LIGHT AND BRIGHT. “I love having this open concept, light and bright atmosphere on our main floor,” says homeowner Janice Glover. She finds it so much more conducive to the way a cottage is used, especially one like hers that isn’t very large. When they host a large group of people, some of the visitors can sit in the living room area, others around the dining room table or at the kitchen island, and they can still feel like they're in the same room.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SABRINA GROOMES
|TOP| PRETTY PORCH. A covered porch area was an addition to the new construction and became Jubilee Haven’s primary entrance. Cedar boards make up the deck, while aluminum siding is durable yet elegant. Nature encircles the cottage and slips right up onto the porch via Impatiens plants, which cascade from the planters. “I like how much they spread and overflow the containers over their growing season,” Janice says.
Ever since she was a teenager,Janice Glover had fantasized about designing her own home and sketched many floor plans of her dream designs. However, once she grew up, she ended up helping others find their home sweet homes and quickly rose to prominence in the investment real estate business. With a partner, she purchased and improved 15 to 20 properties and, in the process, fell in love with staging and decorating. She and her husband did purchase a waterfront property on Lake Rosseau in Muskoka, Ontario, 20 years ago. “It was a simple, small log cottage and also had a tiny guest cabin,” Janice recalls. “At that time, our daughters were still very young, and it fulfilled a really big dream to own waterfront vacation property in the highly desirable lake district.”