Cottage Life

When I got engaged in 1994, I was living with a couple of buddies in New Bedford. It was good times there — video games, boozy get-togethers, camaraderie aplenty.

But I don’t know of too many married men who live with their wife and their friends, so as the date neared it was clear that I needed to find someplace to live.

Enter my mom. She was living on West Island in Fairhaven and commuting to her job in Boston — a long haul, five days a week. So, she got an apartment up there and let Laurie and me live in the house and pay a generously small part of the rent.

That wasn’t the end of the parental assistance. In the months leading up to the wedding, Laurie’s dad helped to turn my mom’s bachelorette pad into a cottage built for young love. When we returned from our honeymoon we had a fully furnished house ready to live in.

It was a starter house, with two bedrooms, a small kitchen and a cramped bathroom, but it was perfect for two. It was like moving into a suite at a reasonably priced, extended-stay hotel chain.

Maybe it was all made too simple for me, because for the first 10 years of our marriage, the house remained basically untouched — Laurie would add to the décor here and there, sub out a couple of pieces of furniture, but generally we settled into a nice, homey rut and stayed there.

Throughout that decade, Laurie always wanted to upgrade our living space. I held strong to my unshakable principle that unless something was broken, it was fine. Fine! It’s fine!

I still believe I was mostly right. If something is functioning at somewhere near its original capacity, replacing it is just a waste of money (financial logic I certainly didn’t apply when speeding down I-95 toward Foxwoods).

Then Laurie got pregnant. And all of a sudden, those little imperfections I didn’t care a whit about seemed to grow in importance. The idea of spending a few bucks on a new computer desk or a new book shelf or a new kitchen table didn’t seem so silly anymore — after all, our son is going to have to live here one day soon, and he deserves the best.

And, surprise of surprises, fixing up your home is quite fun! We’ve moved the entire contents of my office into the laundry room, and my new writing home feels like a well-worn baseball glove. My God, why were we wasting all this space back here? Let’s put a shelf up on the wall for storage while we’re at it.

The office is getting a makeover into a baby room: tan walls and white sills to accommodate the alphabet theme. The room had previously been a kind of nasty off-white, with unseemly paint bumps and one poorly spackled hole in the wall.

Of course, the baby won’t have any idea that the new paint is any better than the old paint, but it matters to me now. I only wish I’d been able to see the merits of a refreshed space sooner — it feels like a new house now, and in a sense I guess it is.

My little love cottage is growing up to meet us, just in time. And when we leave it behind in two or three or five years, I can only hope its new owners enjoy it as much as we did.

Enjoy those shiny new walls! And don’t forget to jiggle the handle on the toilet seat. We never did get around to that.

By Jonathan Comey of The Standard-Times.

Many cottages have fireplaces, which provide a centerpiece for socialization and a source of warmth. But are you sure that you’re getting the most from your cottage fireplace? Here are some tips to ensure efficiency.

With the growing trend in cottages to use fireplaces that have been bricked or boarded up, it is important that these restored fireplaces and chimneys are working properly. For wood or coal burning fires to burn well, a good supply of air is required along with a chimney to expel the hot exhaust gases and smoke. Also the fuel should be held in a grate clear of the hearth floor allowing full circulation of the air and waste ash to fall through, so as not to stifle the fire. If the chimney or flue is inadequate or the flow of air insufficient, the fire will not function effectively.

In his thesis on the principles of fireplace design published in 1799, Count Rumford emphasized the importance of the size of the flue compared with the size of the fireplace opening. He recommended that the cross-sectional area of the flue should be about a tenth of the size of the opening. However, fireplaces tended to be smaller after the mid nineteenth century. Modern flue liner manufacturers favour a ratio of one to seven, and there are sizing charts published that give details of current standards.

If your fire smokes or won’t burn properly, see if opening a window improves matters. If it does, you need better ventilation in the room. One solution is to install a window vent, although this may cause a troublesome cross draft. A much more efficient form of ventilation is either a single ducted vent set into the floor in front of the fireplace, or twin ducted vents set into the floor or external walls on each side of the chimney breast.

