§ 01 · THE FEATURE
Tree Fort on Lake Muskoka
Windy Point Cottage is the cover story of the Our Homes Muskoka Mid-Summer 2026 issue, with a ten-page feature inside. Before the original cottage came down, CPD drew the plans for the new build. We then recommended Blaine Umphrey of Allwood Building Company to the owners, and his team built it.
Story by Robyn Neath. Photography by Sandy MacKay.
§ 02 · THE PROJECT
Windy Point Cottage
The site is an exposed point on Lake Muskoka, open to the wind and the weather coming across the water. The owners had spent years renting around Muskoka before committing to a place of their own, and the brief was room for their five children: a three-bedroom, three-bathroom main cottage, plus a boathouse with guest quarters above the slip.
The defining move is the lookout. A sitting room projects out over the front door and into the trees, wrapped in windows. The family calls it the tree fort. It is where you watch the storms roll in.
We kept what the site and the old cottage could give us. The L-shaped stair that once ran along the outside of the original cottage was rebuilt as an interior feature. On the main floor, the bed bases were built over the exposed bedrock rather than blasting it out. The exterior is painted a deep lake blue, and the boathouse matches.
§ 03 · THE COVER
Our Homes Muskoka, Mid-Summer 2026
The Mid-Summer 2026 issue of Our Homes Muskoka carries two CPD projects. Windy Point Cottage leads the cover as the “Modern Treehouse Retreat,” and Black Fir Cottage on Lake Joseph runs alongside it as “A Magical Cottage Makeover.” One is a new build, the other a full renovation. Both started from the same question: what does this site already give you?
The issue hit newsstands across Parry Sound, Muskoka, Huntsville and Haliburton in late July 2026.
§ 04 · THE SPREAD
The Cover and Ten Pages
The complete Our Homes Muskoka Mid-Summer 2026 feature, as published.
§ 05 · THE THROUGH-LINE
Build Around the Rock
A windy point does not offer much flat ground. Instead of fighting it, the cottage takes its cues from it: a room that reaches into the trees, beds that sit on the granite, a stair that survived the teardown. The best features of the house were already on the site.
