Linzi and Rick Rinkel with their dog Bailey at the front door of their weekend home. ABOVE: Native flowers flourish around the Craftsman-style cottage.

A great place to bask in the morning sun, the dock at Rick and Linzi Rinkel’s cottage is a launch point for exploring Kennisis Lake, one of Ontario’s cleanest waterbodies.

BUILDING

BY WALTER FRANCZYKPHOTOGRAPHY BY SANDY MACKAY memories

lifelong

IIt’s a family cottage in the true sense of the word. Linzi and Rick Rinkel and their two children spent six years building a beautiful three-bedroom country home in the Haliburton Highlands. “It’s been an amazing thing that we’ll all remember for our whole lives,” says Linzi. The Rinkels own and operate a commercial construction company in Toronto, Venture Construction Services Ltd. where their son, Darrick, is a site supervisor and daughter, Malissa, is project manager. For five years, they camped every weekend in a tent trailer on the shore of Kennisis Lake while they built their 2,500 sq. ft. Craftsman-style cottage. Continued on page 48

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“It means a lot to all of us,” Linzi says. Each of them can recall every step of the building – the weekend the windows went in, the weekend the flooring went down and so on. “It’s been a real pleasure,” says Linzi, who studied interior design at Sheridan College. “It’s like having a child. It’s a surprise at the end – what it turns out to be.”

Building the cottage was an adventure, says her husband Rick, a journeyman carpenter and civil engineering technologist. As transplanted Albertans, the Rinkels were unfamiliar with Ontario cottage life, but they enjoyed camping, something they had both done as children with their parents. While camped in Algonquin Park, they got a call from a friend who suggested they look at some land for sale at Kennisis Lake.

RIGHT: A carpeted loft above the great room makes a quiet spot for reading, napping or watching television. BELOW: The western red cedar ceiling infuses the great room with warmth. BOTTOM RIGHT: The architecture is impressive as you step through the front door. OPPOSITE: A bird’s eye view from the loft shows how the natural-toned furnishings complement fine wood finishing and the lake view.

Continued on page 51

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Realtor Lynne Tate of Gary F. Vasey Ltd. Brokerage steered them to the best property for their needs, a level, two-acre lot with all-season road access, a sunny exposure and a mix of hardwood and evergreen trees that offer a changing view throughout the seasons. “She picked the right one for us,” says Rick. They made a conditional offer to buy the property the next day.

Linzi and Rick chose a Craftsman design by Robinson Residential Design Inc. for its simple lines, uncomplicated style and big roof that keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in winter. “It feels like the house I grew up in,” says Rick, who got his first job in the pre-cast concrete business at age 11. The home is a symphony of wood, rock and glass. Its century-old reclaimed fir floors, by Solid Wood Products, complement windows framed in Douglas fir. A fir staircase climbs to a loft overlooking the living room and its tall,

dry-stack granite fireplace. Clear, full-length pine, whitewashed and finished by painter Stuart Trigell, clads the walls, stretching from the floor to the clear western red cedar ceiling. Black soapstone, by Greensville Soapstone Company, tops the kitchen counter and dining bar. In the dining area, leather chairs flank a live-edge maple table while upholstered chairs bookend the space. Three bedrooms and a Haliburton room are just steps from the living area.

Linzi wanted the main part of the home to be warm and inviting, but not over the top, says décor consultant Tary Roossien, owner of Urban Rustic Living, which supplied most of the interior furnishings. Tary says they chose a soft colour palette of indigenous tones, greens and creams, to ensure the home’s interior doesn’t compete for attention with the view outside.

TOP: The foyer provides plenty of space for arriving guests as well as ample room in which to don winter wear. ABOVE: Square woven baskets help keep the front entrance organized and uncluttered. RIGHT: Leather chairs and a custom-made table furnish the dining space, which opens to a deck overlooking the lake. A lofty dormer provides extra light.

Reclaimed from a construction demolition project, a thick fir beam was repurposed as a mantel for the stone fireplace. Continued on page 52

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Aqua, teal and citron give a light, bright and happy ambience to the master bedroom, which opens to a Haliburton room furnished with bright, outdoor wicker furniture. Urban Rustic Living custom-made furniture for every bedroom in the home. “She listened really well to what we wanted,” Linzi says of Tary. “She knows how to listen to somebody.” Forest-inspired paintings by Peter Buwalda embellish the walls with alluring colour.

Outside, the Rinkels strived to keep the property as natural as possible. Aaron Galbraith built rock pathways and retaining walls while Bark Ecologic surrounded the home with genetically native flowers.

Rick says, like every carpenter, he had dreamed of building a place of his own, where he could use the best of materials and methods without compromise. It was an opportunity to showcase the family’s talents. He found the experience exhilarating. “It’s been an adventure because we did the whole thing,” he says. “Everything was an adventure, every little detail.”

Building the lake house was like a huge side job, because the family worked on the cottage only on weekends when they drove up from their Mississauga home. The project was almost overwhelming, but Rick broke it down into small achievable steps, goals they could meet or surpass every weekend. “It made it exciting to get back to it the next weekend, because these little milestones, these little progressions in the cottage, were just another step closer to getting it finished,” he says.

The cottage has been a great stress-reliever for the family, whose construction company employs up to 15 people on institutional construction, new buildings and difficult renovations. “That’s where we get our work; if it’s difficult, we usually get it,” Rick laughs. “We’re known as problems solvers, which is a good thing.”

TOP LEFT: Counters capped with back soapstone by Greensville Soapstone Company flank the stainless steel kitchen appliances. TOP RIGHT: A kitchen coffee station brews espresso and cappuccino. ABOVE: A small dining bar with comfy black stools overlooks the cookery.

Continued on page 56

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With plenty of large windows and its panoramic view of the forest and lake, the Haliburton room at the front of the cottage feels like a grand treehouse.

905.828.5585ventureconstruction.ca

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At their country retreat, the Rinkels enjoy the peace, the outdoors and the natural environment. They explore Kennisis Lake and are getting to know more and more of the locals. During winter, Rick’s favourite time at the cottage, they spend Christmas holidays here. Now that the home is finally finished and furnished, it’s a place where family from Alberta and Europe can visit.

“It is the catalyst that kept us in Ontario. Had we not found a place to get away from the stresses of running a business, we probably would have moved back, closer to family,” says Rick.

“Hopefully, God willing, this cottage will be in our family for many generations,” he says. “One day, somebody will be talking about us when we’re not around any more, ‘You know, your great grandfather and great grandmother built this.” OH

TOP LEFT: A quartz polymer countertop by Cambria covers this bathroom vanity. TOP RIGHT: Custom-made furniture by Urban Rustic Living appoints the master bedroom where a sliding door leads to the Haliburton room and the exterior deck. ABOVE: Malissa’s bedroom has a private balcony with a lake view. A high dormer bathes the room with natural light.

SOURCE GUIDE

Venture Construction Services Ltd., Haliburton Lumber, Petrini

Construction, Monaghan Lumber Specialties, Greensville

Soapstone Company, Sharp Electric Haliburton, Walker’s Heating

and Cooling Systems, Hoffmeyer’s Mill, Solid Wood Products,

Gary F. Vasey Ltd. Brokerage, Urban Rustic Living, Merrill Barry

Co. Ltd., Aaron Galbraith, Stuart Trigell, Peter Buwalda, Bark

Ecologic, Robinson Residential Design Inc., Cambria, Farrow &

Ball Paints, Loewen Windows

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