch. The recently completed Muskoka room, with its majestic wood burning fireplace, will be the perfect spot on cooler nights.”

With a lot of hard work, skill and heart, Jeff used rock and wood to add custom touches to the cottage. All walls excluding the laundry room and upstairs bedrooms were clad with one-by-eight tongue-and- groove pine, finished with two coats of whitewash and a clear coat. “The whole place was drywalled, and then we put this on. It took seven weeks just to install the pine and probably another four weeks to whitewash and clear coat it,” Jeff says. It amounted to about 10,000 square feet of pine boards.

In addition to the three bedrooms and two bathrooms upstairs, there’s a children’s play area, where shutters from the old cottage were repurposed to conceal storage space.

Wainscotting in the television and sitting area was made from the original roofing from the 1921 cottage – all milled hemlock from this property. “It sat in the snow for 27 years after being a roof for 60,” says Jeff. “Some people would have said, ‘that is garbage, just burn it.’ But look how beautiful it turned out. My Dad loves that rustic look with a modern touch.” Beams on the room’s ceiling were new and Jeff spent days scuffing each one with a hammer, chisels, rebar and screws to give it a distressed look. Jeff also created the beams in the great room, giving them a driftwood effect. The mantel that adorns the fireplace in the Muskoka room is a reclaimed 200-year-old pine beam, joined using pegs in the mortise- and-tenon style.

One hundred tons of granite were used to clad the bottom three feet of the cottage exterior, fireplaces and on the floors of the main-floor powder room, hallway, laundry and Muskoka room. “The floors took time because I had granite slabs,” Jeff explains. “I had to template, cut and lay each piece.” He also created the stunning sunset patio with granite.

“My mom loves her marble,” he says. Three of the five bathrooms include marble and heated floors. On the main floor, a dark leathered-granite countertop on the two-level island contrasts against the light kitchen cabinets and Caesarstone quartz counters. Pops of red décor and the red knobs of the six- burner propane stove add punch to the space.

While Jeff was building, his mom was shopping for lamps and items to decorate the cottage. “Over two to three years, I shopped. Most of the things come anywhere from Port Perry, Fenelon Falls, Minden, Haliburton, Bobcaygeon and Bracebridge. I love to shop,” she giggles. “It was a lot of work, even though I love doing it.” She says the expertise of Lockside Trading Company’s Andy Green and Andrea Black was invaluable in obtaining the right furniture and achieving the look she wanted.

The European linens Jeff’s mom has been collecting for years add a touch of luxury, comfort and style to the cottage’s four bedrooms. Soft, colourful wool throws on beds, chairs and sofas from such places as England and Dublin, Ireland, add texture, hints of colour and visual interest. Sailboats
on hand towels sprinkled throughout the cottage décor are a nod to Jeff’s father’s love of sailboats. A cotton rug they brought back from Turkey is a cherished keepsake. Gifts from friends are carefully and lovingly placed where they can easily be seen. 

“Someone told me once, your home is just ‘your house but your cottage is personal,’ ” she says.

With the Muskoka room and screened porch now complete, Jeff can spend a bit more time enjoying his favourite room. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the family’s annual lobster fest, get-togethers and lake regatta cancelled. But small gatherings, brilliant sunsets, warm fires on chilly nights and simply standing still for a moment or two to appreciate all the beauty created here by people, time and nature are still on.