build – BIG

For the adventurous DIYers out there, have you considered embarking on your own cottage-building journey? Not only will you avoid the headaches of the housing market, but you’ll also have the freedom to customize your home away from home any way you please. We’ve rounded up 11 online and in-person courses to teach you how to build and renovate a cottage.

From floor-to-ceiling windows to an entertaining-sized kitchen or even a secret hideaway, you can bring your wildest architectural dreams to life. And let’s not forget the added bonus of being able to build a cottage that’s eco-friendly and up-to-date with all the latest codes.

If you’re feeling intimidated by the thought of constructing a cottage from scratch, fear not. There are cottage- and home-building courses offered in-person and online. They’ll teach you how to build a strong foundation, plus everything you need to know about framing, constructing a roof, and installing doors and windows.

Home and Cottage: Construction, TDSB

In-person

Ready to get your hands dirty and learn how to build your dream cottage? The Toronto District School Board has you covered with exciting in-person construction courses. Get ready to roll up those sleeves and dive deep into building codes, permits, foundation building, and waterproofing. Plus, they will cover the basics of framing floors, walls, roofs, and trusses.

Sign up for the nine-week course every Tuesday from April 4 to May 30 or every Wednesday from April 5 to May 31. Classes run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The sign-up deadline is April 12 and April 13, respectively. The total cost, including materials, is $261.

DIY University

Online

Calling all DIY enthusiasts: don’t miss out on becoming the ultimate handyperson and master the art of construction through a variety of free and paid classes. Choose from topics like building a tiny house, adding electrical outlets, or kitchen storage, plus learning basic skills for laying concrete or drywall.

With 162 instructor-led, on-demand, or skills workshops, there is something for everyone’s future or current cottage. Plus, they offer course bundles for bathroom remodelling, new homeownership, and outliving.

Building Industry Workshop: House Construction, buildABILITY

Online and in-person

Time to get started on your new cottage build by joining buildABILITY for two half-days of workshops where you’ll learn the fundamentals of building a home.

Whether you prefer online or in-person learning, buildABILITY has it all. This online database covers everything from house construction to roof framing. By the end of the course, you’ll be equipped with all the construction terms, understand the construction process, know how to work with municipalities on the development process, explore fire and sound control methods, and learn how to finish the interior and exterior.

You can also check out the other options, such as the science of building better basements or construction technology and building science.

The virtual class is $349 and takes place on April 5 and 12 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. In-person classes will resume in spring 2023. Check the website for details.

Wild Abundance’s Carpentry, Tiny House, and Home Building Workshops

In-person

Wild Abundance offers a variety of classes on a rolling basis, so there is always something new to learn. Right now, they offer in-person women’s-only and all-gender courses to ensure everybody feels welcome in the building and construction space.

You can sign up for basic or advanced carpentry, how to build environmentally-friendly tiny houses, and timber framing classes. Plus, you can join their tiny house academy online.

Find all the dates online. The best part? They offer a sliding scale pricing system, where you pay what you can afford.

UnBEATable’s Comprehensive Log Building Course

In-person

Looking to build a cottage oryour dream log cabin but don’t know where to start? Look no further than UnBEATable’s three-week, 120-hour course that will teach you how to build a log shell from start to finish.

From Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., you’ll learn how to work with tools, select the logs, build the shell, and read site plans. Also, UnBEATable provides a list of required tools and equipment on their website so you can come fully prepared.

The course starts on April 17 and costs $3,750, plus GST. If you’re interested in learning about roof systems, there’s a course starting on May 8 that costs $1,200, plus GST.

Passive House Design and Construction Training

Online

Get ready to build a cottage that’s energy-efficient and cost-effective by joining the Canadian Passive House Institute. The online course is jam-packed with 13 modules and over 90 training videos to teach construction techniques, building science, and economical ways to save money.

Complete the course full-time in six days or follow at your own pace. The cost of the course is $499. Looking to be certified? Add on the PHPP Introduction course and the CPHD Prep Course.

The Pat Wolfe Log Building School

In-person

Roll up those sleeves because the Pat Wolfe Log Building School offers a one-of-a-kind learning experience to prepare you to build your own log cabin. In-person classes start in the spring and fall, with one-, four-, and ten-week options.

The one-week course is a great introduction to log building, while the four-week course is perfect for owner-builders. The ten-week course is designed for own-builders who also want to pursue a career in the industry.

Spring courses are available from April 17 to June 23, and fees range from $750 to $4,000, depending on the duration. Fall courses start on September 11 and end on November 17. Register using the online form.

Tiny House Workshops

Online and in-person

Learn how to build a cottage that’s small and cozy from expert Kenton Zerbin, who has been building DIY tiny homes since 2010. All Canadians can access this specialized training with convenient locations in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Lethbridge, and Ottawa.

Join this in-person two-and-a-half-day workshop for $499 (dates to be announced soon), or get instant access to the online workshop covering the same topics for $349. Both courses will discuss design, utilities and legalities, and construction—everything you need to build your own tiny home from scratch.

