Glad I found this forum. I hail from Ontario Canada in what is known as "cottage country". I love cottages and one day I will own one on one of our many lakes. Unfortunately real estate prices are at a high as everyone from the city wants a piece of Muskoka. Since I live in a small town I decided to fixup my house to make it look like a cottage. Its small, only 700 square feet but its mine and I love it. I took a tired house and made it come alive. I painted it, built my own shutters with cutout black bears and built a cedar deck which incorporates a small pond in the corner and veggie garden along the side of the house. My house is vinyl and wood siding. It was a mishmash of white and blue siding from the previous owner. I painted the vinyl with a good grade paint this spring. The pictures are before the flowers were up. Now it looks really cozy. I've had numerous compliments on my house. The screen door is a door that I picked up at the Habitat reuse store for $8 (an awesome thrifty place to shop). It was dirty but the wood was in excellent condition. I trimmed it to fit the door opening (its smaller than a normal door). I put the black bear cutout on it and covered the opening with screen and then birchbark and a twig frame. It felt good that I had did this project mostly on my own. My b/f helped but he's an artist and not a renovator and doesn't care to be one either so he helped when I needed a spare set of hands. Well..here are the pictures and I'd love to hear your reactions.