S2 | Rewind Design | E9 Project 22 with John O'Connor from Basis Design Build

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Music.
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Hello and welcome to Rewind Design, a Cottage Country podcast.
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You have landed in season two of the podcast, which is very exciting because
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I have an amazing episode today.
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But if you're interested, season one was also a wonderful listen, I do have to say.
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Season one focused on interviewing Georgian Bay and Muskoka cottagers,
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specifically about their cottage properties.
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So we talked a lot about how their cottage property has changed over time,
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how they ended up purchasing their cottage, how long they've had it for,
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how their cottage design has morphed and changed and weaved through time.
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Some of these stories I'll have you know are pretty wild. There's some things
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going on in Georgian Bay that you might be shocked about.
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I don't want to give anything away because I'd love for you to go back and listen
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to some episodes, but I've been shocked in my interview processes.
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I'll just, I'll leave it there. So I'd go back and listen to season one if you're
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interested in the history of the area and listening to really beautiful stories
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of how much cottagers love, love, love Georgian Bay and Muskoka.
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On this week's episode, I'm very excited to launch the first episode of 2024.
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I took a little bit of a hiatus and I haven't posted anything for about a month and a half.
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And that is because I have some amazing news, very exciting news for me.
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I have left my official nine to five job doing design and I have officially
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launched Rewind Design Studio.
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It feels so amazing to say out loud as it's been in the works for quite a while,
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but this podcast and referral clients have really allowed me to move forward
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with my own business, which is so, so exciting.
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And I am part of the Parry Sound Founders Award, which has also helped me launch
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my entrepreneurial spirit.
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So if this is your first episode you're listening to in season two,
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welcome. Thank you so much for listening.
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Season two is a really special season for me because it all started when I was working on season one.
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And I was noticing while I was boating all around cottage country interviewing
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cottagers, I was really noticing the impact that cottaging and modern cottaging
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perhaps is having on our environment.
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Our beautiful ecological Ecological environment here is so special,
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especially the shorelines of Georgian Bay.
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And I started to wonder if there was maybe some building practices that we were
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using in our modern world that maybe we could challenge and talk about and see
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if there's better ways to build in terms of environmental sustainability.
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Sustainability but as the season progressed we started talking more and more
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about sustainability with so many guests on the show and it's become quite an
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interesting debatable topic because sustainability can mean so many different
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things to so many different people
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and there's so many different kinds of sustainability so we're talking.
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Environmental sustainability, but also energy sustainability and economic sustainability
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and social sustainability.
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And all of these things are so important when we're talking about the overarching
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idea of sustainability.
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So season two is focusing on these topics.
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I'm trying to speak to as many people in the building industry as possible.
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So that includes architects, techs, other interior designers.
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Landscapers, engineers, all of the above.
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So it's been a super exciting experience and I've got lots of episodes piled
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up to share in the next few months.
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So please follow along and stay tuned.
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But on today's episode, we actually have John O'Connor from Basis Design Build
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and he was referred to me as someone to speak to about building sustainably.
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So that's always a great connection, first of all.
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So in this episode, we speak to John about how he became an architect,
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how his career has morphed and changed over time.
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He has some pretty amazing stories about working abroad in Europe. up.
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We talk about how he purchased land on Georgian Bay and built his dream cottage
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with himself and his partner after years spent yachting around Georgian Bay
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being boaters and how boating life and cottage life are very different,
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but also both enjoyable.
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And we also talk about the design
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of his new cottage and how he used the landscape the best way possible.
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And there's some pretty pretty neat features of his cottage that closely resemble
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yachting, which is pretty neat, and he'll talk in detail about that.
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Also, we speak about his fireplace, which if you go to the blog at rewinddesign.ca
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and look for John O'Connor, you'll see photos of the cottage,
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and he has this beautiful modern fireplace, but instead of grouted rock...
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There is sort of a shelving system, I'm not explaining this very well,
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but a shelving system with rocks on it above the fireplace.
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Go check out the photos, you'll understand. But the rocks have such an amazing
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story of how they got there. So stay tuned to listen to that.
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But that's all I'm going to say for now. And I just want to say thank you so
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much, John, for being on the show.
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I really appreciated our conversation and your career advice as well.
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Music.
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I just wanted to say thank you so much to John for being here today.
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Like I said, I'm just always looking for architects that are in line with my
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thinking and my ethos as a designer.
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So it's really nice to speak to others who have a history. Thank you.
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So maybe you can just tell us and everyone where we are right now,
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and then we'll get into a little bit of questions about you.
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Okay. So we're at Cottage, our cottage that we built five years ago.
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And it's a tiny township northwest of Penetanguishene and from the waterfront
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here you look out over the south end of Beckwith Island and you can see Giant's
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Tomb on the right and Christian Island on the left.
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So it's very different than the eastern shore of Georgian Bay.
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It's got a bolder landscape. Same kind of rocks, but round.
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And some beaches. And a formation called the Nipissing Ridge,
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which is kind of an escarpment all the way along the edge.
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Yeah, where I drove in today. Yeah. Nice.
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So we're sitting just in his, I guess you would say, your main area here.
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We'll talk more about the architecture later.
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But just so you guys know, that's where we are right now. but we'll just get
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into some questions for John just about himself as an architect and kind of
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how he got into the industry here.
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So where are you from and how long have you been working in the design industry?
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So I was born in Toronto. I grew up in the West End.
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I think I always wanted to be an architect.
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I think the earliest memory was construction, definitely drawing construction
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construction equipment and yeah and i i did have a design sense so i i think
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i'd say age 10 onwards i always thought i would be an architect were either
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of your parents into architecture design,
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no so it was fully fully you yeah it was a new thing for our family and i after
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high school so i went to the university of waterloo which was a two-stage education
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five academic years and it It was a cooperative program,
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which was a great program because you got a lot of work experience.
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And there was an expression at the time, which people would say you go to Waterloo
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to learn how to go away, meaning there wasn't much about the university that
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was interesting. It was a lot of work.
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But you got to travel and work in different countries. So I worked in Vancouver
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with Arthur Erickson, worked in London, England as a student.
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And as I got to fourth year, I actually took a year off because I had a great
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job in London. So I stayed an extra year.
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And I finished, so it took me seven years to finish university instead of six
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or whatever, I can't remember.
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And part of that program that was great was a program in Rome,
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where we studied in Rome in fourth year.
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So I became very interested in Italy. I studied Italian a lot when I was in
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London and at university.
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I went to Venice on the way to Rome, and I just was blown away by the city and
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the heritage and everything about it.
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And I said, I have to find a way to get back here. And I did.
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About two years later, I left my job in London and I went to stay at some friend's place.
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One of my Italian teachers, they had a house there.
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And I was going to go to Milan to work as a student like four months before I did my thesis.
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But I met my friend Mara, who's an architect. And she said, well,
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why don't you come work with me part time?
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And we just got along and ended up being a full time job. And then I came back
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to Toronto, finished, and I worked again with Arthur Erickson in Toronto for
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about three years after graduation.
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And at that point, I was just burnt out from working crazy hours and I wanted to travel.
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And so I left that job and I went back to Venice.
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And then i just it
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just ended up that i became a resident because they
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had an amnesty for foreigners at the time so i became a resident
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yeah and i stayed there about three years working with
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my friend mara and also with an architect gino vale who's famous
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italian architect um and we did a lot of really interesting
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projects in like olivetti buildings and government
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headquarters in france and all kinds of really interesting jobs big
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large scale things and at that point i could
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have have stayed there the rest of my life in one sense but i
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think it was a first what i going back to
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construction is i always like to make things i like to
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see things get done and in italy
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they don't always get done like there's a lot of talk so so
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i i thought you know if i'm going to start my own business i'd
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rather go back to canada where actually people do build things and
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execute cute the word and i came back
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worked with one of the senior associates from
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erickson in transit mostly subway stations
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which was the first stations they were
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building after like 20 years any notable ones
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i would know um we worked for years on downsue subway station that was the first
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that's the end of the van of the still one of york i can't remember spadina
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line i think it's called that goes out northwest so that was the first station
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that they had built built after 20 or 25 years, since 1975.
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I think. And it was very interesting.
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It's very bureaucratic. We also worked on the Sheppard line,
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so we did Sheppard West and another station in Bayview.
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And I left the company at that point to start my own.
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And how old would you have been at that time? I was 30 when I was in Venice,
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so I would say I was like...
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When I left, I left that company to start my own business.
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And I think I was, I don't know, I probably was 35. But I remember saying,
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I have to do it. You have to do it. If I'm going to do it.
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Yeah. Like, because when, you know, things are going to happen and you're, you know.
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So, in the meantime, I had bought a house on Brunswick Avenue in Toronto,
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which was, that was 1996.
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And that was the Toronto real estate market was just, it was just the beginning
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of it coming out of the recession.
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And I renovated it. did a lot of
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the work evenings weekends and sold it
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for a huge profit in a year and then i i decided
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i i didn't want to flip houses because i think
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it affects your integrity of if you have to make money make money from doing
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it yeah you have to cut corners or whatever so then i bought my house on amelia
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street and it was crazy when i think about it but i basically bought this house
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it It was an old worker's cottage, almost falling down.
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And I was starting my own business, which was completely insane when you think about it.
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I think I qualified for the mortgage just as I left my job, which is a totally
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stupid thing to do. Because you wouldn't have had income.
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You have to work for two years or something. Yeah, some track record with the bank.
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So that just was nuts when I think about it.
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But I also didn't borrow money to build the house. So as money came in,
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I would do things. And it took a little longer.
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But that house is basically, we still have that house. So, it's a cottage at
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the front, which was my office.
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And there's a link of a kitchen and a tower behind where we live.
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So, that house is, so it's 23 years ago I finished that house.
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And we just had that on a Cabbagetown tour of homes. Oh, cool.
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Which, this is quite interesting because they had 750 people came through the
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house in an afternoon, in four hours.
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And the one thing that really i was
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quite proud of but i think it was it definitely speaks to
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sustainability is people could not
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believe that the house is built 23 years ago like they look
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at the furniture and they look at the things they're all custom made or
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designed and thought out but there's nothing
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that dates that i think good quality classic design
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is very sustainable and it's worth spending the money
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and the time to do something that you know in 20
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years it's as good as it does 100 timeless over
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trendy yeah so that that's just a
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topic a little so at that point as that
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has been built i started basis design build and i started as a design build
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company because it's if you even look at the logo it's basically design led
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building venture so rather than a lot of high-end contractors will call themselves
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design build but it doesn't really Doesn't really mean the design.
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Yeah, I mean, they could get drawings for you or they could get somebody else. So this is more...
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Allows us to be on the construction site more
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have more control over the project and to
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be able to execute through the entire construction period
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the design and ensure that everything is thought
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through sometimes when you start on a project with a client there'll be
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wishes or wants or things or some
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spirit of the project that somebody wanted to try
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to capture and it might have gotten kind of swallowed in the project and
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forgotten but as you're building or and as you're working you
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can sometimes go back to those things and find
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a way to make those things become a
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reality it's a little abstract but it just allows
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you i think by having one team that goes through the project all
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the way the client has a better sense of it's all
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under one roof really yeah yeah and then
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what type of services do you offer
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i'd say the company is project-based right
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so it really depends on what yeah so i i'm
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involved in every project we do i don't want to hire millions of
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people and have you know overheads we've
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gotten larger gotten smaller it'll fluctuate
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depending on what's going on and how complex the
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job is and how involved there are there are a lot of jobs
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where we start before they purchase the
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property we advise them on purchasing the property and like
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like feasibilities yeah so we start from the very beginning and
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we go right through and we we do landscape design i mean
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we get people to help with planting design
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and other specialized aspect of it but but.
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You will carry through to to all.
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Areas of the project yeah very cool
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and you you'll do i saw on your website too you'll.
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Do like interior design and millwork
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and lighting and that type of thing or yeah i think yes
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we do always lighting is very important um no
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i i believe millwork and cabinet work.
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And anything is part of the environment that you're building i find it weird
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when like an architect wouldn't design the cabinets because it's just involved
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in it at least yeah like it's just yeah i think especially when it's in any
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kind of open concept place it's just It's attached to the wall.
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It's like almost an extension of the building.
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So, I mean, I totally get that.
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And it's so functional too, at least to plan the layout and maybe the elevations.
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Yes. And then you say, okay, maybe we'll leave the finishing up to maybe the
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designer or the mill worker or whoever.
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Do early on because it involves plumbing and electrical and things.
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So, any mill work company will do their own drawings eventually.
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I mean, they'll do their own shop drawings regardless.