Home Depot DIY Workshops

In-person

Shop and learn in the same place with Home Depot’s free in-person workshops for adults and children. There aren’t any adult classes running at the moment, but new seminars are released on a rolling basis and vary from store to store.

Tip: new children’s classes happen on the second Saturday of each month.

The York Academy

In-person

Looking to become a construction pro? Then get ready to put in some work with the York Academy. Learn different construction and home renovation techniques during their training courses starting on April 3 for full-time students (running Monday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) or on April 22 for part-time students (running Saturday to Sunday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.).

These programs are perfect for individuals looking to gain practical experience in work site conditions, blueprints, foundation building, carpentry, dry walling, flooring, basic electrical, and basic plumbing. With this training, you’ll have your dream cottage up and running in no time.

Udemy New Home Construction Program

Online

Don’t have much time to spare? No problem. Udemy has a virtual on-demand series of eight courses. Prepare to build your own cottage by learning different build styles, building lingo, design criteria, and building codes.

The best part is you can access the course anytime and from anywhere. Each class costs $27.99, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Build it, fix it, get it done!

Get Dockside DIY, for tips on how to maintain your cottage…and then some

Maturity is overtaking my haven on the Rideau at an unexpected pace. Just as we drove in the last nail to complete the project, the first piece of lumber rotted off and fell to the ground.

As I said to the contractor, “The physical plant at my private recreational centre is deteriorating at a rate above and beyond the original engineering projections.”

Or, as I said to my wife, “Look, these darned steps are rotting away already!”

“Well, so they are,” she said. “And so are we.”

This is not a philosophy on which to chew thoughtfully while holding a mouthful of galvanized nails during a repair job.

A maturing cottage can age quickly. These vacation domiciles, crafted so carefully in the younger years of one’s life, are supposed to be holiday retreats that will last forever. And here I am, only a few years after rejoicing over my engineering triumph—I can build steps! I can build steps!—contemplating their replacement. Didn’t we use the best western cedar? Didn’t we stain and restain the wood to keep nature at bay? Didn’t we set the steps on concrete to break contact with the soil?

But nature triumphs.

It is only natural that when dead trees (even in the refined form obtained at the lumber yard) are laid down in the forest, they will want to become part of the forest floor. A cottage is merely a structured compost pile that will quickly revert to rotting vegetation. It is nature’s way.

Stone and brick and even wooden structures in cities, attacked by gas fumes and all sorts of acidic pollution, seem to last for centuries. You slap on a coat of paint every 10 years or so and the thing holds together forever. On the other hand a cottage, which knows only the natural elements of wind, rain, snow, and sunshine, will fall down in five years—guaranteed—unless tended and nurtured carefully every summer weekend.

This is a fact of life unappreciated by non-cottagers. I met a man recently who was contemplating buying a cottage. Explaining that he wasn’t much of a handyman, he asked, “Is there much upkeep in a cottage?”

Sir, it is a cottage. No more need be said.

This natural decomposition rate of a cottage, when considered along with the decomposition rate of one’s body, is enough to turn one’s thoughts to other forms of holiday accommodations. Renting, for example. Sell the cottage, invest the money, use the interest to rent a cottage retreat. Let someone else repair the rotten steps.

Or yachting. We could sell the decomposing cottage and buy a tidy plastic yacht that would be immune to all the ravages of nature save shoals and rocks.

“Look at them,” I say, peering through binoculars at a pride of yachts wallowing up the Rideau. “In the fall the owners simply tie up at a dock, hand a wad of money to somebody else to look after their boats, and go away to Florida.”

My wife grabbed the binocs. “There’s a man on the bridge,” she says, “and he’s telling his wife he’s going to sell the yacht and buy a cottage. He’s saying, ‘Bet a cottage gets more than three miles to the gallon’.”

I’m amazed. I didn’t know she could lipread across the lake. I’ll have to be more careful in the future.

Cottaging is a constant challenge to test our mettle. We have wrestled with boats through milfoil-choked channels and every spring we hire a stunt pilot to spray for moths. Next on nature’s list of promised plagues are zebra mussels, which will clog our water intake lines. If Pharaoh thought chasing Moses and the Israelites was frustrating, he should have tried cottaging in Canada.

Perhaps cottages should be recognized and protected as endangered species, needing special treatment on account of their intrinsic frailty. You put them up and, with careful planning and engineering, you might be able to stretch their natural five-year life spans to 10, provided you don’t stomp around on the deck or slam the door.

After a decade, you’ll be nothing left but a pile of mouldering lumber and rotting shingles. Future generations will have the opportunity to build again and enjoy the awesome sight of nature reducing their carpentry to forest rubble. But enough of this philosophizing. Pass the nails, please. I’ve got steps to mend.

10 repairs every cottager can master

This article was originally published as “Rotting on the Rideau” in the April/May 1992 issue of Cottage Life.

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