In hindsight, I could have built a whole current cottage in less time, plus for less money, then what this ancient cottage cost me.

But this a single has sentimental value, right? This is the same cottage where our Grandpa took myself and others to learn to fish, plus to swim.

When I was a teenager I snuck the keys for this site, plus brought our bestie here for our “first time.” This cottage is steeped in the superb memories of our life, so fixing it up, making it great, was a labor of love. The first thing I needed was a working cooling system, something the place had never before seen. When it was first built things like HVAC systems were never used in lakeside cottages, you had to use air vents plus wind for natural ventilation to cool you down. My generation is far too soft to rely on air vents, or anything as primitive as nature, so that was the first thing I did. I set up a small cooling system in the master study room, a single of the ancient box style models that you mount in a window. It was not nearly immense enough for cooling down the whole house, but I had a single room that was the perfect temperature plus at first that was good enough. After I got the place insulated, plus the windows plus doors sealed, then I brought in a larger AC unit so I could cool down the whole cottage. There is a wood burning stove, so heating the cottage in the Winter is a snap.

Hybrid HVAC system