Turning a Poky Cottage into a Sunny Summer Home

The river is the trump card in this cottage transformation in the popular Quebec community of Norway Bay and in a family that once owned the Norvic, a double-decker ferry that, from 1923 to 1963, carried cars, horses, mail and summer visitors from Sand Point in Ontario to the Norway Bay pier a dozen times a day.

The hard planning, ripping and painting was wrapped up last August and now there is a wall waiting for a cottage sign: Minneola. Research shows Minneola is either a Dakota Indian word meaning "many waters" or has Algonquin roots, translating to "friendly or pleasant village." Both work in this summer community where families are connected and where sailboats, the odd dragon boat and zippy power craft skim over the river and kayaks and canoes explore small creeks. This is a community built on logging an hour west of Ottawa and an area that traces its roots to 1828. Located where the Ottawa widens into Chats Lake, it now counts more than 500 cottages and a growing number of year-round homes.

Gamble, a retired real estate agent turned renovator, and her husband, Terry, a retired teacher, master bridge player, music-al historian and dedicated golfer, now nod off most summer nights in a bedroom with views of the river.

"The power of the water brought us here," says Cathy, who raised her sons Sam, now 38, and Joe, 35, a few blocks to the west in a charming white cottage on a huge, shady piece of the bay where generations of Gambles played cards and whiled away summer nights or stayed close to a stove for warmth in the winter.

Cathy buffed that white cottage in 2004, redesigning the kitchen and adding a large side deck that was an instant gathering spot for cocktails with neighbours and friends. Then Terry's parents, Cec and John, died within a year of each other in 2011 and their nearby river cottage started calling Cathy's name.

She couldn't resist, despite the challenges of the dark, poky little house, which was built in 1919 and bought by the senior Gambles in 1967.

It was a dark brown affair, wedged between the community's main road and the enticing river, with a side porch where Cec and John regularly held court. The original dock still stretches out into the river, where Cathy and Terry share quiet moments in a pair of candy red Adirondack chairs.

Cathy loves to entertain, hosting impromptu luncheons and frequent cocktail parties on a low deck edged with potted flowers and boasting big views across the river.

A neat white bench and more Adirondack chairs surround a long table, offering lots of space for outdoor meals or an early evening cocktail.

"This lot is one quarter the size of the other place, but I have more privacy," says Cathy, who spear-headed the redesign, counting on cottage friends and a team of local builders and trades to carry out her instructions.

A neighbour and friend, Fred Speer, wiggled under the cottage and pronounced it was dry and solid as a rock, perfect for rebuilding. Jim McGuire was the site foreman, dealing with the trades and ensuring her planning went from paper to reality.

The municipality demanded the couple build on the same footprint as the original cottage because it is close to the water, prompting Cathy to hire muscle to tear down virtually every interior wall and to take down an attic that was stuffed with furniture and decades of cottage living.

"Dad never threw anything out," remembers Terry, emerging from the newly buffed garage with an ancient sprinkler owned by his father. Landscapers recently put down sod, a row of red roses and a cluster of white hydrangeas. It's Terry's job to keep the plants wet and prospering.

"I am starting to see a lot of Dad around here. It conjures up some nice memories," he says, recalling summers spent commuting between his parents' riverfront cottage, swimming lessons at the community pier and his grandparents' cottage on the big lot.

There are a lot of memories and reupholstered and refinished furniture in the main cottage. A freshly painted white wooden chair with new creamy cushions is actually an early recliner known as a Morris chair from the early 1900s, while a low round coffee table used to be the captain's high table on the Norvic.

Cathy also brought favourite pieces from the white cottage, including a dining trestle table that used to be covered in an old vinyl cloth. She discovered it is likely an old door. She left exposed nails while adding a coat of fresh paint. This mistress of smart shopping then headed to Home Sense to find upholstered chairs to keep her dinner guests comfortable.

She regrets not being able to save a bit of nostalgia, discovered when walls were ripped away. A pencilled message from 1931 announced a group of brave souls went swimming on Thanksgiving weekend.

"We wanted to frame it, pre-serve it. Somehow it got written over," she says regretfully.

Outside, the dark brown siding is long gone, replaced with an ocean grey shingle that is dipped in paint and virtually maintenance-free. Creamy white trim adds a finishing touch.

Inside, Cathy covered a side en-trance, bringing it into the cottage as a sunken foyer. Knotty pine flooring links all of the open spaces, while blending nicely with the toasty-coloured tongue-and-groove panelling and white vaulted ceilings.

She enlarged two windows tucked up against the high ceiling, bringing in light from the street and also from the river, yet delivering privacy.

There is more light and more privacy in the chic kitchen, thanks to a pair of frosted windows that form the backs of cabinets displaying some of Cathy's favourite china and glass. There is an-other cottage a few feet away from the windows, but you don't see it thanks to the frosted glass. The kitchen is an open affair, with a storage room, joint home office and guest room and bathroom tucked along the street side of the cottage.

The principal rooms - living room, dining room and kitchen - are one big space, wide open to the windows that stretch along the sunroom and the river outside.

The master bedroom, with its own big views of the river, opens onto the sunroom and a hall-way near the cottage's front door. "There used to be one window and a door in the bedroom. It was small and dark," says Cathy.

"I had a vision and it all worked out," she says. "I am very satisfied ... and it's nice to have these things linking us to the past.