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So, I mean, you just sign off on those. but at this
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moment in time do you have people to
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help work for people yeah and we we would
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we'll outsource things like sometimes things like renderings or
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there are things that you don't need to have people in the office doing so there's
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there's a lot of capability a lot of our jobs start sometimes it's a financial
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thing where someone like building a cottage it's like am i gonna do it this
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year i'm gonna do it next year and it's a lot of money so sometimes those those
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projects sit around longer.
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You have to go through sometimes zoning changes or variances.
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Environmental approvals, and they take time.
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So I find in the city in Toronto, the projects go faster because people are
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paying taxes and they're closing their purchase.
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Primary residents, you kind of have to get that done.
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Versus a cottage, this would be their secondary or third residence.
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And, you know, you can wait a little bit longer because it's not as urgent. so
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so i always hope that they don't all the projects don't collide
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at once but we always make it work yeah the staff you have
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working for you now what would their roles be they're like
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project managers yeah so that people have their own project
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yeah i try to do that from the beginning i think the i
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think the earth's the beginning role would be like
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called project coordinator i mean project manager can
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mean anything really but i feel that people should follow
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the job so they're that they're in touch with the client from day one and the
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client builds a relationship with them but i mean it's rare that they would
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go to the site we do a lot now the pandemic helped a lot with just video calls
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and stuff where you don't have to always be at the site for sure.
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But they might go drive it to the site and then you know we follow up have a
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phone call while they're there but i'm definitely involved in everything the
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pandemic did teach us a lot how to do things and do things well and not waste
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a lot of time i also found that probably every Every business though is just,
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sometimes you'll have like three meetings in a morning where it used to be kind
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of one at, you know, that's a lot to prepare for.
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It's a lot to download out of your head and execute after.
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But it's just the pace of work it picked up. And I think everyone's become more
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efficient as well. Like you've learned to have to be. Yeah.
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And you just kind of realize you can do so many things remotely.
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I found on our projects in cottage country or further out.
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It's very useful that we have like a regular phone call with the client and
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like the lead contractor.
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Every week out tuesday morning so people
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have time to get stuff ready for the meeting and they have time to execute
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and people have to answer you know they have to if you
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had the conversation last week and four people
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and the work didn't you don't have the answer by the next week that's a problem
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right so it just makes the project move right and it's sometimes a bit of a
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waste of time but i think i think those kind of meetings are very useful especially
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if it's not on track yeah you know But even if it's on track,
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that's still a great tactic.
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Also, remote cameras are amazing now. Because our client in Algonquin Highlands put up two.
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And it's like you don't even have to. It's not that you're spying on the site.
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But it's like you don't have to call the contractor and say,
316
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what did you do? Or what's next?
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Like you just know. You see the cement truck. You're not going to bug them.
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Yeah. Because he's obviously pulling. And he knows it's there, right?
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The client. Oh, yeah. But the client knows what's going on. And then,
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I mean, they're just useful for a lot of security, nosy neighbors,
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a lot of nosy neighbors probably.
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And also you just, you understand the pace of work and you know that no one's
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been there for three days.
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So you get anxious when it's like, what's going on here? Has it been raining?
325
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So these things, those are good tools for cottage. Yeah.
326
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Yeah. What I was going to ask you, I guess, just jumping into cottage country
327
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and cottage design is, it seems like you've done a lot of work in different cottage country areas.
328
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Is but can you just kind of describe which areas you've worked in and maybe
329
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where you're planning on working we had done cottages before i built this house
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but since building this house a lot of,
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work has come and a lot of people i
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really believe that you you show people the lifestyle
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that you live and how you did it and they totally understand
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right i think i felt like
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a bit of an outsider cider before because i never grew up
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in cottages okay but i mean
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in in this a residential job in the city you
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know there there are things that people need want and it's not a formula but
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it's pretty straightforward what they're going to need in the house and how
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you're going to invest it i think a lot of people here they own properties for
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a long time they tear down a house or they build another one so they already
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have a fixed idea of how they're going to use.
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The program of the house like do they need a mudroom do they need screen ports they need,
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do they need these other accessory buildings or the systems
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generators that they know what they need right i think sometimes people think
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they know what they need and then when you show them a design and you develop
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it they actually might change yeah right so so we have worked in caledon which
348
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is sort of cottage country,
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I guess, and Muskoka,
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Georgian Bay, this area of Georgian Bay on Cognosheen, Algonquin Highlands,
351
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and Prince Edward County. It's a beautiful area.
352
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It's a long drive, but it's just the wrong way. Yeah, the wrong way. Yeah.
353
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But they all offer different things.
354
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No, for sure. And then would you say most of the jobs are new builds?
355
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Almost all our new builds yeah there was one we're doing close
356
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to here now which is i mean we did go
357
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through the whole conversation of should we tear it down but it was a house built
358
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in like 1998 oh it's
359
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a weird house but it's very solid and it's
360
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very and it's like if you can take that
361
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and add on to it and transform it you're keeping
362
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your costs way down yeah compared to just starting over
363
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so we did we did kind of back
364
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and forth a few times of whether that should happen and we
365
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looked at alternative ways to do it but it's
366
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just started construction now in the fall and that
367
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one is so it's part old part new but most of
368
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the jobs are start over or there's nothing on the land yeah i i guess i'll just
369
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touch on that is i i don't think there's one solution that's right for everybody
370
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but i do believe the building technology we have and what you can do.
371
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That's building a new building you can make it very sustainable so it will be
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here 50 or 100 years from now right i mean a lot of the little cottages on islands
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and stuff like they were never intended to be four season houses but now now
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i think just the building envelope and the the sophistication of the systems we have,
375
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I think it would be odd with the cost of waterfront property that people wouldn't build more.
376
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Better houses, not necessarily large, but I mean, because it's not worth having
377
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millions and millions of dollars worth of land and then having a house that's
378
00:24:10,927 --> 00:24:12,847
not worth it. Right. So it's not a good investment.
379
00:24:13,867 --> 00:24:18,227
Well, that's, yeah. I mean, that's what I wanted to touch, touch upon for sustainability,
380
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just like what your thoughts were.
381
00:24:20,167 --> 00:24:24,167
And for me, it's, there's so many ways you can think about, whether it's like
382
00:24:24,167 --> 00:24:29,187
the build, the building, the material, the energy, like all of that can be sustainable
383
00:24:29,187 --> 00:24:31,147
and it's in different ways, but it's like.
384
00:24:32,247 --> 00:24:35,867
If you're building something with the best possible materials,
385
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the best possible building science, all of that, to withstand the longest amount
386
00:24:40,887 --> 00:24:44,007
of time, that in itself is the most sustainable option.
387
00:24:44,467 --> 00:24:47,207
Yeah, and also just maintenance costs. And maintenance costs.
388
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You don't have to repaint things and cause potential environmental problems,
389
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cleaning, stuff like that.
390
00:24:53,747 --> 00:24:58,527
You know, in square footage, keeping it a little bit smaller is helpful too,
391
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especially if you have a budget, let's say, nothing is a million dollars,
392
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but let's say it's a million dollars.
393
00:25:04,647 --> 00:25:08,947
You know, you could build something smaller with incredible material,
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really good building science that will last you a hundred years, let's say.
395
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Or you could build something twice the size with terrible materials.
396
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Yeah. You know, so it's like which do you prefer? Yeah, you're cheap out on
397
00:25:21,827 --> 00:25:26,827
getting square footage. Or you could have a really great design with a smaller
398
00:25:26,827 --> 00:25:28,427
square footage that's just really functional.
399
00:25:28,747 --> 00:25:31,747
Yes, I agree 100%. That's where I'm at.
400
00:25:32,487 --> 00:25:36,527
But yeah, I wanted to ask you in terms of designing cottages,
401
00:25:36,527 --> 00:25:42,047
you also do a lot of design for residences in Toronto and other urban areas.
402
00:25:42,307 --> 00:25:46,347
So what would you say when you're coming at the forefront of the design for
403
00:25:46,347 --> 00:25:51,147
a cottage, what is different than if you're designing a principal residence? Yeah.
404
00:25:51,939 --> 00:25:56,219
I guess I think the principal residence in Toronto or a large city is really
405
00:25:56,219 --> 00:25:57,639
driven by the real estate market.
406
00:25:57,759 --> 00:26:01,739
I think people are making decisions that, you know, I need to have so many bedrooms.
407
00:26:02,719 --> 00:26:07,319
If I can have a garage, it's going to – if I can have, you know, whatever.
408
00:26:07,419 --> 00:26:10,739
All of these features, they all know they all have dollar values on them,
409
00:26:10,839 --> 00:26:12,439
right, and potential resale.
410
00:26:12,559 --> 00:26:15,719
And the fact is you are going to sell it. I think a cottage is different.
411
00:26:15,879 --> 00:26:20,139
Like, I don't know. When my partner and I built this house, like, we don't have a plan.
412
00:26:20,139 --> 00:26:23,279
Like i don't like we'll die and i don't
413
00:26:23,279 --> 00:26:26,239
know what's going to happen to but i'm just saying so you it's a
414
00:26:26,239 --> 00:26:29,319
really long-term thing and you do think about
415
00:26:29,319 --> 00:26:33,039
you know cottages can be generational you
416
00:26:33,039 --> 00:26:35,679
think of well you know someone's going to get
417
00:26:35,679 --> 00:26:39,719
old there or they're going to be little kids there or all of these stages of
418
00:26:39,719 --> 00:26:44,099
life are going to happen so that the building has to be able to do all of that
419
00:26:44,099 --> 00:26:50,079
it's also i think cottages can be very aspirational and in a sense it's a lifestyle
420
00:26:50,079 --> 00:26:55,599
and i find it interesting because some people will do things that are,
421
00:26:56,179 --> 00:26:59,139
quirky or weird or which is fantastic
422
00:26:59,139 --> 00:27:01,859
i love it that they wouldn't do in their house yeah they'll
423
00:27:01,859 --> 00:27:05,019
take a bit more of a risk i feel like because yeah the most amazing
424
00:27:05,019 --> 00:27:09,059
places around when you go inside some cottages because they're not necessarily
425
00:27:09,059 --> 00:27:13,219
designing it for complete resale like they are maybe in the city like you said
426
00:27:13,219 --> 00:27:19,379
they're doing it for their design aesthetic their love of the area their generation
427
00:27:19,379 --> 00:27:23,199
yeah and i love that yeah for sure yeah the.
428
00:27:24,168 --> 00:27:28,168
I think some people, like, I wasn't a cottager growing up, so I didn't have,
429
00:27:28,328 --> 00:27:31,548
you know, I kind of saw what people had and I've been to cottages.
430
00:27:32,088 --> 00:27:38,248
But the thing I've learned the most having this place is, you know,
431
00:27:38,268 --> 00:27:44,268
you say summer, winter, it's the in-between the seasons and it's all the nuances
432
00:27:44,268 --> 00:27:46,728
of the year that you don't ever really think about.
433
00:27:47,048 --> 00:27:52,988
Like, you just really, you know, in November, it can be still and quiet and warm and sunny.
434
00:27:52,988 --> 00:27:55,808
And i think you're so exposed up here
435
00:27:55,808 --> 00:27:59,368
compared to the city that you really you really
436
00:27:59,368 --> 00:28:02,148
interact differently with the place depending on the
437
00:28:02,148 --> 00:28:05,048
time of day and the time of year and it's not just four seasons
438
00:28:05,048 --> 00:28:08,128
there's like i don't even know how many it's all the in-between parts and the
439
00:28:08,128 --> 00:28:12,348
natural lighting changes so much like you were saying i think in our first phone
440
00:28:12,348 --> 00:28:15,388
call you said you actually do really like coming here in the winter right because
441
00:28:15,388 --> 00:28:19,188
you get so much light yes during the day because there's no leaves on the trees
442
00:28:19,188 --> 00:28:21,208
that's right yeah yeah no that's
443
00:28:21,208 --> 00:28:25,348
it yeah for sure yeah I think that whole seasonal affective disorder.
444
00:28:25,708 --> 00:28:30,408
I get that is a problem, but there's also something really beautiful in the city too.
445
00:28:30,468 --> 00:28:35,988
Like in late January when it's white and it's blue sky, like it's,
446
00:28:35,988 --> 00:28:39,148
you know, it's, there are a lot of really beautiful days.
