If you close your eyes and picture the quintessential Canadian cottage, chances are the backdrop looks a lot like Ontario’s Fox Lake. Damned at both ends, it’s the ideal tranquil lake for spending summers on the water, and it’s where Peter and Lynn Hubbard bought their first cottage in the 1980s. Two cottages, in fact. “Our four daughters were getting to the age where they wanted to go to the mall on weekends, and we thought it would be better for them to spend summers at a cottage,” Peter says. “So we started looking, and we found something unusual and unique in that there were two buildings on one lot.”
Those side-by-side cottages were small, rustic, and heated by wood stoves. And though they required a lot of maintenance, having separate buildings made it easier to host their growing family, especially as their daughters grew up and had kids of their own. “It was perfect for sharing time at the cottage with everyone,” Lynn says.
Spending summers with their daughters and their families without cramming everyone into the same space may have brought the Hubbards to Fox Lake, but the community of cottagers along the lake made it feel like home. “The people on the lake are what we love about it the most,” Peter says. And of course, friendly neighbours are helpful when you’re not always there to check up on things. “Everyone on Fox Lake watches out for each other,” Lynn adds.
It was three years ago when the Hubbards received a distressing call from one of those watchful neighbours. “We were in Florida when Covid first started, and we had to come back to Canada,” Lynn explains. “On our second day home, we had a call telling us that our cottages were on fire. It was devastating.” The blaze, believed by investigators to have sparked from dry leaves, claimed both cottages, but it also gave the Hubbards a chance to rethink their property and upgrade according to their changing needs. “The original two cottages had no foundations or basements. They were just on stilts,” Peter says. “They had wood stoves and single-pane windows that were all different sizes, because the guy who built them just used whatever he had at the time.”
While the couple might remember the cottages’ rustic charm fondly, they weren’t thrilled about all the upkeep. “Our daughter Marcia, who partnered in it with us, lives in England, so she’s only here for four or five weeks a year,” Peter explains. “That meant we had to maintain two cottages. So they decided to upgrade by downsizing. Instead of rebuilding the two cottages they’d lost, they chose to build one much bigger cottage that catered exactly to how they and their daughters spent their time at the lake.
Petit Soleil
With that plan in mind, they started the process of finding a builder, and they landed on Beaver Homes & Cottages. “We went to several places for ideas and to learn about building, but we were happiest with Beaver. They were the most accommodating, and they gave us everything we wanted,” Lynn says. “I was amazed that the others just wanted to sell us a package and wash their hands of everything else,” says Peter. “ They would offer you a kit or blueprint, but they wouldn’t take it any further. You’d have to find your own contractor, your own excavating company, and your own framers. Beaver Homes & Cottages was the only partner who said they’d be with us the whole way.”
After meeting with James Simpson, the Beaver Homes & Cottages Design Consultant at Rolston Home Building Centre in Huntsville, Ont., the Hubbards knew they were in good hands. “My job is to help our clients move through the building process as stress-free as possible,” says James. “I break things down into bite-size pieces, because building a house can be a huge, overwhelming task. And they might go through that only once or twice in their lives, whereas my team and I have helped hundreds of people do it.”
That expert guidance was just what the Hubbards needed. “James said he would take it from start to finish with us just being on the sidelines,” Peter says. “He advised us through the process, and he arranged the carpenters, the plumbers, the electricians—all of it. That’s exactly what we were looking for: someone to say, let us take care of the building process so you can enjoy it.”
With James’s help—and at the suggestion of their daughter Marcia, who used Beaver Homes & Cottages’ online tools to peruse the different models—they settled on the Petit Soleil for its spacious layout and massive wall of lake-facing windows. It was a perfect fit for their property, but the couple wanted to tweak the design to maximize its hosting potential. First up was moving the main entrance so that it faced the road, and modifying the third bedroom on the main floor to a staircase leading to the basement, which they knew they’d be finishing to accommodate their family. Those changes made the spacious kitchen even bigger, which was crucial for their hosting needs. “Sometimes there are twenty-two of us sitting down for dinner, so the bigger the kitchen, the better,” Peter explains. They also added a kitchenette downstairs for whichever of their daughter’s families would be staying.
While the Hubbards mostly wanted to be hands-off, they were on-site at least once a week to monitor the progress, and that led to changing additional elements on the fly. That list included extending the deck, along with the overhang above it, to the entire width of the cottage for more outdoor entertaining space. In the spirit of avoiding upkeep, they also upgraded the decking material from pressure treated hardwood to composite.
James was also there to help smooth out the speed bumps that popped up during the build, like when they hit unexpected bedrock while digging the foundation. “James knew a person who could do the blasting, and they got it done right away,” Peter says. “It gave us enough rock to build all of the front retaining walls along the lake, so it ended up working out in our favour.”
The couple was also hands-on in choosing the finishing products, all of which they purchased from the Rolston Home Building Centre with the help of Laura Distasi. “She was right there with all the advice in the world, and she gave us all the time we needed to make sure we were happy with our decisions,” Peter says.
With help from James, Laura, and everyone else at the Rolston Home Building Centre, the Hubbards’ vision came to life, and their entire family couldn’t be happier with the result. “The view of the lake is incredible. It’s like you’re on holidays all the time,” says Lynn. “When it was completed, one of our grandsons walked in and said, Wow! He was in awe. And teenage boys usually don’t get impressed by stuff like that.”
