Imagining the Gazebo Deck

Here is the view from the garden door on the main floor. Put your imagination cap on and you can see [well I can... ;-) ] the deck for the gazebo, and just over the hand railing I can see the top of our bunkie, or guest cottage. The rough opening for the gazebo is shown below.





The Bunkie is were the project manager and the project cook ( his wife) call home at the end of a construction day. Just in front of it (to the the left of the picture you can just see the front of the outhouse.

Imagining the View!

During a break in framing, we marveled of the view to come while standing in front of the framed wall on the lakeside.

The discussion quickly focused on the need for two trees that needed to come down -- once we have the cottage and deck built of course.


It was a fresh feeling standing on the floor, at over a story high and out of the basement or previously the excavation. The breeze was a nice change from the opr4ssive heat we had experienced the past 2 weekends.

My Pal: Einstein

Along the way I came to have a companion - a Jack Russell - the smartest of all dogs I have ever met.

He came by his name honestly. Einstein was one smart man's best friend! Many a time he was my lone companion as I toiled at the cottage lot, and so he gets a post all to himself.

A faithful companion he was ever so helpful. I mean not in the "holding that board while a cut it", or "steadying the ladder so I don't fall", kind of help.

No, he helped in his own, more useful, canine way, like only Einstein could help.

Like helping to find shade...














Or keeping the ladies entertained...


















I'll miss him!

In the Beginning: Clearing the Lot

I purchased the lot way back in November 1989, and was full of energy to get the project started. The cottage project that is...

First came the clearing, which took a full summer of off and on. There seemed to be a lot more black flies then...

I had purchased my first chainsaw - I own two of them now!

Then hockey happened! With two sons in competitive hockey, a growing career and the dream of the cottage took the back seat.


It wasn't until ten years latter that the project got started again. Of course the lot was overgrown again by then so more clearing needed to be done. With a spot cleared, at the top or as I call it 'on the edge' then I hired a feller with a bulldozer and a dump truck to cut a driveway in from the road, and to clear and level where the cottage would go.

And the first thing I bought and built for the lot... You guessed it -- a picnic table!

More stories from the beginning, coming next!
(I have to fill the time while I wait for quotes, estimates and that darn snow to melt!)

Seeing is knowing... the power of 3D CAD

I am using a great CAD package called Punch! Professional Home Design Suite. Although it is inexpensive, it is pretty darn powerful for $69.95... (CAD == Computer-aided Design)

This CAD software lets you design all of the critical components for your home or in my case cottage. It includes foundations, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, custom windows, roofs, decks, and more. I can position the cottage on the hill, and plant trees all around so it can be very realistic.

The neatest function is the powerful 3D graphics engine that lets you create real-time walk or fly-throughs - for a Hollywood-style voyage through your new creation! I am able to see what the inside, and outside of the cottage will look like and actually walk around and inside. This feature has turned out to be invaluable in designing the layout for the basement and making modifications to the layout of the main floor. I have already avoided a few design mistakes by using it!

For such a small price it is really a must for any would be cottage builder!

Punch has a few different CAD software packages, some less, some more expensive but I have found this one to be just right for my needs. You can find them all at www.punchsoftware.com.

The Perfect Design

The cottage will be truly 'on the edge'.

The lot is flat at the top but slopes a bit and then very sharply down to the lake. In fact the steps, already built, down to the lake number 104. So the cottage design we were looking had to fit that shape of the lot.

We settled on a small one story cottage with a basement. The basement will, of course, because of the slope, be a walkout basement. In our mind's eye it fits perfectly!

I purchased the plans online from Drummond Designs Inc. They can be found at www.drumonddesigns.com. The process went smoothly, and my plans arrived in no time via the post in a big shipping tube - I received 5 sets of plans. The only thing I might have done differently is opting for the electronic version. That way I could have popped the drawings directly into the CAD package I have... But then that is a subject for another time.

It all started in 1989

Yes that was when I bought 'the Edge' on a small lake called Hughes Lake in the Province of Quebec. The start of the dream....