447
00:28:39,148 --> 00:28:42,028
Yeah and even this november like we're recording in
448
00:28:42,028 --> 00:28:44,848
november it's actually been a really nice november like it hasn't
449
00:28:44,848 --> 00:28:48,068
been cold it's barely rained it's been really sunny even
450
00:28:48,068 --> 00:28:51,108
like today was gorgeous it's cold but
451
00:28:51,108 --> 00:28:55,468
and it's dark like it's gonna get dark soon but beautiful
452
00:28:55,468 --> 00:28:58,228
view so we can't complain oh and then
453
00:28:58,228 --> 00:29:01,228
so you you said that you didn't have like a
454
00:29:01,228 --> 00:29:04,448
family history of cottaging two questions one
455
00:29:04,448 --> 00:29:07,628
like where's your family lineage from
456
00:29:07,628 --> 00:29:10,288
like have your has your family been in canada for a long
457
00:29:10,288 --> 00:29:14,148
time yeah long time yeah yeah we actually
458
00:29:14,148 --> 00:29:17,008
did the whole ancestry thing okay i know in
459
00:29:17,008 --> 00:29:20,568
fact near a really i went to see the farm that day it's
460
00:29:20,568 --> 00:29:24,988
one of those weird stories where someone called me who's like a fourth cousin
461
00:29:24,988 --> 00:29:29,808
and he has done all of this crazy research so i've i've gone to the farm i think
462
00:29:29,808 --> 00:29:33,468
a lot of people did this over covid yeah i did i didn't i couldn't get that
463
00:29:33,468 --> 00:29:38,988
far back but he did it because my family too is scottish mcnab yeah.
464
00:29:39,448 --> 00:29:43,608
So my dad's side is really like so many i don't even know how many generations
465
00:29:43,608 --> 00:29:48,328
canadian but then my mom's side her parents came from germany so just like very
466
00:29:48,328 --> 00:29:52,108
classic european mix okay so that's That's interesting.
467
00:29:52,208 --> 00:29:57,268
And then my other question was, before you built this cottage,
468
00:29:57,588 --> 00:30:00,108
you were spending a lot of time boating.
469
00:30:00,288 --> 00:30:03,328
Yes. So, can you talk about that? Yeah. So, we did that.
470
00:30:03,648 --> 00:30:06,588
I met my partner. He had a boat, 36-foot boat.
471
00:30:07,108 --> 00:30:13,168
And then we just were completely hooked. And when was – how long ago would that be? This is like –.
472
00:30:14,895 --> 00:30:20,215
2001, right? Okay. Okay. And then we bought a larger C-Ray in Detroit,
473
00:30:20,435 --> 00:30:21,755
brought it up from Detroit.
474
00:30:22,395 --> 00:30:28,435
And then, you know, sometimes I look back, I go, that's a crazy thing to do. But this is 2010.
475
00:30:29,415 --> 00:30:35,935
We bought an even larger C-Ray in Boston. And it was like white collar repossession
476
00:30:35,935 --> 00:30:38,115
where people were just handing the keys in, basically.
477
00:30:38,635 --> 00:30:43,155
So it was an amazing deal. And we had that one until 2010.
478
00:30:44,195 --> 00:30:47,435
17 16 i guess so we traveled
479
00:30:47,435 --> 00:30:50,595
all over georgian bay every i know like every little
480
00:30:50,595 --> 00:30:53,815
cove and hidden place generally away
481
00:30:53,815 --> 00:30:56,635
from cottagers yeah but there are the most
482
00:30:56,635 --> 00:30:59,435
amazing places and it
483
00:30:59,435 --> 00:31:03,395
was it's a great life it's sustainable i
484
00:31:03,395 --> 00:31:06,255
don't know because you have like 16 weeks
485
00:31:06,255 --> 00:31:09,335
of the year maybe 12 good ones
486
00:31:09,335 --> 00:31:12,035
and you need to use the boat you need to get out there and
487
00:31:12,035 --> 00:31:15,235
enjoy it and i think it's not sustainable because people if
488
00:31:15,235 --> 00:31:17,975
they both aren't into it or especially when they
489
00:31:17,975 --> 00:31:20,815
have kids it's really hard to get the whole family on the boat and go and
490
00:31:20,815 --> 00:31:23,915
weren't you saying too or maybe it was this was in the article something like
491
00:31:23,915 --> 00:31:28,935
you would feel bad if you weren't spending every weekend on the boat right and
492
00:31:28,935 --> 00:31:33,175
you'd have to turn down other events yep because you're like no no we only have
493
00:31:33,175 --> 00:31:39,195
16 weekends i mean it's probably like a summer cottage but it's just you you know No,
494
00:31:39,195 --> 00:31:42,255
and then you have to store it. It's expensive. Store it inside a building in the winter.
495
00:31:42,495 --> 00:31:44,555
Yeah. But it's an unbelievable lifestyle.
496
00:31:44,935 --> 00:31:48,275
You would dock it here in Midland? In Midland, yeah. And then there's a shed
497
00:31:48,275 --> 00:31:49,735
that it goes in and heat it in the winter.
498
00:31:50,415 --> 00:31:53,315
It's an unbelievable lifestyle. It's an unbelievable landscape.
499
00:31:54,560 --> 00:32:01,040
And I think I was just always gung-ho, like a bit of a ringleader of saying,
500
00:32:01,100 --> 00:32:03,460
oh, we're going to go find this place, go to that place.
501
00:32:03,540 --> 00:32:08,760
We would go on these crazy dinghy trips from 12 Mile Bay out to the Western
502
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:13,540
Islands with six dinghies and have a cookout and all of these things that were so much fun.
503
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:18,840
And I felt that I was really going to miss that when we – basically,
504
00:32:18,940 --> 00:32:23,180
that boat was such a great investment that it held its value and we sold the
505
00:32:23,180 --> 00:32:24,080
boat and bought this one.
506
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,920
Like it was actually amazing that it
507
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,220
just happened because the prices of land changed
508
00:32:30,220 --> 00:32:32,840
since then so i thought i was
509
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,740
going to miss the spontaneity of voting but i
510
00:32:35,740 --> 00:32:38,480
realize now that when you have a cottage you have
511
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,400
a community you can make
512
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:44,200
plans or you can just not make plans and you
513
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,280
do what you feel like and people drop by and you know
514
00:32:47,280 --> 00:32:50,100
we've made friends up here mostly because of the pandemic but i
515
00:32:50,100 --> 00:32:53,220
mean i can't remember going to someone's house and just sitting
516
00:32:53,220 --> 00:32:56,440
around having coffee with them but that's what happens at the cottage exactly
517
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,720
and it's amazing i made great friends that way right so you just
518
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,540
i do like the spontaneous aspect because i
519
00:33:02,540 --> 00:33:05,280
find you know on the weekends you have to wind down a bit
520
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,340
and if you have all these appointments of social things you have to do it's
521
00:33:08,340 --> 00:33:12,160
a bit of a drag but a cottage allows you to hide i also like this place because
522
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:16,940
people don't know you're here basically like there's no visible sign right that
523
00:33:16,940 --> 00:33:22,720
you're here and i was just noticing do you guys usually do you keep a dock here with a boat.
524
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:29,120
So right now we have a ramp and a trailer we have our dinghy that we used to like a 50 horsepower,
525
00:33:31,140 --> 00:33:34,080
but we're building this cove you can see and there'll be
526
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,180
a dock on the right side of the boat and here with this water you'd have a boat
527
00:33:38,180 --> 00:33:42,000
lift that looks like you have to right because you always get the wind here
528
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:46,160
there are people that build these huge harbors we're not going to do that but
529
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:51,180
so we started and it was a beach there but right now we just take it out,
530
00:33:51,904 --> 00:33:55,944
Don't leave it in. Yeah. No, that makes total sense. And it's funny that,
531
00:33:56,004 --> 00:34:00,304
you know, I think because you're here so much, but still June,
532
00:34:00,404 --> 00:34:05,304
like the water's still, May 24th is not what I remember May 24th being.
533
00:34:05,384 --> 00:34:06,544
It's still going to be quite cold.
534
00:34:06,644 --> 00:34:09,584
Oh, my God. I know. I know. And I have some Muskoka friends.
535
00:34:09,804 --> 00:34:12,284
You know, the lakes in Muskoka get so warm.
536
00:34:12,664 --> 00:34:18,144
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I've always been a Georgian Bay girl, I will say.
537
00:34:18,664 --> 00:34:22,864
And I love the cold water personally. i think it's good for you it's good for
538
00:34:22,864 --> 00:34:28,364
your head and it's also just way more refreshing i take cold clean water cold
539
00:34:28,364 --> 00:34:32,504
and cold and clean yeah me too rather than warm and kind of murky i wanted to
540
00:34:32,504 --> 00:34:38,424
ask you how you landed on this property oh so that's interesting because.
541
00:34:39,704 --> 00:34:45,144
We had traveled a lot and remote parts like northern lake huron north of manitoulin
542
00:34:45,144 --> 00:34:46,744
north channel beautiful beautiful
543
00:34:46,744 --> 00:34:51,804
places and i just loved how remote it felt so i could never really,
544
00:34:52,644 --> 00:34:56,644
see myself my partner's family had cottages in woodland beach which is more
545
00:34:56,644 --> 00:35:03,404
like rows of houses back streets you know like and i just felt it would be like
546
00:35:03,404 --> 00:35:07,484
going to suburbia and you're afraid of yeah so you can't really replace the
547
00:35:07,484 --> 00:35:11,664
landscape you have on a boat because because you can be just, you know, miles no one.
548
00:35:12,324 --> 00:35:17,704
But we started to look at maybe buying a smaller boat and then buying a large
549
00:35:17,704 --> 00:35:20,484
acreage and building a house looking over Georgian Bay.
550
00:35:21,644 --> 00:35:25,484
And we actually found one that had most of the right things.
551
00:35:26,144 --> 00:35:30,024
But when I added it up and I saw just you watching real estate listings and
552
00:35:30,024 --> 00:35:33,884
you're seeing these houses that people are building, these large timber frame
553
00:35:33,884 --> 00:35:36,804
houses that aren't on the water,
554
00:35:37,524 --> 00:35:40,264
and they just could not sell them to be honest like
555
00:35:40,264 --> 00:35:43,124
i i couldn't see how they could sell it to even get
556
00:35:43,124 --> 00:35:46,484
back the value of what they put into the building right so i
557
00:35:46,484 --> 00:35:49,184
it was a financial decision it's like i felt i had
558
00:35:49,184 --> 00:35:52,144
to be on the water to hold value
559
00:35:52,144 --> 00:35:54,964
for sure property so we came out here
560
00:35:54,964 --> 00:35:57,924
and saw one property a few doors down it was for sale
561
00:35:57,924 --> 00:36:00,984
large frontage it had an older house on
562
00:36:00,984 --> 00:36:03,864
it so we would have had to renovate it and it wasn't that big on
563
00:36:03,864 --> 00:36:06,884
that it also was a lot of money and the
564
00:36:06,884 --> 00:36:10,184
house is built like right up against the property line so eventually someone's
565
00:36:10,184 --> 00:36:13,164
gonna build right beside you even though it felt remote wouldn't be
566
00:36:13,164 --> 00:36:15,884
anyway so and then we looked
567
00:36:15,884 --> 00:36:19,124
at our neighbor's house here was for sale and we yeah and
568
00:36:19,124 --> 00:36:22,004
then we this land was always here and
569
00:36:22,004 --> 00:36:24,864
then i don't know it just clicked rick
570
00:36:24,864 --> 00:36:27,704
and i we we were in that house we weren't interested in
571
00:36:27,704 --> 00:36:32,064
the house it's a very cool house it was good to see inside it and we know that
572
00:36:32,064 --> 00:36:36,364
people have been in there there since but so we saw this land and we walked
573
00:36:36,364 --> 00:36:42,064
around and looked at it and i remember we drove down like halfway back to toronto
574
00:36:42,064 --> 00:36:44,884
like down not a wasaga bay to look at another property,
575
00:36:45,384 --> 00:36:47,324
and we both said you know that's it.
576
00:36:48,340 --> 00:36:53,020
And we drove all the way back again. And it was just this weird thing. And it just happened.
577
00:36:53,220 --> 00:37:00,880
It was in April. We put in the offer, a bit of a stink offer, but the vendor took it.
578
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:05,780
So, of course, my partner thought, oh, we could have gotten it for $5,000 less or whatever.
579
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:09,820
But she just took it. Because it had some weird thing.
580
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,900
It's a zoning issue, which was across the township.
581
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:16,760
But I knew what to do. so we just we arranged for
582
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,880
a long closing and we covered all the costs of all
583
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,840
of that but it was a very long closing so that's
584
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:26,840
how we found it but it was dense bush very difficult
585
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:32,140
to walk through like completely scrub i guess now we can start talking about
586
00:37:32,140 --> 00:37:39,360
this project so you named this project project 22 yes was that so this actually
587
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:44,300
ties into what we just talked about yeah so this This is a long linear house.
588
00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:48,440
It's 108 feet long and it's 22 feet wide.
589
00:37:48,940 --> 00:37:53,240
The reason it's 22 feet wide is they're engineered joists and it was a maximum
590
00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:56,940
span of the type of floor system we wanted to use without having an intermediate
591
00:37:56,940 --> 00:37:58,900
wall downstairs. It's a cost issue.
592
00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:05,060
And I just, the idea of this house is just, I like to do something that's very simple.
