The Homestead

Our Safe Haven

Ok, lets start with the picture that was used for the listing, when we first purchased this home. And this is what the listing itself said:

 LAKE ACCESS!!!
Very private 3 bedroom cottage, with screened sun room, on large level park-like lot with frontage on Creek, leading to Lake & 40 miles of boating! Great recreation retreat, close to all village amenities, golf course & snowmobile trail. Immediate possession.


Cute, right? Well, it didn't look as good as that in reality. The deck was the first thing we had to tear down, because simply standing on it was a hazard. We also immediately had to exchange ALL the piping in the house, since EVERYTHING you could possibly think of was leaking. That ate up a good amount of money, we didn't budget for and delayed things, we were planning on renovating right away. We also had a Well put in, and we knew what that would cost before we made the decision to buy the property, but it was still a punch in the face to see that check change hands. I felt like Whoopi Goldberg in 'Ghost', knowing you have to give the check away because it's the right thing to do, but at the same time not being quite able to let go of it. I'm pretty sure I even had a lone tear in the corner of my eye. Anyway, the Cottage is really more like a 720 square feet shack and wasn't used year around. It also has no basement and no storage, so it is quite challenging to squeeze four people, a huge dog and all our things into this tiny building.

The house was owned by two brothers and they were getting up there in age before they sold and couldn't really maintain the building, or the property anymore. It was built in the seventies and was in pretty rough shape, not to mention dirty. I remember bringing my dad up to show him the house, when he came to visit from Germany before the deal closed and I can still see the horrified expression on his face. I could basically hear his thoughts, while we were going through the rooms. 'WHAT are you guys thinking?' He was worried the grand kids would freeze in the winter. We knew this was going to be a HUGE project. But it was detached, it was affordable and we loved, loved, loved the yard and the privacy. The cottage stands at the end of a dead-end dirt road on the outskirts of the village, on 2 acres. There are only two houses on our road, ours included and the property is surrounded by huge, mature trees.


After living a nightmare for a year, in the noisy townhouse in the city, peace and quiet was really all we cared about. I remember standing in the backyard on our very first viewing. It was a warm day, the sun was shining and I remember closing my eyes and asking Adrian, "What do you hear?" And Adrian said, "Nothing but birds." And then we smiled at each other and that's when we knew. This was it. So we bought it, moved in and started cleaning like maniacs. It came fully furnished, so we first had to empty the whole thing and take several trips to the local dump. The first thing we renovated was Noah's room, because we wanted him to be comfortable and have him settled as fast as possible. Here's some before and after pics. 


And here is a picture of his room after we rearranged some things and turned his crib into a big boy bed. My baby is growing up too fast!


Next was the ugly stone behind the fireplace in the living room and the fireplace itself, since we wanted one that allowed us to actually see the fire. For romantic aspects, you see? We also had to replace the complete chimney.



Some before and after pictures of the living and dining room. We didn't do anything to those rooms - other than the fireplace - but cleaning and decorating. It doesn't look great - yet - but it will one day and it looks a lot more homey now, than it ever did.



Next was the bathroom. Not only was the bathroom about 40 years old, but it was also pretty ugly. The tub surround hadn't been installed properly and wasn't caulked right, so water was running into the walls, rotting the floors in the process and the toilet smelled. BADLY!




And here's the vanity Adrian built from scratch. He's so talented and I'm so proud of him.


Here are the before and after pics of the kitchen and we really didn't do much to it, other than clean and decorate it and get new appliances, and even though it's far from the kitchen we'd like to have in the future, these little changes made a BIG difference in appearance.



I will post more pictures of the inside as we go. We still have a lot of renovating to do. The next big one, will be changing all the ceilings in the house and putting new insulation into the attic. We're also planning on insulating what is now our sun room and turning it into our master bedroom. This would make it a 4 bedroom cottage and would allow us to move the guest room into our current master bedroom and give Mia her own nursery. In the long run we're also going to add a screened in porch and mudroom and rebuild the deck, we had to tear down. 

So, for now I'm just going to show you what we've done to the outside of the house so far. We had to insulate the perimeter of the cottage, since it gets real cold around here. I'm talking -40 degrees, and the house is standing on piers. The floors in the house were really cold and after we closed it off all around and shoveled snow up to it, it made a HUGE difference.


In this picture, we are in the process of getting new eavestroughs because the old ones were in such bad shape, they simply didn't serve a purpose anymore and every time it rained hard, the dirt around the house got washed out. Which is not a good thing, when your building is standing on piers.



We eventually want to put up new siding and put on a metal roof as well, but this is as far as we've gotten, so lets move on to the property and the changes we've made to that. 

Here's the wood shed Adrian built and the logs we've had delivered. Of course it is a lot more work to cut, split and stack the wood yourself, rather than having it delivered already cut. But Adrian wanted an excuse to buy himself a new chain saw and he likes the workout he gets doing it. Which in turn makes me happy, since it's keeping him in shape. It is also saving us a big chunk of money.


Little Lumberjack.


The summer chicken coop. Fully insulated, so the girls won't be cold in the spring and autumn nights.


We have insulated the old run down shed that was already here, when we bought the property and have turned it into their winter house. It already had electricity, which allowed us to put in a heat lamp for those cold Canadian winter nights.


And here are some pictures of Adrian with his favorite girls ;-)


Project vegetable garden! Making a garden was fun, especially since we got to do it with Noah. That kid loves to help and he LOVES to get dirty. We got a load of horse manure from one of Adrian's friends, mixed it with dirt and built a raised bed. Plant seeds, water and wait. Simple really. A few months later we were eating our first organic vegetables, despite the short, rather cold and rainy year we've had. It's awesome to be able to cook in the kitchen, thinking 'Hey, I feel like making a salad' and out you go to harvest some lettuce. I've also planted some herbs in hanging baskets and those grew beautifully as well.


 Noah loved eating beans and peas right off the plants and was amazed, when he got to pull his first carrot. I enjoyed the whole process and look forward to doing it again each year and learning more and more about it. Maybe one day, we'll have a root cellar to store everything year around.


Here's a list of what we've planted in our first year:

                                                                     - Basil
                                                                     - Dill
                                                                     - Parsley
                                                                     - Cilantro
                                                                     - Beets
                                                                     - Beans
                                                                     - Snap Peas
                                                                     - Broccoli
                                                                     - Radishes
                                                                     - Spring Onions
                                                                     - Carrots
                                                                     - Mixed Lettuce
                                                                     - Mini Water Melon
                                                                     - Cucumber
                                                                     - Zucchini
                                                                     - Peppers
                                                                     - Corn


    And here are some pictures of what we harvested.



    Here's Mia next to a humungous zucchini. Unfortunately, we didn't grow it ourselves. It came out of a friend's garden. Well, done buddy. This zucchini simply blows my mind. I made four batches of zucchini bread with it, 3 Stir fries and about 5 BIG slices of baked zucchini. I have to admit, I was pretty sick of zucchini by the time it was gone, though.


    Here's a couple of pictures of the visitors we're getting throughout the year.


    And just because we love it so much, some more pictures of the backyard.


    And one of the homestead in the wintertime. Isn't it beautiful?


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