We posted a photo prompt every day from June 17 to July 1 asking our audience to share a photo that coincided with the theme that day. The themes ranged from wildlife to a view of the lake to what’s grilling on the barbecue.
We were thrilled to see such amazing engagement from our audience. People sharing photo’s of their families, animals and cottages, all while using the hashtag #TimberRidgePhotoChallenge.
Each post that included our designated hashtag was counted as on entrance, there were 14 prompts in total, which means that someone could essentially enter for the giveaway 14 times.
You may be asking, “what exactly does a Timber Ridge prize pack include?” We put together a number of items that will help elevate your lake life including a s’more kit, kitchen oils and spices and fishing gear.
The winner of our contest was Jessica Wall (@jesss.wall on Instagram) who posted five photos with the Timber Photo Challenge hashtag.
Jessica’s photos were a great representation of the many memories that are made at the cottage, from playing games with the family to kayaking with friends – these really are memories that will last a lifetime.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Timber Ridge Photo Challenge and stay tuned for another giveaway soon.
Less common is an article about new cottage owners; a refreshing reminder about the value of family life spent in communion with nature.
Jason and Gerrilyn Fehr have been building cottages and homes for 15 years from their business, Timber Ridge Homes, in Mitchell, Man., near Steinbach. The company slogan is “Cottage is Family,” but until 2016 the husband/wife duo hadn’t owned a cottage themselves. That’s when they bought a tear down on the northwest side of Caddy Lake, with the intention of building a new timberframe structure and selling it right away.
But like the thousands of their neighbours on the lakes in the Whiteshell, they’ve now been bitten by cabin fever.
“What’s really nice about it is get to come here and it’s just us. There’s no interference and that’s what I love about it,” says Gerrilyn. Their business, as well as activities for their four sons, aged 8, 9, 12 and 14 — usually involving motorized vehicles — keep her and Jason busy at home.
“Cottages bring families together and memories can be made. We didn’t know how powerful that was until we (got) our own.
“Even if it is just for a couple weekends here and there, we can just be a family.
They built a beautiful cottage to foster those family connections. It took nine months to construct the three bedroom, loft-style structure from Eastern White Pine their company sources from Northwestern Ontario. Finished wood was used in the main part of the house, but the sunroom is roughshod, to give it a rustic feel.
The cottage is designed with maximum exposure to the lake. “We made it as light as we could and gained as much lake view as possible,” Jason says. Gerrilyn describes being enthralled by eagles soaring at great heights above the water in the mornings.
The Fehrs, who build between three and six cottages a year, as well as residential homes, use the cottage to showcase their business. It’s been really good for us to have something people can feel, see, touch, smell and enjoy the view.”
Before they began construction, Jason hauled in fill to raise the cottage four feet above lake level. They put in sod where their sons play catch or other games. But most often the boys head to the water, swimming, boating and kayaking from the moment they arrive. “The boys love the cottage,” Gerrilyn says. “They fish from the dock, sometimes catching five or six fish — smaller northern pike, black crappie — in only a few minutes. And they love the campfires in the evening.”
Because of other commitments, the family uses the cottage only on weekends in the summer, hoping to extend their stays in the future. But they’ve made good use of it during the past two Christmas holidays. Jason bulldozes the snow off the ice for the boys. “They’re out on the ice, skating and playing hockey,” Gerrilyn says.
The Fehrs, who build between three and six cottages a year, as well as residential homes, use the cottage to showcase their business. “We use it as a show home for our company, to give people a feel for what
timber frame is,” Jason says. “In cottage country no one has had open houses, but we do. It’s been really good for us to have something people can feel, see, touch, smell and enjoy the view.”
The open concept design provides a large family area, flanked by a comfortable kitchen. “I wanted something that was a little more modern. I wanted it to be warm and cozy and relaxing, airy without feeling too big,” Gerrilyn says of her vision for the cottage.
If the boys want some privacy, they can climb the ladder to the loft and veg out. They’re already looking ahead to when the boys are teenagers, when they’ll build a boathouse with a guest room above to give them the space they’ll need.
The design is low maintenance. To that end, they’ve used Eldarado stone and cedar shakes on the outside, and have included WiFi and air-to-air- geothermal air conditioning to make their time at the cottage comfortable and convenient.
“We’re here to chill,” Gerrilyn says. If the original idea was to flip the cottage quickly, the Fehrs are now experiencing the vision they sold to others for so long. “We exceeded our expectations,” Jason says. “We didn’t know how powerful that was until you have your own cottage. That is the truth. That is for real.”
The Hieberts welcomed their third granddaughter last year, which also marked the third summer in their all-season dream cottage at Flanders Lake. Two more additions will be celebrated this year, as daughters-in-law Carla and Debbie are expecting in July and September, respectively.
Thankfully, the 3,200-square-foot, pine-frame two-storey is double the size of the three-bedroom A-frame cottage that once stood on the site, about 60 kilometres northeast of Lac du Bonnet in Nopiming Provincial Park.
With five bedrooms and three bathrooms, there’s plenty of room for the growing family. The Hieberts’ eldest son, David, 31, and wife Carla have two daughters, four-year-old Sara and two-year-old Isabelle, along with a young bulldog named Roxie. Younger son Jordan, 29, and wife Debbie are parents to one-year-old Emily.
But space wasn’t the only consideration when they planned their new lakefront getaway. Built by Timber Ridge Homes, the cottage is made to last, with heritage features the Hieberts’ great grandchildren will appreciate one day.