593
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:11,180
Make a rule, strong rule, but then break it, right? Like make the rule and then
594
00:38:11,180 --> 00:38:13,220
make a hole in it. Make a hole in the house.
595
00:38:13,940 --> 00:38:17,020
Do things with it. So manipulate the simple idea.
596
00:38:17,420 --> 00:38:22,160
So the reason it's long and thin is there was a setback issue from the water,
597
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:24,860
which you need to respect the average of your neighbors.
598
00:38:25,720 --> 00:38:32,120
And there's a hydro-radiable way behind it. So if I actually was to just buy the lot, follow –,
599
00:38:32,838 --> 00:38:35,898
all of the requirements i'd have to build my house behind the hydro
600
00:38:35,898 --> 00:38:38,598
which would be weird right so that's why it
601
00:38:38,598 --> 00:38:41,638
took long longer to close so did you do some
602
00:38:41,638 --> 00:38:45,478
sort of feasibility study before you purchased it to find out what you would
603
00:38:45,478 --> 00:38:49,698
want to do i kind of knew what you or you just so so the linear form was kind
604
00:38:49,698 --> 00:38:53,378
of keeping it away from the water and i didn't want to look at the hydro lines
605
00:38:53,378 --> 00:38:58,838
keeping it you know you wouldn't make a u-shaped house here because of these conditions right so So,
606
00:38:58,858 --> 00:39:01,478
that was the idea. So, the form really came from the constraint.
607
00:39:01,798 --> 00:39:05,338
Yeah. Yeah. That's typical. I mean. The other part of it is,
608
00:39:05,418 --> 00:39:11,298
I guess, our boats were large and they had like guest bathroom, everything.
609
00:39:11,398 --> 00:39:14,318
So, guests would feel very comfortable there.
610
00:39:14,498 --> 00:39:19,458
But we're just not big guest people in the sense that we're probably not great house guests.
611
00:39:20,218 --> 00:39:24,398
So, I just had this idea that the guests would be in another wing of the house.
612
00:39:24,598 --> 00:39:28,718
Right. So that I believe on weekends, people can just do what they want.
613
00:39:28,798 --> 00:39:31,038
You can go have a nap. You don't have to make any excuses.
614
00:39:31,618 --> 00:39:34,558
Yeah, really do what you want. Yeah, so you're not walking down the same corridor.
615
00:39:34,638 --> 00:39:41,938
And I think most of our houses use that type of strategy. Yeah, the design of your firm.
616
00:39:42,458 --> 00:39:46,958
Yeah, the houses would always, cottages in particular, that people would want
617
00:39:46,958 --> 00:39:49,978
to have it kind of spread out like that. So while we're talking about it,
618
00:39:50,018 --> 00:39:55,698
can you maybe just visually describe the layout for the listeners?
619
00:39:55,998 --> 00:40:00,978
We'll have maybe a plan if possible on the on the website to show people.
620
00:40:01,118 --> 00:40:05,178
Yeah. So it's a long, it's a dark house. It's.
621
00:40:06,048 --> 00:40:09,628
Gray which has actually a slightly green tinge
622
00:40:09,628 --> 00:40:12,388
to it the woods down by the water
623
00:40:12,388 --> 00:40:15,388
here are mostly hemlock some pine but it's.
624
00:40:15,388 --> 00:40:18,548
All almost all evergreen trees so the
625
00:40:18,548 --> 00:40:21,408
color of the siding i really like because it does actually kind of.
626
00:40:21,408 --> 00:40:24,268
Blend with the trees when i come
627
00:40:24,268 --> 00:40:28,168
down the driveway it's a one story house but the
628
00:40:28,168 --> 00:40:31,268
main living space is on that level and then there's a nine
629
00:40:31,268 --> 00:40:34,348
foot ceiling basement which faces the
630
00:40:34,348 --> 00:40:37,408
lake and it has walkouts from every room the whole
631
00:40:37,408 --> 00:40:40,428
length so it's a long thin house with the
632
00:40:40,428 --> 00:40:43,648
bedroom at one end the large
633
00:40:43,648 --> 00:40:47,028
living room stair kitchen dining
634
00:40:47,028 --> 00:40:49,968
and sitting area with
635
00:40:49,968 --> 00:40:52,628
the fireplace and then there's a hole in the house that you can
636
00:40:52,628 --> 00:40:55,548
walk through the house and that's an outdoor room so it's open to the forest
637
00:40:55,548 --> 00:40:58,588
roadside and it will road towards
638
00:40:58,588 --> 00:41:01,648
the road and towards the the lake and across
639
00:41:01,648 --> 00:41:04,388
i walked through that outdoor room it was
640
00:41:04,388 --> 00:41:07,188
supposed to have screens on it was supposed to be a screened room but we
641
00:41:07,188 --> 00:41:09,908
didn't do it because there aren't many bugs here and we
642
00:41:09,908 --> 00:41:12,768
actually use the interior of the house at large windows that
643
00:41:12,768 --> 00:41:15,428
open so we if there were bugs we would eat in
644
00:41:15,428 --> 00:41:18,368
here i'll find if we have a fire outside there's
645
00:41:18,368 --> 00:41:21,628
almost no chance of having bugs around you so then
646
00:41:21,628 --> 00:41:24,808
across the outdoor room there's a guest room so
647
00:41:24,808 --> 00:41:27,548
the idea of that was we didn't want to build other
648
00:41:27,548 --> 00:41:30,728
outbuildings on the site so it's like the guests have a bunkie
649
00:41:30,728 --> 00:41:33,788
of their own so they technically walk outside
650
00:41:33,788 --> 00:41:38,868
to go to their room you can't hear them they can't hear you and just before
651
00:41:38,868 --> 00:41:42,848
i walk into the guest room there's a staircase that goes down to the lower level
652
00:41:42,848 --> 00:41:47,288
so they can go down that staircase walk through the big recreation room down.
653
00:41:47,288 --> 00:41:51,268
The hallways and come up the other staircase so it is linked internally.
654
00:41:52,626 --> 00:41:55,686
But I mean, people stayed here on Christmas and just walked outside.
655
00:41:55,866 --> 00:41:56,986
It's a very short commute.
656
00:41:57,426 --> 00:42:03,426
20 feet. Yeah. And I think that outdoor room for me coming from a boat was like
657
00:42:03,426 --> 00:42:04,486
the most important thing.
658
00:42:04,626 --> 00:42:09,506
I needed to have something that was, I think when you live on a boat,
659
00:42:09,626 --> 00:42:12,386
you are very in tune with the weather.
660
00:42:12,466 --> 00:42:17,486
And when it rains, there is not a lot you can do. Right. So that room is big
661
00:42:17,486 --> 00:42:19,586
and it's bigger than we need.
662
00:42:20,166 --> 00:42:22,826
We did have friends the first year. they came up and
663
00:42:22,826 --> 00:42:25,486
it was a terrible weekend we actually took the
664
00:42:25,486 --> 00:42:28,606
furniture off the deck and brought furniture in
665
00:42:28,606 --> 00:42:31,386
put a carpet down so we had like a living room and dining room in
666
00:42:31,386 --> 00:42:35,886
there for that weekend okay which was great because it was you're outside you're
667
00:42:35,886 --> 00:42:40,846
enjoying being in nature but you're under this massive roof right so i think
668
00:42:40,846 --> 00:42:46,246
one other feature of this floor is we built the deck a large deck off the front
669
00:42:46,246 --> 00:42:50,626
of the house and it has kind of a carport underneath it But we lowered it down.
670
00:42:51,046 --> 00:42:55,106
I just didn't want to look at it. So I don't want to be in the living room looking
671
00:42:55,106 --> 00:42:58,406
through furniture, especially in the winter. You see, like, snow on everything.
672
00:42:58,986 --> 00:43:03,046
So it just kind of disappears from where you are.
673
00:43:03,126 --> 00:43:05,946
And then in the basement, there are two more bedrooms, again,
674
00:43:06,006 --> 00:43:07,926
at each end, with en suite bathrooms.
675
00:43:08,086 --> 00:43:11,546
And there's a recreation room, laundry, everything else.
676
00:43:11,986 --> 00:43:16,006
Can you talk a little bit about how boating –.
677
00:43:16,923 --> 00:43:19,843
Design inspired some of the design elements in
678
00:43:19,843 --> 00:43:22,963
the cottage yeah so i think it
679
00:43:22,963 --> 00:43:26,063
was kind of i never thought i'd
680
00:43:26,063 --> 00:43:29,443
ever want to quit boating but it is something the age out of
681
00:43:29,443 --> 00:43:32,083
financially you just say i can't afford to do this for the rest
682
00:43:32,083 --> 00:43:35,843
of my life it's a lot of money but we my
683
00:43:35,843 --> 00:43:38,463
partner and i both love boats and we've spent a lot
684
00:43:38,463 --> 00:43:41,143
of time in bahamas with our friends and go to the
685
00:43:41,143 --> 00:43:44,243
fort lauderdale boat show and just like are fascinated by
686
00:43:44,243 --> 00:43:47,443
boats so i felt that this house was like probably where
687
00:43:47,443 --> 00:43:50,283
you're sitting you're looking towards the fireplace but i felt like
688
00:43:50,283 --> 00:43:55,123
it's kind of like a yacht it's like the glass out the sides it's a long thin
689
00:43:55,123 --> 00:44:00,443
thing right it has that even though it's in a forest it has a lot of those aspects
690
00:44:00,443 --> 00:44:06,263
we did some things like pathway lighting through the house low lights that are
691
00:44:06,263 --> 00:44:08,463
also good so they don't reflect in the windows so.
692
00:44:09,003 --> 00:44:11,963
When as it's getting darker you don't see reflection of
693
00:44:11,963 --> 00:44:14,943
light everywhere were staircases we
694
00:44:14,943 --> 00:44:17,783
used a lot of stainless steel details of
695
00:44:17,783 --> 00:44:21,563
the staircase are not literally from a boat they
696
00:44:21,563 --> 00:44:24,463
don't look nautical but they look like what you'd expect
697
00:44:24,463 --> 00:44:31,923
to find yeah like i love the um ipe decking stairs yeah that yeah so the staircases
698
00:44:31,923 --> 00:44:39,043
are both made of wood that you would expect to find i love that and then maybe
699
00:44:39,043 --> 00:44:43,823
we can talk just a little bit about some of the the material elements that you chose for the cottage?
700
00:44:44,283 --> 00:44:49,943
Okay, so I built, I started thinking about this house, I think I was like 55
701
00:44:49,943 --> 00:44:53,643
at the time, and I did not want to maintain anything.
702
00:44:53,863 --> 00:45:00,043
Like I just, so the only piece of wood outside of this house is a handrail on the deck.
703
00:45:00,223 --> 00:45:05,663
And I was even going to oil it at first, and it's also e-pay. Oh, it's just that tall.
704
00:45:05,883 --> 00:45:10,823
Yeah, above the glass handrail. And I thought I would oil it, and I was like, no.
705
00:45:11,083 --> 00:45:14,343
Just let it go silver. And that is the only piece of wood. So there's nothing
706
00:45:14,343 --> 00:45:16,783
to maintain. I mean, the windows need to be cleaned.
707
00:45:17,742 --> 00:45:20,542
Now but and you know you
708
00:45:20,542 --> 00:45:23,222
the siding system you can basically kind of
709
00:45:23,222 --> 00:45:25,982
not even power wash it just with the hose you know when
710
00:45:25,982 --> 00:45:28,722
there's pollen you know and what material is so it's
711
00:45:28,722 --> 00:45:31,602
corrugated vic west metal it
712
00:45:31,602 --> 00:45:34,742
has a matte finish so it's not shiny and it's
713
00:45:34,742 --> 00:45:37,682
put on horizontally so that system
714
00:45:37,682 --> 00:45:41,262
we actually designed for a house we did before this but the
715
00:45:41,262 --> 00:45:43,922
whole idea was their battens that to
716
00:45:43,922 --> 00:45:46,802
cover the seams and all of the fasteners are
717
00:45:46,802 --> 00:45:49,562
hidden so you don't look at sometimes you'll see
718
00:45:49,562 --> 00:45:52,482
corrugated metal but it looks very industrial because
719
00:45:52,482 --> 00:45:56,322
you can see all the fasteners yeah so it was very conscious not to do that it
720
00:45:56,322 --> 00:46:00,982
has a sounds japanese i don't know it has this kind of aspect very simple so
721
00:46:00,982 --> 00:46:04,882
the outside was like zero maintenance and including the landscape to be honest
722
00:46:04,882 --> 00:46:08,982
i only planted native plants there are some things that aren't but i kept those
723
00:46:08,982 --> 00:46:12,342
really really close to the house because I don't want things spreading everywhere.
