In 1952, Beryl and her husband, Gordon, built a cottage when they were first married. Beryl and Gordon built the cottage because Gordon liked to duck hunt and fish. It took about four years for Beryl and her husband to build the cottage. They finished the cottage in 1956.
Before Beryl and Gordon built the cottage they planned it out. Gordon and Beryl also designed the cottage themselves. They bought the land before they started working on the cottage. They found the land because one of Gordon’s friends told him about it.
Beryl and Gordon walked around for a while and picked the best spot to build the cottage. Gordon made his own plan instead of a kit to build the cottage. It took a few months to find the perfect spot to build. They wanted the cottage because they liked the outdoors.
They were looking forward to hunting and the outdoors at the cottage. Beryl and Gordon built the cottage out of wood, so it looked like a log home. They built the cottage in the Kawartha Lakes area near Peterborough and lived on the lake. The lake they lived on was Buckhorn Lake.
The cottage had lots of windows. The cottage also had two levels. The second level had all the bedrooms and one bathroom. Beryl said the easiest part of building the cottage was driving everywhere to get the supplies.
The hardest part was getting all of the right supplies. Beryl and Gordon started off with a tiny cottage just for them. When Beryl had her first son Eric, they started to make the cottage bigger for them and their dog Honey. Beryl’s other son Tim, was born while they were building the cottage.
There were other cottages around them. While Beryl and Gordon were building the cottage, they lived in Toronto, and went down to Kawartha every weekend to work on it. When Beryl and Gordon retired, they lived in the cottage for 15 more years. Sadly, Gordon passed away at the age of 78.
Beryl lived at the cottage for two more years, but eventually moved because it had become too difficult to care for by herself. Beryl had to leave many memories behind when she left the cottage. Even though the cottage isn’t in her life anymore she will always remember it in her heart.