When wood and coal are burned, flammable gases, tarry substances, acids and dust are given off. However, because cottage chimneys are relatively inefficient not all of these substances are consumed. Instead, they rise up the chimney and some of them condense on the inside of the flue. Unburned carbon combines with these tars and acids creating soot; which builds up over a period of time thus reducing the size of the flue. It’s sort of like an artery getting clogged after years of eating junk food. It is important to have regularly used chimneys swept at least twice a year, ideally before, during and at the end of the heating season and the local trade directories contain details of fully qualified and suitably insured sweeps. A soot laden flue is a fire hazard, since the unburned elements of the soot can ignite, causing a chimney fire which can reach high temperatures and damage the chimney and even the structure of your cottage!

If a flue is too large, its size can be reduced to improve its efficiency by the fitting of a liner. A variety of methods and materials are used, including flue liners made of flexible stainless steel, ceramic, lightweight concrete sections, or concrete cast in situ. Other ways of reducing the fireplace opening in order to improve fire efficiency is to raise the level of the hearth or to fit a baffle across the top of the opening. If raising the hearth level or adding a baffle are not practical or unsightly then it may be worth asking a fireplace specialist whether fitting a metal smoke hood or canopy in the opening is the best solution.

Karen Boyd donned knee-high rubber boots for an entire week the first time she stayed at the abandoned fishing camp that would become her family’s cottage on Georgian Bay.

“People told me there were snakes everywhere,” she says of her first visit in 1989.

Ms. Boyd and her husband (who asked that their real names not be used) had just purchased the dilapidated building on a rugged point near Pointe au Baril, about a 30-minute drive north of Parry Sound.

Back then, the property was piled with rusty bed frames and discarded junk. The cottage had no electricity, and the only source of water was a 170-litre oil drum that sat on the roof to collect rainwater.

Still, Ms. Boyd ventured out to spend a week alone with her two small boys while her husband returned to the city to work.

It was several days before the neophyte cottager summoned the courage to fire up the motor boat. A few days after that, she dispensed with the rubber boots and learned to co-exist with the wildlife.

“It took about a week to get comfortable with all the ways of the cottage,” Ms. Boyd says. “Within a very, very short time, I couldn’t wait to be here.”

Seventeen years later, the Boyd family has expanded to include four sons, and their base camp has spread to 20 acres with a 4,900-square-foot central cottage and four smaller cabins.

The major transformation of the property was made possible about four years ago, when they were able to negotiate the purchase of a neighbouring cottage. The couple hired Toronto-based Stark Ireland Architects Inc. to turn their camp into a family compound that they hope will keep their children — and possibly their grandchildren — ensconced at Pointe au Baril for years.

“This isn’t a decision about today. This was really a decision about the next 30 or 40 years of our lives,” Mr. Boyd says.

On the recommendation of architect James Ireland, they decided to tear down the old neighbouring cottage and erect a new main building in its place.

The Boyds told him they wanted a place that would allow them to entertain their own friends and those of their children, but they also wanted the opportunity to retreat. “It was very clear that they wanted a cottage generous with space but they weren’t building to impress,” Mr. Ireland says.

When he and his partner, John Stark, arrived at the property, they found beautiful trees and rocks that they didn’t want to disturb. The best way to avoid disruption was to set the new building on the footprint of the cottage that had been there for 100 years.

“Where the cottage was originally is often where you want to be,” Mr. Ireland says. “The perch up here gives you quite a magnificent view.”

The architect also had to be mindful of the relationship between the main cottage and the docks, bunkies and beach house.

“There’s a network around the island that this has to respond to.”

Once Mr. Ireland had a feel for the land, he drew an image in pencil depicting a commodious cottage that didn’t overpower its natural surroundings. For the architect, a picturesque sketch has become the key to conveying not just an image of a finished building but a feeling. It’s also a concept that clients can grasp much more readily than they can a slick, computer-generated set of plans.

For the Boyds, virtually nothing changed from the image in that first sketch to the building completed this summer.

“I was so pleased with that very first rendition he did; it was so exciting,” Ms. Boyd says. “It’s exactly what I wanted but it’s so much more.”

In fact, she collected the sketches as they became increasingly detailed depictions of the interior — down to the brackets supporting the upper cabinets in the pantry.