724
00:46:12,802 --> 00:46:19,282
So we did plant some non-native, like thyme, lawns, things that you don't have to take care of.
725
00:46:20,622 --> 00:46:22,942
Approach to gardening at a cottage I think should be different,
726
00:46:23,082 --> 00:46:25,762
easier. Yeah. Simplify your life.
727
00:46:26,642 --> 00:46:31,702
And then inside the house, so I felt just with the amount of glass,
728
00:46:32,282 --> 00:46:33,722
wanted to have heated floors.
729
00:46:35,242 --> 00:46:38,722
And I wanted to have the same floor that went through the house indoors doors
730
00:46:38,722 --> 00:46:44,942
and out so i didn't want wood in the house so we have porcelain two foot by four foot panels,
731
00:46:45,502 --> 00:46:48,442
and it's over a lightweight concrete so they're heating tubes
732
00:46:48,442 --> 00:46:51,342
underneath and the floor is heated and the floor is heated through the whole
733
00:46:51,342 --> 00:46:55,902
house downstairs as well and that's kept so what we do is we do turn it down
734
00:46:55,902 --> 00:47:01,642
it's kept lower and there's also a furnace which can if you want to boost the
735
00:47:01,642 --> 00:47:06,142
heat quickly it'll heat up but it rarely gets used so the porcelain was a big
736
00:47:06,142 --> 00:47:07,162
commitment in In the basement,
737
00:47:07,322 --> 00:47:09,742
we took, it's polished concrete.
738
00:47:10,802 --> 00:47:16,522
We colored it with taupe color. Sounds weird. So it looks more like sand.
739
00:47:16,762 --> 00:47:19,802
Okay. And then we had pea gravel put in.
740
00:47:20,362 --> 00:47:23,282
And that was done up here. And obviously.
741
00:47:23,562 --> 00:47:28,702
And then we had some guys that we used in Toronto. And they came up and stayed in a hotel.
742
00:47:29,122 --> 00:47:37,262
But I wanted to do it so it wasn't all 100% the same. So they kind of ground more and less.
743
00:47:37,862 --> 00:47:42,002
So you will see, it kind of looks like there are stones and then other parts
744
00:47:42,002 --> 00:47:44,762
it looks more like sand, but it's slightly irregular.
745
00:47:46,621 --> 00:47:52,641
The downstairs is very simple. We did use Coruscant walnut solid core doors,
746
00:47:52,821 --> 00:47:56,601
which, again, it was stainless steel hardware, horizontal pulls,
747
00:47:56,801 --> 00:47:58,641
things that you would see on a boat.
748
00:48:00,641 --> 00:48:05,201
And it's very simple downstairs. Upstairs, so the center part of the house,
749
00:48:05,281 --> 00:48:07,761
we spent money on where we're sitting.
750
00:48:07,881 --> 00:48:10,921
So we didn't want to have much drywall or surfaces.
751
00:48:11,321 --> 00:48:15,681
So the porcelain goes up the wall to the level of the windows.
752
00:48:15,681 --> 00:48:19,781
The windows don't go right down to the floor only because you have to be careful
753
00:48:19,781 --> 00:48:24,101
how much window area you have in a house in terms of how much heat loss you
754
00:48:24,101 --> 00:48:28,601
have and this this room has a lot of glass whereas other parts of the house don't.
755
00:48:29,961 --> 00:48:33,481
So the ceiling they're douglas fir
756
00:48:33,481 --> 00:48:36,861
trusses i picked it's a
757
00:48:36,861 --> 00:48:39,961
cross kind of pattern what's really interesting is inside there
758
00:48:39,961 --> 00:48:42,841
they're actually tie rods so those
759
00:48:42,841 --> 00:48:46,101
pegs you see are actually metal plates inside
760
00:48:46,101 --> 00:48:49,061
and that is the part that's all engineered and designed
761
00:48:49,061 --> 00:48:52,481
this five moonstone timber framing and
762
00:48:52,481 --> 00:48:55,121
they did a great job this was kind of
763
00:48:55,121 --> 00:48:58,181
a fluke because they had another large job they're
764
00:48:58,181 --> 00:49:01,761
doing which is radio frequency radio kiln dried so
765
00:49:01,761 --> 00:49:04,801
they dry the wood so if you look there there
766
00:49:04,801 --> 00:49:07,741
aren't that many douglas fir will have what's called
767
00:49:07,741 --> 00:49:10,761
checking you'll see cracks in it yeah it is very little on
768
00:49:10,761 --> 00:49:13,901
these yeah we just lucked out out if it's the same price yeah
769
00:49:13,901 --> 00:49:17,501
so that has kind of an orangey color
770
00:49:17,501 --> 00:49:20,761
they're oiled and then the ceiling is i
771
00:49:20,761 --> 00:49:23,381
mean i don't really know it was i know they were
772
00:49:23,381 --> 00:49:26,161
mennonites but it was through a broker and barry so you
773
00:49:26,161 --> 00:49:29,001
basically go to somebody and they say we can get this for you and
774
00:49:29,001 --> 00:49:32,181
it ended up coming from kitchen or somewhere so it's it's
775
00:49:32,181 --> 00:49:34,921
almost 100 clear pine but it's
776
00:49:34,921 --> 00:49:37,981
rough sawn and has a small v groove that's a
777
00:49:37,981 --> 00:49:41,101
bit of a reference back to a boat that has right like
778
00:49:41,101 --> 00:49:44,581
so very small groove yeah and it's it's
779
00:49:44,581 --> 00:49:47,321
not really rough but you know you wouldn't put it on a wall or a
780
00:49:47,321 --> 00:49:51,361
floor right so it's stained gray and
781
00:49:51,361 --> 00:49:54,441
what's interesting is pine will
782
00:49:54,441 --> 00:49:57,261
yellow but the it's actually going a little bit.
783
00:49:57,261 --> 00:50:00,001
Orange um which actually ties in.
784
00:50:00,001 --> 00:50:03,021
With the contrast to the green greenish slate
785
00:50:03,021 --> 00:50:06,981
floor and and it works with the wood yeah and
786
00:50:06,981 --> 00:50:09,761
then can you i just wanted to highlight a little bit
787
00:50:09,761 --> 00:50:12,761
the lighting that you've selected too because i know that's a really
788
00:50:12,761 --> 00:50:15,601
important feature for your company i know like that's
789
00:50:15,601 --> 00:50:21,401
a big focus in your designs i love the kind of cove lighting detail you did
790
00:50:21,401 --> 00:50:27,621
in here can you just describe describe that yeah so i just the cove lighting
791
00:50:27,621 --> 00:50:34,121
is between the trusses at the joint of the ceiling to the walls it's just a really a silver over.
792
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:37,980
Matte aluminum powder coated like a
793
00:50:37,980 --> 00:50:41,080
wing it looks sort of like it's just like a wedge and.
794
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:44,060
They're led lights whatever tape lights.
795
00:50:44,060 --> 00:50:46,900
Yeah most basic things and they're everything's on a dimmer
796
00:50:46,900 --> 00:50:50,100
here one of those things is
797
00:50:50,100 --> 00:50:53,060
just to highlight the ceiling it gives
798
00:50:53,060 --> 00:50:55,880
indirect lighting and i think
799
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,420
that in combination with the lights under the windows it means
800
00:50:59,420 --> 00:51:02,320
you don't have the reflection you have have to be really careful when
801
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,060
you have a glass house because at night you'll
802
00:51:05,060 --> 00:51:07,940
see soon it's dark it's black in here but you
803
00:51:07,940 --> 00:51:11,020
don't get the reflection of the lights on all the glass right
804
00:51:11,020 --> 00:51:13,660
i don't know if you've seen like two layers of glass you'll see
805
00:51:13,660 --> 00:51:16,600
the reflection going a hundred times right drives me crazy but
806
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,820
i mean you would see it from these island lights a little bit that it
807
00:51:19,820 --> 00:51:22,600
repeats so i you just have to be careful
808
00:51:22,600 --> 00:51:26,200
how you light things and i think you use light different amounts
809
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:29,700
of light and different types of light different times of the the day so yeah
810
00:51:29,700 --> 00:51:32,580
and then you also have some really nice details in the
811
00:51:32,580 --> 00:51:35,600
bedrooms where you have some kind of low lights
812
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:38,560
kind of as pathway lighting and downstairs
813
00:51:38,560 --> 00:51:41,680
you have that as well kind of to like like wayfinding kind
814
00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:45,640
of yeah so some of them are very small fixtures and
815
00:51:45,640 --> 00:51:48,520
then the hot there's we call it the bowling alley which is basically where
816
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:52,280
i'm passing under the outdoor room it's a yeah they're both
817
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,580
clico bottles like i wanted
818
00:51:55,580 --> 00:51:58,720
to get a ball that's the color of the book but i think
819
00:51:58,720 --> 00:52:02,500
the dogs will destroy it so yeah yeah so those
820
00:52:02,500 --> 00:52:05,520
ones are just like they're large they're probably like seven inches
821
00:52:05,520 --> 00:52:08,320
home depot 30 bucks i like those but
822
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:11,560
i wouldn't have done them everywhere because they're kind of and they're just.
823
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,480
You know 12 inches off the floor so the hallway is lit.
824
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:18,620
And then you don't really have any overhead lighting do you there are there
825
00:52:18,620 --> 00:52:22,960
are so where we put recessed lighting i only do it where there's going to be
826
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,600
artwork gotcha so i I highlight we had a lot of the paintings we actually bought.
827
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:30,560
Through the Georgian Bayland Trust auctions and they're not all here right now
828
00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:31,680
because we did some things at home.
829
00:52:31,740 --> 00:52:35,060
But so we picked pieces and put them and lit them.
830
00:52:35,100 --> 00:52:38,620
So I go down the stairs and I see the painting and it, you know,
831
00:52:38,620 --> 00:52:42,160
it's enough to get around, but I don't put like a grid of pod lights everywhere. Yeah.
832
00:52:42,787 --> 00:52:47,547
Yeah. And then the last thing in here I wanted to talk about was your stone wall.
833
00:52:48,067 --> 00:52:51,867
Okay. So it's a quirky thing. It has a nice story behind it.
834
00:52:52,967 --> 00:52:58,787
This area, you see a lot of this. So we're sort of near a place called Cedar Point.
835
00:52:58,947 --> 00:53:03,727
And these are old log cabins, cottages that they built on the beaches there.
836
00:53:04,187 --> 00:53:08,847
And they'll always have the little rocks put in to make the fireplace.
837
00:53:08,847 --> 00:53:11,967
So they look like cocoa puffs all stuck together. yeah like
838
00:53:11,967 --> 00:53:14,667
rounded rocks yeah they're round you know
839
00:53:14,667 --> 00:53:17,767
like the size of your hand maybe because they're just everywhere you
840
00:53:17,767 --> 00:53:21,647
find thousands and thousands so i
841
00:53:21,647 --> 00:53:24,647
didn't think that was like something i
842
00:53:24,647 --> 00:53:27,787
wanted to do i found them a little not tacky but
843
00:53:27,787 --> 00:53:30,827
a bit you know whatever so i wanted to make a comment on
844
00:53:30,827 --> 00:53:34,567
it so we were fascinated by
845
00:53:34,567 --> 00:53:38,567
traveling around georgia bay and seeing all the rock and then
846
00:53:38,567 --> 00:53:41,247
coming here and finding all these boulders on
847
00:53:41,247 --> 00:53:45,367
the shore and every color like jade green black gold
848
00:53:45,367 --> 00:53:50,627
they're ones that have must be some kind of iron oxide that they they turn rust
849
00:53:50,627 --> 00:53:54,947
color and and all of the typical colors of rock you see on the east side of
850
00:53:54,947 --> 00:54:02,147
georgian bay are here but they're round or boulders so we built this again it's
851
00:54:02,147 --> 00:54:04,187
like a powder coated aluminum color.
852
00:54:05,207 --> 00:54:08,707
Structure with shelves on it that are actually like blades so
853
00:54:08,707 --> 00:54:11,507
they're like like the lighting valence it just has
854
00:54:11,507 --> 00:54:15,887
a little dent in it yeah we did it on the outdoor room fireplace and the indoor
855
00:54:15,887 --> 00:54:21,647
fireplace and on those shelves are these rocks so we started by collecting them
856
00:54:21,647 --> 00:54:27,147
around mostly here but you'd just be working outside you find a cool rock and
857
00:54:27,147 --> 00:54:30,527
then i had piles of them and we started So, we started doing that.
858
00:54:30,567 --> 00:54:32,967
I think we had the photo shoots. We had to go and get a ton of rocks.
859
00:54:33,207 --> 00:54:38,407
And then that year, it was my 60th birthday and my partner arranged this amazing
860
00:54:38,407 --> 00:54:42,007
party and he asked everyone to bring a rock.
