Billie Bear Cottage Resort
Traditional Wood-Framed Cottage Additions
Billie Bear Resort had its beginnings at the turn of the last century and has since undergone many additions and modifications. Although the cabins are now individually owned they are still rented out to visitors throughout the season. We have completed renovations and additions to three of the cottages. All three cottage additions were beautifully constructed by John Paterson.
Beaver House
This small cottage had four additions over its lifetime and our task was to add a large front porch and unify the additions. The most important part of the design was to copy the simple framing of the original structure and to return the cottage to a shape that sat comfortably in the landscape. The framing details were worked out by following the traditional construction of the 1920’s cottages. Solid wood and traditional joints were used instead of modern products of plywood and steel joist hangers. We were able to use wider boards on the roof deck because the lumber was locally sourced. Extending the original roofline up also provided an opportunity for natural cross ventilation at the gable ends.
Explorers
Explorers cabin originally consisted of a long rectangular 1920’s cabin with an addition of a washroom, bedroom and front porch. We removed the front porch and the roof of the original 1920’s cabin and added a gamble roof over the original building and front porch location. This provided two new bedrooms on the second floor and a two-storey screened front porch. The upper bedrooms have interior windows that overlook the porch and also have a view to the lake through the dormer windows. These interior windows were retained from the original cottage and reused. The original 1920’s cottage was renovated and includes a kitchen, dining area, bedroom and bathroom. The gamble roof was chosen to complement the traditional cottage forms of Billie Bear.
Pioneer
Pioneer cabin is similar to Beaver House where an original porch addition was removed and replaced with a larger screened-in porch with a roof that extends over the original cottage to unify the additions and provide cross-ventilation.
