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Great Spaces
Lakeside DIY
A Toronto couple constructs an off-the-grid Haliburton hideaway By Andrea Carson
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Four years ago this summer, Joseph Franke, co-owner of Boomer, a menswear shop on Queen West, and Carlo Mirzian, a sales associate at Holt Renfrew, began building their dream retreat—a windowed waterfront “cocoon” near Haliburton. “I knew I wanted three things: a dock, a path and a cottage,” says Franke. They purchased three acres of boat-access property on Drag Lake for $55,000 and a cottage kit from Mafcohouse, a Toronto-based modular design company for which Franke serves as sales rep. The kit, which cost $144,000, came with all of the lumber, doors, glass panels and hardware for five 16-by-16-foot modules.
Franke and Mirzian, who slept in a tent until the roof and the walls were up, bought a chainsaw to clear the site. Then they dug the foundation using shovels and an oversized crowbar they dubbed “the Persuader.” Diehard DIYers, they also purchased and assembled a prefab barge to ferry all the building materials, including 200 bags of concrete. “The beginning of every weekend was like the landing at Normandy,” Franke remembers.
With the help of a master craftsman, construction of the superstructure was complete by summer’s end, 2005. Plumbing and a kitchen followed in 2006, and they finished the interior walls and ceilings—each piece of wood sanded and oiled by hand—in 2007. “We used no trim,” says Franke, “because everything fits perfectly. It’s like our large jewellery box.”
Photographs by Michael Graydon
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