“The phrases we stored utilizing had been quiet and calm”
Within the spring of 2007, Michael Cherney observed a small lump on his tongue. After a biopsy, his oncologist delivered the prognosis: mouth most cancers. Inside six weeks, Michael, a monetary adviser, underwent surgical procedure to take away the tumour. To recuperate, he headed to a quiet place together with his spouse, Shari: their Sixties cedar log cabin–model cottage on Chandos Lake, which they’d bought the 12 months earlier than. “Being by the water brings me a way of peace,” says Michael. Throughout their keep, the couple’s affection for the cottage grew, they usually spent each summer time at Chandos Lake from then on.
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The cottage, perched on a ledge with 100 wood steps main all the way down to the lake, was in a state of disrepair when the Cherneys purchased it. By 2016, mice had been overrunning the property, mould bloomed within the basement and unsealed home windows let in chilly drafts. “We had been hoping we might renovate it, however it was like placing lipstick on a pig,” says Michael. “It made sense to start out from scratch.”
With the assistance of architect Cathy Garrido at Altius, the couple got here up with a imaginative and prescient for a mid-century-modern sanctuary. “The phrases we stored utilizing had been ‘quiet’ and ‘calm,’” says Shari, who works as a nursing professor. The completed product, accomplished in 2019, is closely influenced by Michael’s childhood dwelling in Peterborough, designed by legendary Canadian architect Eb Zeidler, the mastermind behind Ontario Place and the Eaton Centre. The three,200-square-foot cottage is embellished in earthy tones, with floor-to-ceiling home windows that reveal the cerulean blue of the lake and a thicket of treetops.
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The inside is sparsely furnished in order to not detract from the pure magnificence enveloping their property. “We don’t have facet tables or espresso tables but,” says Shari. The open-concept area consists of 5 break up ranges, and the ceiling, kitchen and ground are all constructed from Douglas fir imported from B.C.
Usually, the very best lake view is reserved for a cottage’s major bed room, however Shari didn’t need to waste it on a room the place they’d spend most of their time sleeping. As an alternative, Michael’s workplace is there, and he works on the similar mid-century-modern youngsters’s desk that was once in his childhood bed room. “It’s a surprise he will get something finished,” says Shari. The view has turned Michael into an novice birdwatcher. “My first was a yellow-rumped warbler,” he says. “Then a pileated woodpecker.”
For the Cherneys, their cottage is rather more than a summer time getaway. When the pandemic struck, the couple anticipated to remain for 10 days and ended up residing there for 2 and a half years. “Chandos is a wonderful neighborhood,” says Shari, who does yoga at a studio close by and goes on common walks with neighbours. Even after her arthritis prognosis, she and Michael plan to benefit from the breezy lakeside tempo of life and serene vista for so long as they will. “We all the time say we’ll carry one another all the way down to the lake, if want be.”