“I kept them all,” she says. “I didn’t even want to see the architectural drawings.”

A great room and kitchen surrounded by screened porches provide inviting places for people to gather at different times of the day. The design creates privacy by placing a bedroom wing away from the main living spaces, as well as more openness and unobstructed views in the principal rooms.

The design also had to deal with the jagged ground. “One of the challenges is the varied topography,” Mr. Ireland says. “We had to find a way to make the building drape over the landscape.”

The architects and homeowners spent a great deal of time on the positioning of the various levels on the rocks, Mr. Stark says. His partner wanted the floor levels to be high so that they could see over the rocks to the water.

“He did not want [them] to miss out on those wonderful views,” Mr. Stark says.

The architects persuaded the owners to lift the cottage just enough to take in the sunset and the bay while still allowing the landscape to form part of the scenery.

“The view of a distance is often more interesting if there’s some foreground,” Mr. Ireland says. “If you can’t see everything from the inside, there’s more impetus to go outside and walk around. It does leave something to discover when you go outside and stand on the edge.”

The architect also aimed to echo the typical Georgian Bay cottage of 100 years ago. Such cabins were often charming, simple and square, with a verandah looking out on the water.

They were not as self-consciously stylized as those in Muskoka.

“Muskokans in 1904 could be hiring a New York architect to design a cottage, and that’s pretty much unheard of in Georgian Bay.”

To reflect that simple style, Mr. Ireland designed a classic hip roof and low eaves that belie the spaciousness inside. So while the building appears to cling to the rock, the kitchen ceiling is actually 25 feet high.

The homeowners love the kitchen for its large size and easy flow that allows friends and family to surround the cook.

The family can also spread out in the surrounding buildings. Their former cottage has become a guest house and a bunkie provides more living space. Just down the path from the main cottage, a beach house offers a place to enjoy life next to the best swimming spot on the point.

“The idea was that it was sort of a pleasure pavilion,” Mr. Ireland says.

For their part, the cottagers enjoy having the space to accommodate four boys and all of their friends.

As soon as they moved in this month, the family invited more than 20 people for a celebratory meal in the main cottage.

“We had our first dinner and we talked about 100 years of dinners to come,” Mr. Boyd says. “We really think it will be a 100-year cottage for our family.”

by Carolyn Leitch of the Globe and Mail

cottage, cottage life, grandchildren, getaway, ontario

Your cottage’s utility bill is probably higher than it needs to be. This is especially true if you only visit your cottage once in a while, particularly during the summer months. I found a simple way to find out if you’re paying too much. It may be time to use the inherent power of incense. Stick with me on this one.

Incense can save you a bundle on utility bill for one reason and one reason only. You can see and smell most incense smoke. So, how does this help cut your utility bill?

Drafts are terrible things. No, I am not talking about the military. I am talking about your cottage. When heating or cooling your cottage, drafts are the single biggest reason your utility bill explodes. When you are trying to make the climate in the house differ from the temperature outside, leaks in the shell of your cottage are going to cost you a bundle. Cottages often lack the quality of insulation we find in our city homes.

Hot and cold temperatures are complimentary. Heat rises and cold air fills the vacated space. If you have drafts, this concept will also apply. A leak around a door or attack entrance will turn into an escape hatch for heat. To replace it, cold air will come in under doors stops and practically anywhere else it can get in. If this is occurring, your heater should be getting combat pay. It is fighting a no-win situation.

Finding leaks in your cottage can be difficult. The basic problem is that air is transparent, making it slightly difficult to track. Ah, now the incense idea is beginning to make sense!

To find drafts in your cottage, you need a colored gas. You can use anything, but incense tends to be the best smelling option. Simply close every path to the exterior, fire up the heater and start walking around with your incense. Stand close to windows, doors and other paths to the exterior of the home. What does the incense smoke do? If you see it curling towards a window or door, you have a leak, and it’s time to start patching up some holes.

Incense, cottage life, energy efficiency, furnace, heating, utility bill, cottage

Tie a kerchief under your chin because when you walk in, your jaw may drop. ‘’People either love it or hate it,’’ says Susan Jordan.

It is joyously, riotously colorful.

