By Aviva Zack for Saskatoon HOME magazine
He pictured a rustic wooden cabin. She wanted a bright white interior with clean lines. The beautiful cottage that Mark and Sharla ended up with was the ideal blend of both their visions.
“It is even better than our original vision,” says Sharla. She credits Terry Kostyna, President of Northern Sky Developments, who made it his mission to create a hybrid timber frame cottage that perfectly suited them both.
When Sharla, who has a keen eye for design and colour having studied interior design years ago at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, approached Terry with their ideas for a lakefront Candle Lake cottage, he was excited for the challenge. “I made it my mission to get inside Sharla’s head,” says Terry.
Her description of Vail Colorado meets eastern Muskoka gave Terry an idea of the blending of styles they were after. But it was the magazine images that Sharla regularly emailed Terry that really helped. “A lot of the ideas for the cottage were in my head,” says Sharla, “so I tried to find pictures that would illustrate the general idea of what I was after.”
Being two hours away from the build, Mark and Sharla put a great deal of trust in Northern Sky Developments. Communicating with Terry by Blackberry allowed them to be in touch during the 14 months the cottage was being developed, with only a handful of trips out to Candle Lake. “It was a great experience,” says Sharla enthusiastically, clearly thrilled with her new cottage.
And who wouldn’t be thrilled. With over 3400 square feet of living space in the main house, it is clear no detail was missed. The cottage also boasts a separate guesthouse and indoor parking for four vehicles including a 25 foot boat.
Being a hybrid timber home, they used a lot of clear Douglas-fir which is select vertical grain fir that is free of knots and imperfections. Clear fir can be seen on the window trim, most of the interior and exterior doors, stair posts and railing. It was also used on the basket weave planks on the main stairway and on the band of wood that creates a separation between the main and second floor.
The arched tresses and timbers found throughout the house are also Douglas-fir which was brought in from Okanagan Timber Frames from Salmon Arm BC, since this no-knot variety is not readily available in Saskatchewan. Rather than drywall, painted tongue and groove pine and stained cedar ceilings were used to maintain the look of a timber home. On the floors, hand-scraped hickory wide plank flooring was used throughout much of the main floor, which is perfect for a beach house, since it’s textured and doesn’t wreck with the wear and tear of lakeside living.
There are numerous details that Mark and Sharla love about their new cottage. Mark’s favourite place in the home is their great room, a comfortable homey space with a fabulous view of the lake. Sharla has a harder time narrowing down her favourite details. She really loves the pillars and posts. She loves the windows and trim detail. She loves the beams. She especially loves the staircase and railing, which was a customized part of the home that Terry and her collaborated on by blending several ideas, and involving six different trades and artisans. What Sharla is most thrilled about however, is that Northern Sky Developments was able to successfully combine modern and rustic elements so seamlessly.
Terry also has his favourite features in the home, which are echoed by Mark and Sharla amongst their top picks as well. Two barn doors that separate the wings of the cottage were an idea from Sharla, that Terry was very involved in building. Solid fir made from recycled warehouse timbers found in Moose Jaw, were cut at Terry’s sawmill in Candle Lake and assembled by their finish carpenter Kim Hildebrand and his team at Unique Builders. They used an antique aging and distressing technique, producing an amazing result. In fact, the doors were entered in a hardware manufacturers photo contest, garnering a top five spot out of 125 entries from across North America.