861
00:54:43,058 --> 00:54:47,098
So, their neighbors that came, they brought rocks. The rocks that they like,
862
00:54:47,118 --> 00:54:51,518
people came from Lake Muskoka, that they brought rocks that they found on their walk that they like.
863
00:54:51,798 --> 00:54:54,678
People came from Italy, people come from everywhere, and they brought.
864
00:54:54,758 --> 00:54:56,678
So, we wrote the names of the people on them.
865
00:54:56,898 --> 00:55:00,098
And I can't remember all of them, but, I mean, if I go and look,
866
00:55:00,178 --> 00:55:01,478
I know who gave us the rocks.
867
00:55:01,578 --> 00:55:08,198
So, they're not all gifts, but it just gave kind of an instant history to a place that was all new.
868
00:55:08,558 --> 00:55:15,318
Yeah, I love that. but it's just like so sweet but it also looks great and i
869
00:55:15,318 --> 00:55:16,578
just i like your comments,
870
00:55:17,178 --> 00:55:20,418
you know that it's reflective of the the local
871
00:55:20,418 --> 00:55:23,238
design and just in a different way i love that
872
00:55:23,238 --> 00:55:26,258
i wanted to talk just a little bit about
873
00:55:26,258 --> 00:55:29,318
the passive heating and cooling principles that
874
00:55:29,318 --> 00:55:32,478
you used in the project so you'd
875
00:55:32,478 --> 00:55:35,578
mentioned some like deep overhangs that shelter the interior
876
00:55:35,578 --> 00:55:40,358
from the the summer sun can you talk a little bit about that yeah so i guess
877
00:55:40,358 --> 00:55:45,438
this is on any waterfront property i think the fact is you're going to want
878
00:55:45,438 --> 00:55:49,278
to look at the view of the water right so you're not always going to look the
879
00:55:49,278 --> 00:55:54,218
right way yeah so this property looks kind of north and west.
880
00:55:55,878 --> 00:55:58,958
So no matter what you're already working against yourself
881
00:55:58,958 --> 00:56:02,178
in terms of that but i also wanted afternoon
882
00:56:02,178 --> 00:56:05,698
sun in the winter so we did glass
883
00:56:05,698 --> 00:56:10,598
to the forest which is absolutely beautiful in the winter and off season it's
884
00:56:10,598 --> 00:56:15,378
so pretty right now yeah and then you see a lot more when the there are some
885
00:56:15,378 --> 00:56:18,398
deciduous trees so you see more now than you do in the summer it's more like
886
00:56:18,398 --> 00:56:22,178
a wall in the summer but you get a lot of sunlight that sunlight comes like
887
00:56:22,178 --> 00:56:24,638
halfway across the floor and so it's
888
00:56:24,990 --> 00:56:28,750
And that's definitely contributed to some passive heating.
889
00:56:29,430 --> 00:56:33,030
But I think the fact is you have to deal with the orientation you're given.
890
00:56:33,130 --> 00:56:35,450
It's not like you're going to make the house face the other way.
891
00:56:35,710 --> 00:56:40,490
It's a lot harder when you're dealing with a property on a lake because it's
892
00:56:40,490 --> 00:56:44,370
not like you're just in a farmer's field and you can orient it exactly how you want.
893
00:56:44,570 --> 00:56:46,910
Right. So it's a bit of a different context.
894
00:56:47,550 --> 00:56:51,470
Yeah. And I think, I mean, we're really fortunate to be able to see sunsets here.
895
00:56:51,470 --> 00:56:54,210
There are three weeks of the
896
00:56:54,210 --> 00:56:57,550
year when it's blinding in the kitchen but
897
00:56:57,550 --> 00:57:00,230
we've talked about and i will never do it but
898
00:57:00,230 --> 00:57:03,310
it's fine like it's like it's like a half an hour of blinding
899
00:57:03,310 --> 00:57:06,050
something yeah you'll never do what well put blinds on
900
00:57:06,050 --> 00:57:09,350
yeah so yeah oh
901
00:57:09,350 --> 00:57:12,250
you can talk about just quickly how these windows all
902
00:57:12,250 --> 00:57:15,210
open up that's a really nice detail yeah so
903
00:57:15,210 --> 00:57:23,010
these uh they're 12 foot wide panels and not all of them but the main ones and
904
00:57:23,010 --> 00:57:28,550
so you can open up total on the lakeside of 16 feet across one post so that's
905
00:57:28,550 --> 00:57:32,390
such a screen massive screens and on the other side eight feet.
906
00:57:33,090 --> 00:57:37,890
But you can open up we could never open all the windows here it's just too it's
907
00:57:37,890 --> 00:57:44,450
too much so but we do there is air conditioning here i think last year we put
908
00:57:44,450 --> 00:57:47,330
it on once it is important for For,
909
00:57:47,330 --> 00:57:50,250
I mean, for the building envelope and humidity,
910
00:57:50,470 --> 00:57:53,890
you have to be careful what you do, right? You can't just. Like regulation. Yeah.
911
00:57:54,670 --> 00:57:59,230
So, but you really don't need air conditioning here. I think if you face south
912
00:57:59,230 --> 00:58:00,730
with this much glass, you'd need it.
913
00:58:01,846 --> 00:58:05,746
Yeah, for sure. And then I was going to ask you, was there any,
914
00:58:05,786 --> 00:58:11,746
like, innovative technologies or concepts you used in this project that were really exciting?
915
00:58:12,566 --> 00:58:16,846
I guess deciding, to me, was interesting. We developed it from where we were.
916
00:58:18,766 --> 00:58:21,986
Innovative, I don't know. Like, I had fun drawing the elevations and thinking
917
00:58:21,986 --> 00:58:26,526
out especially the lake side because the windows are kind of overlapping and
918
00:58:26,526 --> 00:58:27,746
shifting and there's a pattern.
919
00:58:27,766 --> 00:58:33,286
But it's not a slave to symmetry or anything, right? I think one technical detail,
920
00:58:33,386 --> 00:58:37,926
which was in that fine home building article, is just that outdoor room to make
921
00:58:37,926 --> 00:58:40,386
this floor go from inside the house to outside.
922
00:58:40,466 --> 00:58:44,106
So there's no floor heating outside, obviously, but I have to slope the floor
923
00:58:44,106 --> 00:58:45,886
from the center. It slopes down.
924
00:58:46,066 --> 00:58:50,666
So if any water did get in there, it would run out. Gotcha. So you can just hose the floor down.
925
00:58:50,826 --> 00:58:55,286
But it's made up of a series of membranes. So it's a roof membrane.
926
00:58:55,286 --> 00:58:58,126
Membrane there is something called so it's
927
00:58:58,126 --> 00:59:00,766
made by the company schluter troba which is a
928
00:59:00,766 --> 00:59:03,646
thick kind of dimple membrane that allows
929
00:59:03,646 --> 00:59:07,926
if any water gets down there it allows it to drain out and then there's another
930
00:59:07,926 --> 00:59:13,226
then there's lightweight concrete or normal concrete to make the slope and then
931
00:59:13,226 --> 00:59:18,086
we have detra which is the one used in bathrooms yeah so they're decoupling
932
00:59:18,086 --> 00:59:23,426
membranes so that nothing will break or freeze or whatever. I just did a CEU and flew around.
933
00:59:23,766 --> 00:59:27,626
So, yeah, it was a lot of, that was a lot. And it was really hard to explain.
934
00:59:27,786 --> 00:59:30,286
No one had used. That is a lot of layers.
935
00:59:30,686 --> 00:59:33,746
It's a lot of layers, but the tile setters were like, oh, I don't know about
936
00:59:33,746 --> 00:59:35,786
this. And they're all, everyone was afraid to do it.
937
00:59:35,826 --> 00:59:41,046
So did you, did you kind of have to be here on site when that was happening to make sure that it was?
938
00:59:41,466 --> 00:59:45,326
Yeah. So, I mean, this took a lot of time from my office too.
939
00:59:45,326 --> 00:59:53,566
Like i would be here and then like we'd drive from toronto get here at 80 30 and then like leave.
940
00:59:55,103 --> 00:59:57,803
You know, leave and go back, but someone else from the office will come another
941
00:59:57,803 --> 01:00:00,263
day. Yeah. So there's a lot of up and down.
942
01:00:00,503 --> 01:00:07,003
It's what got the job done quick, for sure. I think there was a getting local
943
01:00:07,003 --> 01:00:10,323
trades on your timeline was not easy, right?
944
01:00:10,383 --> 01:00:12,963
And that's, I don't want to trash any local trades.
945
01:00:13,103 --> 01:00:17,943
But I think that people, sometimes when they're building a new build house,
946
01:00:18,003 --> 01:00:21,563
they don't realize how big the job is, and people will travel.
947
01:00:21,723 --> 01:00:24,983
So we found we started to look for people
948
01:00:24,983 --> 01:00:28,643
areas like berry and even for
949
01:00:28,643 --> 01:00:31,563
the south new market because those people would be useful
950
01:00:31,563 --> 01:00:34,343
to us in the city also like they will travel you could build a
951
01:00:34,343 --> 01:00:37,263
connection with them yeah and it's just like you're not you may not find the
952
01:00:37,263 --> 01:00:40,003
people or like just this floor like at the time
953
01:00:40,003 --> 01:00:42,703
no one up here had done a floor with that size of
954
01:00:42,703 --> 01:00:45,423
tile like they they were all afraid of it i
955
01:00:45,423 --> 01:00:48,263
want to say we talked to like 17 different
956
01:00:48,263 --> 01:00:50,943
tile setters it was insane in the end the guys that did
957
01:00:50,943 --> 01:00:53,803
it were were great guy from barry did a
958
01:00:53,803 --> 01:00:56,663
good job scale time no i there people were afraid
959
01:00:56,663 --> 01:00:59,423
of it right but who's so so you can't make
960
01:00:59,423 --> 01:01:02,243
someone do something they haven't done and you kind of don't want them to
961
01:01:02,243 --> 01:01:04,943
yeah so i think also you know we
962
01:01:04,943 --> 01:01:10,003
tend to we use obviously a lot of local trades but we also do bring people from
963
01:01:10,003 --> 01:01:13,683
the city for certain things because it's like a known quantity they've done
964
01:01:13,683 --> 01:01:18,883
it before and it's i think timelines are important because you know this is
965
01:01:18,883 --> 01:01:22,043
a joke always about hunting season and don't look for someone after November
966
01:01:22,043 --> 01:01:24,523
1st, et cetera, but... It's kind of true.
967
01:01:24,843 --> 01:01:28,183
You know, but there is a rhythm and I think, you know, and I can't say some
968
01:01:28,183 --> 01:01:30,163
of the jobs we have that people are amazing and.
969
01:01:30,761 --> 01:01:33,701
Right super organized but it's just i think
970
01:01:33,701 --> 01:01:36,701
you have to spread your wings a bit when you're building something that's custom made
971
01:01:36,701 --> 01:01:39,821
and look for different people with
972
01:01:39,821 --> 01:01:43,121
different skills different places they will try yeah and then
973
01:01:43,121 --> 01:01:46,381
how long did the process take i
974
01:01:46,381 --> 01:01:49,321
guess from start to finish like from when you purchased the
975
01:01:49,321 --> 01:01:52,721
property until when it was completed yeah so we purchased um
976
01:01:52,721 --> 01:01:56,681
i think it closed august 1 and we like
977
01:01:56,681 --> 01:01:59,561
the closing day is interviewing people with the road to
978
01:01:59,561 --> 01:02:02,321
build the road in and clear the lot so we
979
01:02:02,321 --> 01:02:05,081
got a few prices on that we had guys so in the fall they were
980
01:02:05,081 --> 01:02:07,881
cutting the trees they cleared the lot in a really
981
01:02:07,881 --> 01:02:10,781
rough way like i mean there were no trees but it was you
982
01:02:10,781 --> 01:02:14,461
know so that was all done by october
983
01:02:14,461 --> 01:02:17,321
and we shut it down and then we wanted to start right
984
01:02:17,321 --> 01:02:21,281
away in the spring but realistically i think it was like may 15th so
985
01:02:21,281 --> 01:02:24,101
we started and things went you
986
01:02:24,101 --> 01:02:27,161
know something always goes wrong but i
987
01:02:27,161 --> 01:02:30,481
had to fire the framing crew they drove me completely crazy
988
01:02:30,481 --> 01:02:33,581
but it happened because you said this place is conventionally framed
989
01:02:33,581 --> 01:02:36,341
with it's yeah yeah it looks like a steel house
990
01:02:36,341 --> 01:02:41,561
but it's yeah the timber trusses are real and they do their structural job but
991
01:02:41,561 --> 01:02:49,181
they sit on posts right yeah would not steal so then i think the first time
992
01:02:49,181 --> 01:02:54,721
we stayed here was the weekend before Easter of the next spring.
