The Cedars Cottage

This is the entrance to the cottage that Dr. Deming (Steve's dad) designed and built in 1970-71. He did a lot of the building himself with help from local people for the foundation and structure. Steve says he remembers his dad doing the cutting and installing of the kitchen cabinets and all of the finishing. The kitchen has not changed since! The kids, Steve & his brothers, had jobs to do to help out. This cottage is where we stay when we visit Wolfe Island, not the Deming Family Home I shared with you the other day, although they are all lots on the same property. It's called "The Cedars" because it is surrounded by cedar trees. While the building was going on and the years before that, Steve & his family lived in the Big House (family home) when they came up for the summer.

Next to the Cedars cottage is what we call the "bunkhouse". This is where we were sitting when I shared a photo of Asia in front of the new bunkhouse porch on Monday. The bunkhouse is older than the Cedars cottage, built around 100 years ago by Steve's Great Uncle, Austin Staley. Steve's Great grandfather (living in the Big House) had given his son the land. Austin built the bunkhouse, which was called "Staley's cottage" back then. When the children of Austin Staley sold it to the Dr. Deming because they were not using it, he designed the Cedars cottage so it would be attached to what would become the bunkhouse (extra sleeping quarters) --see the first picture in the extra photos. It's a panorama of the bunkhouse on the left and the Cedars Cottage is on the right. The attachment between the two is a little breezeway. The photo that is my main blip is the entrance of the cottage, all the way on the end on the right, around the corner from the 2 green chairs. The cedar siding looks beautiful and shiny because Steve and I worked on preserving the wood yesterday! I did all the low sections and Steve climbed the ladder ;o)

The next extra photo was also from Monday and shows Steve sitting on the newly redone bunkhouse porch. You can see the deck of the Cedars cottage (we prefer sitting on the covered porch) the cedar trees, the boat house and the Farrell's cottage (cousins) and a bit of the Oats barn. The Big House is behind the boathouse, but you can't see it from this angle. Some of the visiting family has left and it is a bit quieter for the moment, but there's still cousins here with 8 kids, ranging in age from 5 - 18! Thursday night we had a campfire and Steve asked if I would mind if he told the rest of the family they were welcome to join us - of course not! It was great fun with them bringing all the supplies for 's'mores and much activity. I'll see if I can squeeze one more small photo of that in the extras ;O) The wi-fi here is okay - sometimes things do not resolve and I have to give up and go back outside. But I am glad for what I can do!