Rewind Design

Welcome to Rewind Design - A Podcast dedicated to discovering the stories of Cottage Country in Ontario. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey and for the first official episode with a real live guest! Today on the show we’ll be diving into a piece of cottage country I am very familiar with, the South Channel of Georgian Bay, home to my favourite place on earth. Our family cottage. And as I alluded to in my last episode,...

To jump right into the water, today’s guest will be another member of the McNabb family clan, my dad, Rick McNabb. He shares his story of how the McNabb family ended up in Parry Sound. Everyone thinks we’ve been here forever, but we’ve really only been here for the last generation. My dad and his family are originally from Mississauga and eventually moved up to Parry Sound in his 30’s following his mom and dad and all his brothers....

On this week's episode of Rewind Design, we have an incredibly captivating story, which just might be the most fascinating, intriguing and sexy one yet. Today I speak with lifelong cottager Sadie who has flipped my world upside down with her breathtaking cottage history. Sadie shares the history of her Georgian Bay Island, how her grandparents acquired the striking island property in the 60’s and how the whispers of this property’s...

Today on Rewind Design we have a special episode coming from much further north in Ontario than I’m used too. Today I speak to Jordan Fang, a designer, nature lover, reader + art lover who was a colleague of mine when we worked together at a commercial design firm in downtown Toronto (before I made the permanent move up north). Jordan’s family cottage, or should I say compound, is situated 4km down a logging route on the remote Gre...

Today on Rewind Design we have a special episode coming from very close to home, Five Mile Bay - in the South Channel of Georgian Bay! My home territory! Janet and her husband Dave have been kind enough share their story of how their family landed in a renovated 1962 cottage on McLaren Island. There have been many additions and changes over the years, but the heart of the home has been passed down, generation after generation. Jane...

Welcome to Rewind Design A Cottage History Podcast with your host + Local Interior Designer, (me!) Katy McNabb. Today we will be putting the spotlight on a historical Dorset cottage. Join me, as I navigate the waters and chat to my guests about their unique Dorset cottage and their family history over the last 100 years.

To start off this captivating story, I though I’d give a short little personal anecdote. I am lucky enough to wo...

The story begins in a similar fashion to my own history, with Patty’s ancestors hailing from Scotland and Germany, the same mix of cultures I am also from. Curiosity compelled me to read further and further into the pattern of emigration to Cottage Country, how did Patty’s family find their way here? How did they end up in a Farmhouse on the undisturbed Rose Point in the most beautiful protected part of the South Channel? How did t...

The story begins in a similar fashion to my own history, with Patty’s ancestors hailing from Scotland and Germany, the same mix of cultures I am also from. Curiosity compelled me to read further and further into the pattern of emigration to Cottage Country, how did Patty’s family find their way here? How did they end up in a Farmhouse on the undisturbed Rose Point in the most beautiful protected part of the South Channel? How did t...

Welcome to the first ever Rewind Design episode featuring a Muskoka cottager! I had the utmost pleasure of sitting down and speaking with a wonderful woman, Bonnie Bean and her daughter, in their generational family cottage on Lake Muskoka. Bonnie was so open to speaking about her family’s past, their journey to Muskoka and the initial challenges of owning a cottage in the early 1900s. Bonnie has been coming up to Muskoka from Toro...

On today’s episode of Rewind Design, we have 94-year-old Anne Grotrian – a creative, an artist, a teacher, and above all, a lover of Georgian Bay. She loves bones, stones, shells and driftwood, all of which you can find sprinkled around her eclectic Japanese pagoda style cottage!

She was born in 1928 in Toronto, grew up in Rosedale the youngest of 5 children with a father in the meat packing industry. They originally had a cottage ...

“The property, the entire cove, was purchased by my grandfather, Luke Spearn in 1932. He had  6 children, willed the property to his family, each of his children got a lot.  Lots were decided by  picking a number from a hat, in order of birth. 

The original cottage was a farmhouse with a wrap around veranda which was the cottage for 27 yrs, then upon death and division of lots, it was torn down in 1950s and, new strictly summer cot...

On this weeks episode, we have Rags (Don Ragland) who owns a cottage property on Axford Island on the South Channel of Georgian Bay. How he acquired the island was slightly problematic, extremely lucky and he has a very curious story to how he purchased his property! They have a charming property sitting in a sandy channel he calls “Sand Channel” or his buddies call it the “Raglonian Strait” (haha) between Axford Island and Lent Is...

Hello and welcome to this weeks episode of Rewind Design - A Cottage History Podcast.

On this weeks episode, we have Geoffrey Hayes, a Sales Representative for All Points North in Parry Sound (See link here - https://allpointsnorth.ca/geoffrey-hayes/)

From his biography on All Points North he describes his journey to Cottage Living.

As a young boy from Waterloo, On, I have fond memories of travelling and fishing throughout norther...

Welcome to Rewind Design, a Cottage History Podcast - dedicated to discovering the stories of Cottage Country in Ontario! I am your host, and local Interior Designer, Katy McNabb.

On this week’s episode, we have Rebecca Hay from Rebecca Hay Designs (www.rebeccahaydesigns.com). Not only is Rebecca an Interior Designer like me, she is also an entrepreneur, a mom, a mentor, a podcast host and a lifelong cottager! In this week's episod...

On this weeks debut episode of Rewind Design - Season 2 - we have a very highly regarded guest from the Georgian Bay Association (GBA) Rupert Kindersley. He has been the executive director of the GBA for the last 5 years and I had the honor of speaking to him last summer. Born in London England, Rupert was educated at Eton College and the University of Toronto, however he has now officially spent more than half of his life on Georg...

Welcome to Episode 2 of Rewind Design Season 2! I am beyond excited to share this episode with all the cottage lovers out there. I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with David Ballentine, owner of Ballentine Construction, all about cottage design, restoration + his unique approach to building on the Bay. David is a lifelong cottager in Pointe au Baril, and a longtime Parry Sound resident.

Ballentine Construction provides re...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Rewind Design Season 2! If you are new to this podcast, my name is Katy McNabb and I am a registered Interior Designer working in Ontario’s Cottage Country. I am on a mission to share sustainable ways of building, promote green energy and document the history of the area. I have been waiting to share this episode for many months and am finally able to release it. This week we have Scott Weir, an Architect, a...

Welcome to Episode 4 of Rewind Design Season 2! If you are new to this podcast, my name is Katy McNabb and I am a registered Interior Designer working in Ontario’s Cottage Country. I am on a mission to share sustainable ways of building, promote green energy and document the history of the cottage country. Today we have Vanessa Fong, from VFA Architecture speaking about sustainable cottages + historical restoration. 

Here is a quic...