993
01:02:54,901 --> 01:02:58,861
And that was... Really? Yeah. My partner wanted to have things.
994
01:03:01,388 --> 01:03:04,608
No and he was just like he goes and now he
995
01:03:04,608 --> 01:03:08,028
knows he sees me so fast he sees people building
996
01:03:08,028 --> 01:03:10,668
now and he goes oh my god i can't believe how fast that was
997
01:03:10,668 --> 01:03:14,308
we have project the project in nova scotia i was talking about they started
998
01:03:14,308 --> 01:03:20,448
building in 2019 and just finished it really yeah no i mean i know there are
999
01:03:20,448 --> 01:03:24,048
houses up here there's a spectacular house here and it took them eight years
1000
01:03:24,048 --> 01:03:29,008
to build it but when you go in the house you know why yeah anyways this was efficient yes So,
1001
01:03:29,128 --> 01:03:32,408
I think the first weekend we stayed, there were no kitchen counters.
1002
01:03:32,588 --> 01:03:36,408
But Easter weekend, like we cooked in the oven. So, it was like.
1003
01:03:36,868 --> 01:03:43,788
Oh, my gosh. So, that's like one year. Yeah. So, I mean, let's say not 100% finished. Yeah.
1004
01:03:44,388 --> 01:03:49,428
Then I'd come up here and work on weekends or maybe come up on the Friday and work with the guys.
1005
01:03:49,628 --> 01:03:53,228
And then it just got really a grind.
1006
01:03:53,308 --> 01:03:56,308
So, I stopped working during the summer.
1007
01:03:56,308 --> 01:03:59,208
So i want to say maybe the fireplaces weren't
1008
01:03:59,208 --> 01:04:02,128
like casing for an install right and then
1009
01:04:02,128 --> 01:04:04,888
we just it was just really hard to get people so
1010
01:04:04,888 --> 01:04:07,988
we just organized these days and it was like every two or
1011
01:04:07,988 --> 01:04:10,728
three weeks we'd have a work day and most people
1012
01:04:10,728 --> 01:04:13,588
in the office came plus we'd have
1013
01:04:13,588 --> 01:04:16,768
like i don't four carpenters plus some
1014
01:04:16,768 --> 01:04:20,248
local people and we'd have like 10 or 12 people here but
1015
01:04:20,248 --> 01:04:23,528
8 a.m to 8 p.m right and then do
1016
01:04:23,528 --> 01:04:26,448
nothing for two weeks right and we did four of those days
1017
01:04:26,448 --> 01:04:32,568
over the fall and it was 100 done so christmas i remember christmas that year
1018
01:04:32,568 --> 01:04:38,008
it was like there is nothing left to do wow i mean you still yeah i want to
1019
01:04:38,008 --> 01:04:42,568
move art around and stuff but it was all furnished and everything right so that
1020
01:04:42,568 --> 01:04:45,368
is quick that is yeah yeah that is good timing yeah yeah.
1021
01:04:46,362 --> 01:04:50,282
That's amazing. I feel like we don't have too many more questions for you.
1022
01:04:50,322 --> 01:04:53,902
Honestly, is there anything else you wanted to talk about or bring up about
1023
01:04:53,902 --> 01:04:55,662
the design or the landscape?
1024
01:04:56,442 --> 01:05:00,542
I think, well, we were talking about this a bit early, but I think the aspect
1025
01:05:00,542 --> 01:05:04,562
of, and maybe it was in one of those articles, the fine home building article
1026
01:05:04,562 --> 01:05:10,962
about aging, getting older in a cottage, building a house for at that chapter of your life.
1027
01:05:10,962 --> 01:05:13,702
I think i think that's a really
1028
01:05:13,702 --> 01:05:16,642
interesting thing and we have a lot of clients that have come to us at
1029
01:05:16,642 --> 01:05:19,742
the same point there it's also at the point that people have the resources
1030
01:05:19,742 --> 01:05:22,962
to do it but you definitely i
1031
01:05:22,962 --> 01:05:26,242
think cottage country you definitely.
1032
01:05:26,242 --> 01:05:29,002
Have to do a lot to make it easy to live in i mean
1033
01:05:29,002 --> 01:05:31,882
i always thought of this place like you don't really have
1034
01:05:31,882 --> 01:05:34,682
to go up and down the stairs in fact we often just walk out the front
1035
01:05:34,682 --> 01:05:37,662
door and down we have a driveway that goes around the lake side too so
1036
01:05:37,662 --> 01:05:40,462
we just naturally walk that way and that's a
1037
01:05:40,462 --> 01:05:43,602
lot easier when you're older yeah more like a gradual slow yeah
1038
01:05:43,602 --> 01:05:46,622
i think there are it's pretty remote here
1039
01:05:46,622 --> 01:05:50,662
in the winter we have elderly neighbors that are here all the time it
1040
01:05:50,662 --> 01:05:53,682
it feels remote it's 15 minutes to
1041
01:05:53,682 --> 01:05:56,822
like a little little tiny town yeah like to midland or
1042
01:05:56,822 --> 01:06:00,042
uh to la fontaine yeah because midland would be like another it's
1043
01:06:00,042 --> 01:06:03,862
probably almost half an hour yeah 25 minutes maybe yeah but
1044
01:06:03,862 --> 01:06:06,642
you know when i come here i like like i stayed up
1045
01:06:06,642 --> 01:06:09,302
here for a week i don't even i mean i'll go in the boat somewhere but i'm
1046
01:06:09,302 --> 01:06:12,002
not going like i don't have a reason to go
1047
01:06:12,002 --> 01:06:14,662
to town right this is great yeah i think it's
1048
01:06:14,662 --> 01:06:17,522
like a little remote place but i think i think
1049
01:06:17,522 --> 01:06:20,342
as you get older or thinking about as you're getting older how are you going
1050
01:06:20,342 --> 01:06:24,102
to be able to maximize the enjoyment a lot of the things i thought about were
1051
01:06:24,102 --> 01:06:29,922
there's that cottage country i'm in the water i'm jumping off the dock i'm doing
1052
01:06:29,922 --> 01:06:33,582
that but you know i remember my grandparents they would sit and look at things
1053
01:06:33,582 --> 01:06:36,542
you know i mean they were outside, they wouldn't necessarily go swimming.
1054
01:06:36,762 --> 01:06:40,002
Yeah. So, I think you have to kind of think as, you know, you don't have to always –.
1055
01:06:40,907 --> 01:06:43,867
I think there's ways to enjoy the place and making it easy
1056
01:06:43,867 --> 01:06:46,647
to use yeah and i mean there's so many ways to
1057
01:06:46,647 --> 01:06:49,527
do that with the design for aging in place just like
1058
01:06:49,527 --> 01:06:52,367
keeping everything level like you
1059
01:06:52,367 --> 01:06:55,187
could like live on this one floor pretty much yeah and
1060
01:06:55,187 --> 01:06:59,307
we do like between our bedroom and this big room look that's
1061
01:06:59,307 --> 01:07:02,127
where we are yeah it's and and because of
1062
01:07:02,127 --> 01:07:04,967
that the heating system zone too so you you know
1063
01:07:04,967 --> 01:07:07,647
you keep the heat on minimal in the guest room right so you're
1064
01:07:07,647 --> 01:07:10,847
not heating the entire house all the time the same exactly i think
1065
01:07:10,847 --> 01:07:14,007
another thing about that like in a sense getting older
1066
01:07:14,007 --> 01:07:17,227
is having the heated floors is an amazing
1067
01:07:17,227 --> 01:07:22,747
feeling you just feel comfortable a lot of older people get cold i'm not i'm
1068
01:07:22,747 --> 01:07:26,267
not getting old fast but i just feel i wanted to do something where i don't
1069
01:07:26,267 --> 01:07:29,307
have to think of it for sure and i think that ties into like the low maintenance
1070
01:07:29,307 --> 01:07:33,427
like you said everything oh what was the roof that was the other thing the roof
1071
01:07:33,427 --> 01:07:36,707
is it's also Also by Vic West, it's this exact same material.
1072
01:07:36,947 --> 01:07:42,567
So it's a matte finish. And it's, so what we usually do, it's a standing seam roof.
1073
01:07:43,147 --> 01:07:47,507
But some of those ones, they have kind of dimples or ridges between that don't
1074
01:07:47,507 --> 01:07:48,767
look as good. You have to be really careful.
1075
01:07:48,887 --> 01:07:53,287
So it almost looks like a custom made standing seam roof, but it's not. I'll take a look.
1076
01:07:53,487 --> 01:07:57,427
Yeah. So sometimes you'll see them, they have the standing seam,
1077
01:07:57,507 --> 01:07:58,927
but they have these little bumps. Yes.
1078
01:07:59,167 --> 01:08:01,727
And especially when they're shiny, they look a little ugly, if you ask me.
1079
01:08:02,167 --> 01:08:07,187
No, I agree. so this one has the standing seam and then it has is it flat yeah
1080
01:08:07,187 --> 01:08:12,567
I think it's 16 inches okay yeah so the whole house is all the same color yeah
1081
01:08:12,567 --> 01:08:14,687
and you haven't had any issues with that no,
1082
01:08:15,206 --> 01:08:18,386
that's that's probably the most sustainable yeah i
1083
01:08:18,386 --> 01:08:21,906
mean it has as the house goes up it has a peel
1084
01:08:21,906 --> 01:08:25,166
and stick membrane goes on the plywood roof so that's
1085
01:08:25,166 --> 01:08:30,026
a high heat membrane blue and that's on right away so the house is dry right
1086
01:08:30,026 --> 01:08:35,586
so you actually have two layers okay here we go the other things like so if
1087
01:08:35,586 --> 01:08:40,186
you look on your way we built this big shroud i call it a shroud but it's It's
1088
01:08:40,186 --> 01:08:42,266
a big enclosure around the chimneys.
1089
01:08:42,526 --> 01:08:46,826
Okay. So it's like a big gray box. It's custom colored and made,
1090
01:08:46,966 --> 01:08:48,826
lifted in place with a crane.
1091
01:08:48,946 --> 01:08:52,406
But that goes on top of the house just so you don't have those little silver
1092
01:08:52,406 --> 01:08:53,586
things sticking out all over.
1093
01:08:53,746 --> 01:08:58,626
Oh, okay. We also put, sorry, but that's back with the dog. It's okay.
1094
01:08:59,186 --> 01:09:05,046
So we also put conduit up there for, I mean, if it was impossible to put any
1095
01:09:05,046 --> 01:09:08,766
kind of solar panel here, because the forest is basically just like the south light.
1096
01:09:08,766 --> 01:09:11,506
But if there's any technology you want anything you want to do yeah
1097
01:09:11,506 --> 01:09:14,986
you have it open yeah for here yeah for sure yeah
1098
01:09:14,986 --> 01:09:18,146
unfortunately not facing the right way for that yeah
1099
01:09:18,146 --> 01:09:23,926
and so i guess you're on you're on hydro here then yeah yeah that makes sense
1100
01:09:23,926 --> 01:09:28,346
yeah i know i've interviewed some people where they're you know so remote on
1101
01:09:28,346 --> 01:09:33,206
georgian bay and then they their only option is to do solar or oh yeah for sure
1102
01:09:33,206 --> 01:09:38,066
for sure yeah i think any house like this you have to have a generator like it's It's just you,
1103
01:09:38,206 --> 01:09:41,506
it can happen and it can happen fast.
1104
01:09:41,606 --> 01:09:43,846
So I think you have to have. So you've got a generator. Yeah.
1105
01:09:44,886 --> 01:09:49,126
Well, awesome. I, the only other things that I have are my ending questions
1106
01:09:49,126 --> 01:09:55,626
and that's just kind of what are some exciting things that you've got coming up or future projects?
1107
01:09:56,786 --> 01:10:02,046
So this project has kind of led to others and I was showing you the development
1108
01:10:02,046 --> 01:10:05,226
of an idea, how it changed and they're totally different houses.
1109
01:10:05,226 --> 01:10:09,526
We took a lot of inspiration from this one, though. Yeah, so you start with something.
1110
01:10:09,846 --> 01:10:14,886
So we have one under construction, which is like three gables on a hill,
1111
01:10:15,006 --> 01:10:19,286
cottage, for a family with three boys in Minden area.
1112
01:10:20,206 --> 01:10:23,486
We finished a project in Prince Edward County, and I'm really excited.
1113
01:10:23,686 --> 01:10:27,806
This is one of my favorite things to do, is the clients asked us to come back,
1114
01:10:28,006 --> 01:10:31,466
meaning I have new clients that we're going to start on their waterfront property
1115
01:10:31,466 --> 01:10:34,386
down there, and we're going to go visit the house that's finished.
