I’m not a very handy guy. Yeah, I can drill a hole in a wall to hang a picture, re-screen a porch door, patch small-ish holes and paint a room, but that’s pretty much it. So it’s been a ton of fun to watch and marvel at Kevin and Andrew Buckles as they create wild items for their cottage.
After two seasons of the original series Brojects—which saw the siblings making things like a combined dock/bowling alley—and then a season inside with Brojects: In the House as they souped up a former Masonic Lodge, the boys are back making outlandish items for their cottage neighbours.
Bowing Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life—the specialty channel is available in a free preview—Brojects: Built for the Weekend hits the road for six instalments as the Buckles’ meet up with cottage owners, assess their needs and then build something cool. The challenge? To complete a project within a week … the time between visits by the property owners.
“We had definitely built as much stuff as we could at our family cottage,” Kevin says on the line from Nova Scotia. “But we had talked about it from the very beginning, being able to get out on the road and see cottages.” A Facebook post asked folks to audition their properties for consideration; Andrew says they picked interesting stories and locations that wouldn’t be too challenging for filming. It’s one thing to be in a large city with easy access to power, supplies and facilities. It’s another to be situated on a small lake, relying on generators, a shortage of electrical plugs and weather to contend with.
Rain and wind threatened to wreak havoc in Thursday’s debut as Kevin and Andrew worked to rebuild and trick out a family’s dilapidated deck. Not content to just update what was there, the Buckles’ formulate a unique way for everyone to swim without the threat of leeches, an easier way to load into a canoe, a place to create art and a fishing station. As fascinating as the projects are, what makes Brojects: Built for the Weekend (and their past series) such an entertaining program is the back and forth between Kevin and Andrew. Verbal jabs are the norm, making for a light-hearted and fun franchise. Kevin says the idea for Brojects came about with them sitting around at their own cottage, fixing and improving the endless things that go with it. A partnership with Blue Ant Media soon followed.
“I think the timing was perfect,” Andrew recalls. “I think Blue Ant Media was looking for some Canadian content for Cottage Life and we came on the scene doing DIY projects at our cottage.”
Upcoming episodes of Brojects: Built for the Weekend include a double-decker party raft, a micro A-frame glamping cabin, a floating playground and a boat-themed outdoor kitchen.
“The ideas just kind of evolve,” Kevin says of their inspiration. “I don’t look at something and say, ‘That’s going to have a fishing station on it.’ We did interviews with the families beforehand and asked them what they wanted. That was our guideline, but it just all comes together as it comes together.”
Brojects: Built for the Weekend airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life.
Images courtesy of Blue Ant Media.