It is upliftingly, blissfully cheerful.

It is gloriously and meritoriously wonderful.

It is a Victoria Park bungalow built of Dade County pine, one of eight built around a court by Alfred G. Kuhn in 1926. There are 14 colors in the living room. Tigers burn phosphorescently bright on the kitchen cabinets. A metal sculptured siren shimmers and swims above the fireplace, kissing a fish.

Susan and Pat Jordan bought the pink cottage in 1992, and it is to be featured on the Victoria Park Home Tour next weekend.

The Jordans, both writers, moved to Fort Lauderdale from a small New England town. Pat had been in spring training with the Milwaukee Braves in 1960 and had covered baseball for Sports Illustrated in the late ’60s. He loved South Florida.

When they first moved here, they lived in an apartment complex, and a friend gave them a Haitian painting. They really disliked its depiction of fighting, but took it with them to the Victoria Park house. Finally, they decided to find someone who would want it, and Susan went to Katie Barr’s Fine Caribbean Art gallery in Delray Beach. When she was offered $1,200 for the artwork, she decided to trade.

Since then, they’ve been collecting Haitian art, which, Susan says, depicts people and animals “reaching for the sun.

‘’To us, the art is what life is about: full of striking colors, exuberance and peace,’’ she says. ‘There’s no violence in it. So we said, `Let’s surround ourselves with these brilliant colors and images. Let’s live in it.’ ‘’

The couple’s house has been designated historic and architecturally significant, and Susan helped snag historic designation for the seven other homes in 1997.

The bungalows are called Victoria Court, named for Kuhn’s daughter, and they lie within the neighborhood of Victoria Park, also named for Kuhn’s daughter.

A family named Wylie lived in the Jordans’ cottage for half a century. ‘’Mr. Wylie was a master carpenter and a Merchant Marine,’’ Susan says. “He added two rooms in 1938.’’

Those rooms are in the front of today’s house. One serves as Susan’s office. It’s turquoise and then some.

Some 30 windows open up all around the house, which is not insulated but does have central air. There’s an elephant in the kitchen, along with zebra, giraffes, cockatoos, lions and tigers, oh my. They have been charmingly painted by Haitian artist Louis Rosemond. They are surrounded by tones of apple green, mango, rose, butter yellow, pink and turquoise. Little hammered and painted fish float near the ceiling, while splashbacks are black and white tile and the floor is pine. The shade of orange was inspired by a papaya.

The bathroom features a footed tub, which was tiled over when the Jordans arrived. A door connecting the bath and bedroom had been covered with plywood, but that too was removed and the original restored.

‘’If I go away, when I come home, there’s a wall that’s a different color,’’ Pat says.

Sometimes Pat and Susan disagree on a color, but about 90 percent of the time they like the same thing, they say. And sometimes they sit and watch paint dry, just to make sure the color is perfect. A particular shade of rose ‘’came out whorehouse pink,’’ says Pat. That can of paint was rushed back to the store.

A gas fireplace of crenelated brick has been painted turquoise, orange, purple, black and white. The wall above was one area where the Jordans disagreed about the color. Susan wanted a creamy yellow; Pat favored mustard. Mustard proved right. In general, the calmer colors have been selected by Susan.

What was a front porch now is a family room, with large leather sofa. It’s here that Pat and Susan read the papers, watch TV.

Both the Jordans were English teachers and both now are authors. Pat has written 11 books, including nonfiction, novels and memoirs. He works every day on a manual typewriter; Susan then types his stories and books into a computer. (“Data transfer; I get paid.’’)

‘’Susan says I’m charging head-first into the 19th century,’’ he says.

Susan wrote a book about surviving breast cancer (she celebrated her 27th anniversary of being free from cancer recently) and is working on a book about dogs, as there are many here all the time.

Normally, the Jordans say, they guard their privacy but they have decided to open the cottage for the home tour because they are grateful for the Victoria Park Civic Association’s help in getting historic designation for Victoria Court.

The next item that the Jordans want to add to their bright cottage is not a piece of art but a 1950s turquoise refrigerator. Says Susan, “It’s the only color that can go there.’’

By Georgia Tasker of the Miami Herald