by Andris | August 28th, 2008
This project, located just south of Bancroft, Ontario was completed in the spring of 2009. It features insulated concrete wall construction, with radiant heat in both floors. Other features include tinted concrete kitchen counter and coloured concrete floors, a propane fireplace with slate surround, a complete heat recovery ventilator system throughout, and solid pine siding. The building is insured under the Tarion Home Warranty Program.
This cottage is currently on the market. Our agent, Ted Bartlett, of the Bancroft ReMax office is handling the sale. For further sale information, check out his current listings webpage at www.tedremax.com.
Difficult to get a good angle of cottage from lake side
View of cottage from lake side
View of main deck
Main washroom
Ensuite vanity
View from just inside front door
View of entry, driveway side
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by Andris | August 29th, 2006
This project was completed in the spring of 2007, just in time for the upcoming cottage season. Paudash Lake is very sought-after, and the buyers were so anxious to lock up the sale, that they bought this property before it was completed.
Among the many challenges to overcome was the following- supplying hydro to the building involved digging a trench up and over the big hill behind the cottage, which became close to 300 linear metres of buried cable. This information is meaningless, unless you consider that there was a transformer within 20 metres of the cottage, but on the neighbours’ lot. All we needed was their permission to connect to the pole…
The Paudash cottage was constructed with a hybrid of insulated concrete walls along with some traditionally framed interior walls, and hand-cut rafters, tinted concrete kitchen counters, wood siding, cedar ceilings, maple washroom counters, white oak panels salvaged from a home in High Park, and a heat recovery ventilator system, among other features.
View of cottage from driveway (lake side)
View of entrance from fire pit
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by Andris | August 13th, 2005
We won the contract to build this custom-designed cottage on a small lake just north of Bancroft, Ontario. We framed it, installed windows, siding, shingles, and left the remainder for the client to complete.
I remember the weather most of all- for an entire month, without fail, at some point during the hot sunny days, it would rain. The rain would last for no more than 10 minutes, and then the sun and the humidity would return with a vengeance. Every single day…
View of cottage toward living room area
View of cottage toward the screened-in porch
In these photos, there's not a cloud in sight...
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by Andris | April 13th, 2005
We found this building lot while completing the Viceroy project that was situated just up the road. The lot is located on Hazard Hill Rd, which is no exaggeration- it’s like driving straight down a ski hill, with the lake at the bottom. There were giant boulders lying all over the building site, and we had to clear quite a few trees and branches, just to get a view of the lake. This lake is located just west of Algonquin Park, with much of the same topography and views. A very nice area!
The black flies were just one of many challenges- there was the over-eager backhoe operator, who drove the backhoe down the hill, and almost managed to put it into the lake. The siting of this cottage was possibly the biggest challenge of all. We had to carry every single item down a narrow path, and two sets of stairs, to the building site. With generators roaring all day long, the site only became peaceful in the evenings! At the end of the day, we sold the cottage to an avid cottager, which made the challenges well worth the effort!
View of cottage from dock
View of bunkie, where we lived until the cottage had a roof
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by Andris | April 13th, 2005
We got the contract to frame this Viceroy cottage on Grass Lake, east of Burks Falls, north of Huntsville. The client bought a beautiful wooded lot, with large boulders and other natural features, and had to bulldoze much of it to accommodate the building’s foundations. It was a very uneven and rolling lot. He needed to have countless loads of topsoil trucked in, and grass seed planted to minimize erosion due to summer storms. The following photos are taken before the landscaping was complete.
View from lake side
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by Andris | March 6th, 2005
To make room for this Viceroy-designed cottage, we had to tear down the original cottage. The original had been built by family members way back in the 1950′s , and had been much-used and loved in the previous decades. The new cottage is a year-round three + bedroom cottage with an upstairs loft, two decks, a basement storage area, a wood-burning fireplace, and slate tiles through the entrance and the washrooms.
Close-up from lake side
View from driveway side- main entry
View from lake side
Part of one remaining wall at side during demolition
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by Andris | February 13th, 2005
A recently retired family friend was building his dream retirement home, and was looking to have the project framed. He was acting as his own contractor, and had assembled the insulated concrete formed foundation walls himself. The house was custom-designed, and not including the basement, the square footage totaled close to 3, 600 square feet. From cathedral ceilings, and peeled maple posts, and curved exterior walls, to multiple bedrooms, to an interior “catwalk” above the living and entrance areas, this home is truly custom-designed.
With the assistance of a friend, two of us framed this home through one of the coldest winters, with incredible accumulation of snow. Some days, we spent the entire morning just clearing snow from our work area.
View of back of garage, toward main part of house
View from driveway toward front entrance
View of framing toward cathedral ceiling in living room
View of framing from side- round kitchen/ dining area
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by Andris | August 30th, 2003
A client, who happens to be an architect, designed a new garage for his own home. It was to replace the old garage, which had been set on fire by one of the back alley firebugs that have serially burned many city garages.
Among the features of this garage/storage space, is the tinted concrete floor, and the garage door that we brought to an auto body shop, and sprayed with automotive paint. The masonry walls are built with half-height masonry blocks, as the client wanted to emphasize the horizontal mortar lines. Glass panels fill the space between the masonry walls (and garage door) and the roof. A terrific upgrade to the back alley!
View from garden
Alley view
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