1116
01:10:34,386 --> 01:10:38,046
But I really love going back after six months to a year because I can,
1117
01:10:38,146 --> 01:10:42,966
I think you just have the perspective, whereas you've dealt with all the problems,
1118
01:10:43,046 --> 01:10:45,246
you've dealt with all the hassles. Sometimes going to the site visits,
1119
01:10:45,326 --> 01:10:46,826
it's just like, oh, now there's a thing.
1120
01:10:46,986 --> 01:10:50,306
Yeah. But you actually have time to just visit it as another person,
1121
01:10:50,366 --> 01:10:52,206
which I love doing. As a guest.
1122
01:10:52,606 --> 01:10:54,666
Yeah. And it's a great feeling.
1123
01:10:55,126 --> 01:10:58,886
Yeah. So, yeah, so there are projects like that, basically.
1124
01:10:59,417 --> 01:11:03,177
Yeah, that's so fun. And then it's just so nice to see everything finished and
1125
01:11:03,177 --> 01:11:06,657
like they're living in it and they've added their own personal touches. For sure.
1126
01:11:07,077 --> 01:11:09,997
Yeah, it'll feel more like a lived in home by that point.
1127
01:11:10,557 --> 01:11:13,917
It's interesting how people do live in their house.
1128
01:11:13,957 --> 01:11:18,497
Like that one particular house, this couple had always had saunas on their different
1129
01:11:18,497 --> 01:11:20,737
properties and we built a sauna.
1130
01:11:20,997 --> 01:11:24,317
Yeah. Which is like, I mean, I remember once they said to me,
1131
01:11:24,337 --> 01:11:27,697
it's like, are we the crazy people to put the sauna beside the front door?
1132
01:11:27,697 --> 01:11:33,557
But it's this really cool thing it has a view to the west as the sun goes down
1133
01:11:33,557 --> 01:11:38,037
away from the lake but you as the sun's going down the winter you can see the
1134
01:11:38,037 --> 01:11:41,617
sunset from the sauna which i just thought was a cool thing to you know but
1135
01:11:41,617 --> 01:11:46,557
it's unconventional yeah but it's you know so people,
1136
01:11:47,097 --> 01:11:51,257
have these needs and ideas that they would do that i don't think many people
1137
01:11:51,257 --> 01:11:53,557
in toronto are We're going to build a sauna beside the front door.
1138
01:11:54,297 --> 01:11:56,637
A bit of a different privacy issue.
1139
01:11:57,497 --> 01:12:02,937
That's true, yeah. Like, hey, neighbor. Just getting in my sauna. Oh, that's so funny.
1140
01:12:03,737 --> 01:12:06,577
Yeah. Is there anything else you wanted to mention or talk about?
1141
01:12:07,297 --> 01:12:11,277
No, I'm interested in what you're going to do. Are you going to do next season
1142
01:12:11,277 --> 01:12:12,997
on this? Do you have another mission?
1143
01:12:13,457 --> 01:12:16,377
I don't have another mission yet. This one's still going strong.
1144
01:12:16,577 --> 01:12:20,637
I'm still really excited about this season. So I'm still, I know I talked to
1145
01:12:20,637 --> 01:12:21,557
you about some more topics.
1146
01:12:21,777 --> 01:12:26,397
That I'm pursuing like more talking to the townships about what their what their
1147
01:12:26,397 --> 01:12:29,757
plans are for for zoning and restrictions and that type of thing so I think
1148
01:12:29,757 --> 01:12:34,497
once I kind of speak to everyone that I have on my list to talk to like I've
1149
01:12:34,497 --> 01:12:38,237
I'm talking to architects other designers landscapers.
1150
01:12:38,937 --> 01:12:41,717
Builders yeah just to kind of get perspectives from
1151
01:12:41,717 --> 01:12:44,617
everyone yeah that's been really great but then I think
1152
01:12:44,617 --> 01:12:47,737
I've also talked to someone from the archipelago township but
1153
01:12:47,737 --> 01:12:50,937
it'd be nice to talk to more townships as well yeah
1154
01:12:50,937 --> 01:12:54,057
that would be kind of the next phase maybe
1155
01:12:54,057 --> 01:12:57,077
that could be its own season i'm not sure yeah
1156
01:12:57,077 --> 01:13:00,197
this one's still going no it's like the regulatory bodies and
1157
01:13:00,197 --> 01:13:03,137
yes it's happening like here in tiny township is
1158
01:13:03,137 --> 01:13:06,057
75 kilometers of waterfront but they
1159
01:13:06,057 --> 01:13:09,177
they now have this kind of moratorium on structures between
1160
01:13:09,177 --> 01:13:12,597
the house and the water only because say
1161
01:13:12,597 --> 01:13:15,477
the high water years years on the beaches people were
1162
01:13:15,477 --> 01:13:18,317
building stairs and all kinds of landscaping and then the water
1163
01:13:18,317 --> 01:13:21,137
would come up and just throw the stuff everywhere right and like
1164
01:13:21,137 --> 01:13:23,957
then what's that doing it's just being yeah and then that becomes a public
1165
01:13:23,957 --> 01:13:26,937
liability right so they're but every place is
1166
01:13:26,937 --> 01:13:32,097
different i think yeah yeah i'll probably focus more on the archipelago and
1167
01:13:32,097 --> 01:13:35,837
georgian bay township because that's just where i spend the most time but i
1168
01:13:35,837 --> 01:13:39,497
mean there's so many other townships and specifically muskoka too would be good
1169
01:13:39,497 --> 01:13:46,457
to talk about oh muskoka there's a lot of things that happen here like that I went to summer camp.
1170
01:13:47,822 --> 01:13:50,902
Worked at a summer camp in Northern Lake Joseph. Okay. Where about?
1171
01:13:51,062 --> 01:13:54,522
It's called Akon. It's a Jesuit camp. And it's the old Stanley House,
1172
01:13:54,582 --> 01:13:56,622
which was an old hotel. So Stanley House Road.
1173
01:13:57,002 --> 01:13:59,082
It is the old Stanley House.
1174
01:13:59,882 --> 01:14:04,062
That place used to be like, it was like Northern Georgian Bay,
1175
01:14:04,242 --> 01:14:06,062
Northern Lake Joseph. Like it was just bush.
1176
01:14:06,342 --> 01:14:10,402
And we'd go on camping trips. And now when I go to see where we went,
1177
01:14:10,502 --> 01:14:14,982
there's like, you know, like a 20,000 square foot house there on top of the cliffs.
1178
01:14:15,082 --> 01:14:18,642
There's houses on top of every bloody cliff. The places no one would ever go.
1179
01:14:18,902 --> 01:14:23,122
But I was really surprised I went back there last year. I went to Northern La
1180
01:14:23,122 --> 01:14:25,902
Grasso for an island job, actually.
1181
01:14:26,402 --> 01:14:30,502
The client bought the end of a peninsula and then bought the island in front.
1182
01:14:31,082 --> 01:14:33,222
So that would be an interesting job also. Yeah.
1183
01:14:34,422 --> 01:14:38,462
And I went back. I was early. So I went back to the camp, walked around like
1184
01:14:38,462 --> 01:14:40,422
end of October. It was a beautiful day.
1185
01:14:40,762 --> 01:14:44,042
But I hadn't been there for like 40 years. but
1186
01:14:44,042 --> 01:14:46,822
i was it was so weird because things that you thought
1187
01:14:46,822 --> 01:14:49,762
were really long distance like i remember there was some task
1188
01:14:49,762 --> 01:14:54,182
to swim to this peninsula and then you go there you go that is nothing like
1189
01:14:54,182 --> 01:14:58,322
compared to georgia bay that's like so everything's so small same thing it's
1190
01:14:58,322 --> 01:15:02,502
still really beautiful there but the development has been kind of out of control
1191
01:15:02,502 --> 01:15:06,942
in my opinion you know it's just kind of busy so i guess i'll just say thank
1192
01:15:06,942 --> 01:15:09,682
you thank you for coming out here it's It's a long drive.
1193
01:15:09,782 --> 01:15:14,022
No, but it's such a nice drive. So I love coming and seeing the different areas
1194
01:15:14,022 --> 01:15:16,082
because I never really, I never
1195
01:15:16,082 --> 01:15:19,342
really spent too much time here in the southern part of Georgian Bay.
1196
01:15:19,782 --> 01:15:23,922
It's a funny area because it's like you're not driving through forests as much.
1197
01:15:23,942 --> 01:15:25,402
You're driving through farmland. No, you're driving through farms.
1198
01:15:25,442 --> 01:15:28,762
And then all of a sudden you land here and I'm like, oh, now we're back in the forest.
1199
01:15:29,082 --> 01:15:31,642
Yeah. And it's this area. There is...
1200
01:15:32,410 --> 01:15:39,610
Tiny Township, I think, is all basically cottages on the 75 kilometers of waterfront.
1201
01:15:40,010 --> 01:15:43,990
There's no industry. There's farming and that's it. Like there's nothing else here.
1202
01:15:44,370 --> 01:15:49,270
Yeah. A lot of little towns. That was actually funny because I've only been
1203
01:15:49,270 --> 01:15:51,190
to like Midland very occasionally.
1204
01:15:51,250 --> 01:15:54,950
And then I was like, oh, I've never like driven down this peninsula.
1205
01:15:55,610 --> 01:16:00,270
And I was surprised by how much was just farm country.
1206
01:16:00,270 --> 01:16:03,490
But like you were saying with that window when you're
1207
01:16:03,490 --> 01:16:06,810
driving kind of towards whatever road
1208
01:16:06,810 --> 01:16:10,630
is perpendicular to the lake yeah you really
1209
01:16:10,630 --> 01:16:13,470
get like a clear shot of the lake and the mountains and behind
1210
01:16:13,470 --> 01:16:18,070
kind of elevated because it's a bit yeah yeah hilly and yeah those views were
1211
01:16:18,070 --> 01:16:22,250
stunning and you were saying kind of that window you have in that stairwell
1212
01:16:22,250 --> 01:16:26,730
yeah there's different turns you take on the way here and you just see the road
1213
01:16:26,730 --> 01:16:30,410
the cut through the trees and you see the of blue water and maybe a piece of
1214
01:16:30,410 --> 01:16:32,670
an island so i wanted to kind of reproduce that in the hall,
1215
01:16:33,290 --> 01:16:36,150
it's just there's this other huge hemlock tree that we
1216
01:16:36,150 --> 01:16:38,870
kept that ends up lining up with
1217
01:16:38,870 --> 01:16:45,450
it yeah yeah it's kind of perfect though i love it okay well i think we can
1218
01:16:45,450 --> 01:16:49,630
shut down the interview for now but yeah thank you so so much for like showing
1219
01:16:49,630 --> 01:16:52,910
me around and showing me all your details no it's been enjoyable thanks for
1220
01:16:52,910 --> 01:16:57,610
coming it's great conversation it's always fun to share things things with other designers.
1221
01:16:57,870 --> 01:17:02,350
So I just really appreciate you being so open. So thank you so much.
1222
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:12,560
Music.
1223
01:17:09,730 --> 01:17:14,370
Thank you so, so much for listening to this week's episode.
1224
01:17:14,610 --> 01:17:18,870
I so appreciate every single listener that tunes in, every single reader that
1225
01:17:18,870 --> 01:17:20,890
reads the blog, rewinddesign.ca.
1226
01:17:21,190 --> 01:17:25,630
The The best thing you can do for me to support me in this journey is to either
1227
01:17:25,630 --> 01:17:30,110
follow along on Spotify, Apple Music, or whichever platform you listen to.
1228
01:17:30,170 --> 01:17:31,150
Click that follow button.
1229
01:17:31,290 --> 01:17:35,090
The second best thing you can do is share this podcast to your friends and family.
1230
01:17:35,150 --> 01:17:38,690
If anyone you know might be interested, just forward this along to them and
1231
01:17:38,690 --> 01:17:41,610
tell them to take a listen or take a peek at my website.
1232
01:17:41,890 --> 01:17:46,710
And if you're interested in supporting me further, I also have a Patreon account
1233
01:17:46,710 --> 01:17:50,230
where where you can donate $5 a month to the podcast.
1234
01:17:50,570 --> 01:17:53,870
And a portion of that will also go to the Georgian Bay Land Trust.
1235
01:17:53,970 --> 01:17:59,010
And that is patreon.com slash rewinddesign. No pressure to do any of that.
1236
01:17:59,150 --> 01:18:02,930
I am just so happy if you're listening to this and if you love cottage country
1237
01:18:02,930 --> 01:18:05,550
and Georgian Bay and Muskoka as much as I do.
1238
01:18:05,650 --> 01:18:08,850
So thank you again so much and stay tuned for another episode.
1239
01:18:12,080 --> 01:18:22,407
Music.