There are no nails in the pine frame or in the imposing staircase that leads to the second floor. Instead, they were handcrafted with fitted dowels. Polished beams criss-cross the vaulted ceilings and walls, and one beam acts as a mantlepiece for the tall natural stone fireplace in the family room.
Most of the floors are Brazilian hardwood, valued for its beauty and durability. It darkens and takes on a reddish tint as it ages, and the fact that it’s hardy enough for carefree family living was a strong selling point.
“Especially when you’ve got little grandkids that are dropping toys and bricks and whatnot all over on it and you don’t get a chip or a dent or anything in it,” Lynn says.
Slate floors in the bathrooms and entrance hall are easy to maintain. And a rugged natural stone backsplash lends a rustic, cosy air to the spacious kitchen, which was designed for easy socializing while Lynn is cooking.
There’s seating at the kitchen island and it’s open to the dining and family rooms.
“We wanted the open-air concept where it’s inviting for everybody to come in and sit and there’s lots of room for me to work and still talk,” Lynn says. “It’s a nice place for people to sit and congregate.”
The kitchen boasts oak cabinets, and plenty of them, along with a small pantry. “This cabin is not lacking in storage space, that’s for sure,” Lynn says.
She designed the cupboards in the main bathroom, which houses Randy’s “spaceship” – an oval combination bath and shower. Some cabinets have windows so the kids can see sunscreen or any other toiletries they might need at glance. And there’s lots of open and closet storage for towels, since the cottage doesn’t have a laundry room. The master suite on the main floor has an ensuite bathroom and the third bathroom is convenient to the four bedrooms on the second floor.
Three sets of doors – off the master bedroom, the family room and a three-season room – open on to the deck, which has builtin seating, a gas fireplace and a hot tub. There are several nooks and crannies indoors and out to let everyone enjoy a bit of solitude when they want it.
“If it was just for Lynn and myself, we could have kept the other cottage, but the whole concept is to have it large enough so that everybody feels comfortable,” Randy says.
“They have enough of their own space that they’re not tripping over one another.” The detached garage is a showpiece in itself.
A former owner of Richards-Wilcox Canada, which produces garage and overhead doors, Randy still works with the company and its dealers in 42 countries so he knew what he wanted for the cottage. The side-by-side garage doors are wood with antique-style double doors that swing outward rather than roll up, and there’s a decorative gable window above each door.
“I wanted something that was rustic looking, something that fit more in the environment,” Randy says.
“There’s a little bit of maintenance to them. You have to stain them, but I don’t mind doing that. To me that’s relaxing actually – it’s part of my therapy.”
The house and garage take up much of the half-acre lot, and since the lake is in the Canadian Shield the land doesn’t lend itself to gardening, which is a bit ironic since David and Jordan run the family-owned Lacoste Garden Centre in Winnipeg.
But natural landscaping with low-maintenance, slow-growing fescue grass fits the character of the home. Containers on the deck will be planted with flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Landscaping projects started last fall with large stone steps laid from the deck to the dock and crushed black granite on the driveway.
While some cottagers like to head south in the winter, the Hieberts, again, bucked convention. “We’re probably the opposite,” Randy says. “I like ice-fishing, I like snowmobiling, I like working outside. And then you come in in the evening and you feel tired. You feel good.
And then you barbecue and you have some wine or something like that and to me there’s nothing more relaxing.”
Until the early ’90s, the family had a cottage on an island at Lake of the Woods, but winter access was too difficult. The last straw came one Friday night, when the Hieberts were driving to the cottage on a winter road for the weekend.
“All of a sudden we saw this snowmobile go whipping by us and we recognized he was one of our neighbours, and he turned around and his arms were waving at us,” Randy says.
“We tried to stop and kept sliding and sliding and skidded. He came up beside us and he said probably about half a mile up the road the ice road gave way. We would have driven right into the lake.”
After that experience, the Hieberts sold the cottage and took up camping, which led them to Flanders Lake about 19 years ago, when they discovered that A-frame during a trip to nearby Tulabi Falls.
Flanders Lake is about five kilometres long and just under one-kilometre wide at its broadest point. Boats are restricted to 9.9 horsepower engines, which meant the family’s cabin cruiser had to go. But they didn’t miss it.
“I like waking up in the morning to hear the birds singing and stuff like that instead of motor boats,” Lynn says.
They now have a pontoon boat, a 16-foot aluminum boat and a canoe. Popular fishing destinations Booster Lake and Davidson Lake are nearby. And they can tow a boat on a trailer behind their quad bikes to less well-known fishing spots.
“There’s a number of different lakes in the back that typically many people would consider fly-in lakes. We can put boats in some of these lakes that are accessible with quad trails,” Randy says.
When the Hieberts decided to expand, they considered renovating the old A-frame. But when contractors told them the roof and walls would have to come down, full demolition made more sense.
Of course, it would have been much easier and less expensive to sell the cottage and build elsewhere, but they didn’t want to leave close friends among the 44 cottagers on the lake.
“They’re like family almost,” Lynn says. “Their grandkids grew up with our kids, and my grandkids are growing up with their great grandkids.”
Besides, there’s no place like this home away from home. Randy’s work often took him away from the family while the boys were growing up, but the cottage was, and remains, a haven for one on- one bonding time.
“I’ve always found that the cottage, when we’re here together as a family, that’s basically what’s held us together,” Randy says. “To us the cottage is family – family and friends.”
