Tag Archives: Cottage Life

Colin and Justin get down and dirty for Season 3 of Cabin Pressure

Anyone who’s done grand-scale home renovations knows that feeling of hopelessness. A “simple” job that grew to into a catastrophe, a project that morphed from costing a few thousand dollars into a massive bank black hole. Such is the case for Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, the Scottish design duo who return for a third go-round of Cabin Pressure this Sunday on Cottage Life.

The timing of the series couldn’t be better—Cottage Life is currently in an eight-week free preview—plenty of time to watch the lads’ cottage country exploits and commiserate when things go wrong. And do they ever. Episode 1 quickly sets up the premise—the pair have purchased a Haliburton, Ont., cottage to renovate and use as an income property—before plans go awry.

“We’re trying to redevelop one of the worst cabins on one of the loveliest lakes in Haliburton,” Ryan said. “It’s been a huge challenge from start to finish.” As in Season 2 with a reno of their own cottage, the pair wanted to lift this cabin off the ground and dig out a basement. But decades of moisture and a bad foundation threaten to shatter hopes and bank accounts. Ryan’s frustration at being over $80,000 in the hole just days into the work is plain. Thankfully, there is good news; sections of the fractured foundation could be saved and most of the floor joists escaped spreading mould, meaning a return to the hilarious (and sometimes very un-PC) comments Colin and Justin fans love. Well, that, and the ingenious design ideas they come up with, sometimes costing just pennies to do, like the coffee-stained walls utilized in Season 1.

McAllister and Ryan’s design inspiration for this project is a black-on-black European minimalism transported to cottage country, something not only reflected in the building itself but deck too. Ryan remembered how they were struggling to find someone to build the deck until a woman named Andrea contacted them via Twitter. Her boyfriend’s St. Catharine’s company, Boys with Big Decks could complete the 2,400 square-foot task.

“We’re now boys with big decks,” McAllister quipped.

“Actually, we’re boys with massive decks,” Ryan corrected.

Cabin Pressure airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Cottage Life.

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Cottage Life opens the spring season with Season 3 of Cabin Pressure

From a media release:

Cottage Life is celebrating the first signs of spring by inviting audiences to enjoy an eight-week free preview full of returning favourites and new episodes. Beginning Tuesday, March 15, the cottage season will be in full swing with fresh premieres including Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure Season 3, Cabin Truckers Season 2 and What’s for Sale? With a View Season 2. The channel will also premiere two new series including Brojects in the House, a spin off of the popular DIY series Brojects, and Burger Bar to Gourmet Star.

What’s For Sale? With a View (Season 2, Original Series, World Premiere) debuts on Tuesday, March 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This popular spin off of What’s For Sale? has brand new episodes, in which potential buyers are presented with three dream homes with incredible views that include a private Muskoka lake, a beach on Georgian Bay, a Niagara vineyard, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, Big Sur and more.

Burger Bar to Gourmet Star (New Series, Canadian Premiere) debuts on Wednesday, March 16 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. In each episode a fast-food cook with kitchen experience, limited to burger joints and food trucks, gets one-on-one training with one of Britain’s most respected chefs. The newbies then pose as seasoned professionals in world-class kitchens in an attempt to get by as five-star gourmets.

Brojects in the House (New Original Series, World Premiere) launches on Thursday, March 17 at 9 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. A spin off of Cottage Life fan-favourite Brojects, Brojects in the House follows everyone’s favourite brothers, Andrew and Kevin, as they take their fun-loving, creative DIY cottage projects indoors. With their wives and children now involved in the fun, the brothers transform a century-old lodge into a clubhouse with the most unexpected interior builds, inventions and games they’ve ever created. In the first episode, the bros build a bar out of reclaimed materials that tips a cap to the past.

Cabin Truckers (Season 2, Original Series, World Premiere) debuts on Friday, March 18 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The second season finds Wade and his crew of professional house movers up against even more challenging and exasperating situations as they relocate entire homes to remote locations on the back of a truck. New episodes see torrential storms, steep mountain tracks, stressful nighttime moves and narrow city streets threatening to bring the moves to a halt, all while the crew races against time and permit schedules. Viewers will find out if Wade has bitten off more than he can chew, with one of the biggest, most complicated and exhausting moves to date that tests everyone’s capabilities, emotions and patience.

Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure (Season 3, Original Series and Webisodes, World Premiere) debuts on Sunday, March 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The highly anticipated, new instalment of Cottage Life’s top-rated series returns with a brand new high-profile project. This time, the gregarious designers have taken on the task of transforming a dilapidated cottage into a welcoming income property. Infusing the lakeside estate with rustic charm and elegant modern comforts, the Scottish lads have a ball as they create the ultimate rental retreat.

Coinciding with the Season 3 television premiere, Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure webisodes will launch 13 new, exclusive short digital videos on Sunday, March 20, giving viewers an additional peek into the pair’s experience renovating their new rental property.

Cottage Life’s free preview will also include new episodes of several series including the third season of What’s For Sale?, Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, Escape to the Wild, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT and Ultimate Homes, Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

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Backroad Bounty looks for more deals and Canadian history in Season 2

If his Backroad Bounty gig ever ends, Peter “Bam Bam” Bamford is plotting his next TV role: Big Brother Canada.

“I think I would stand out, to say the least,” says Bamford, sporting his trademark cowboy hat, bushy beard, green army jacket, jeans and motorcycle boots. “I’m very old-school train of thought, very militant and punctual, and I’m very OCD. I don’t know if I would get along with everybody, but it would make for some interesting TV.”

We think Bamford would do pretty well. After all, he does interact with strangers—alongside Marty Gebel—as they crisscross Ontario in search of quality antiques and oddities for Season 2 of Backroad Bounty, returning to Cottage Life tonight at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. Earlier this year, I tracked down the duo in Ingersoll, Ont.—home to Gebel’s Modern Hipster Antiques—as they got dusty and dirty hunting around the top floor of E. W. McKim Quality Home Hardware, seeking hidden treasure and discovering Canadian history in the process.

Season 1 tracked the fellows as they dusted off items and dickered with owners over prices, and that formula is in place for Season 2 too, though a focus on those folks and the hosts has been amped up.

“This season is going to be funnier,” Gebel teases. “We’ll be talking a little bit more about values and selling this year, because the audience wants to know how much things are worth.”

“Because we have a season under our belt, people are opening up to us a lot more,” Bamford explains. “It’s more like a road trip with two guys and the incredible people they meet along the way.” That road trip includes provincial stops in Grand Bend, Quinte West, Harcourt, Port Dover, Walkerton, Wiarton and Owen Sound.

When the cameras aren’t rolling, Bamford is working to expand his business. Always a buyer at trade shows, he’s evolving his Bamtiques brand on social media and at shows, selling items and seeing if he can make a go of it as a full-time gig.

And if the Big Brother Canada thing doesn’t work out? Bamford has another idea in the works where he travels the world exposing silly local rules and regulations.

“It’s called Bam Bam Breaks the Law,” he says. “There’s a law in Pennsylvania where you can’t carry an ice cream sandwich in your back pocket. I want to break that law. There are laws in France about dolls with certain faces. If they’re willing to arrest me for putting an ice cream sandwich in my back pocket, I’m willing to accept that charge.”

Backroad Bounty airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on Cottage Life.

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Season 3 of Cabin Pressure a go at Cottage Life

The boys are back! Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan will once again rip-down and renovate a Canadian cottage for Season 3 of Cabin Pressure.

“We’re filming in Haliburton again for the new season,” McAllister and Ryan posted Monday afternoon on their Facebook page. “We’ve actually bought a cabin from a friend—who is moving to Niagara—so we know the building well. Been in and out of it for a long time. We chose our new little fixer upper specifically to resonate with you chaps: it’s a Viceroy: a style with which you’ll be very familiar—and we hope you’ll love what we have planned.”

The pair also revealed local contractor Randy Blain will return for the series’ third go-round: “We couldn’t do this without him!” they stated on Twitter.

The past two seasons of the Cottage Life show found the Scottish interior designers rebuilding Muskoka retreats. In Season 1 they teamed with two friends to renovate a shared property; in Season 2 McAllister and Ryan purchased their own tumbledown abode and built it back up.

The pair report production on Season 3 will begin soon; they buy a rental property and will find out what it means to play landlord. McAllister and Ryan have starred in such projects as Colin & Justin’s Street Swap and Colin & Justin’s Home Heist and have appeared on CityLine.

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Digging for more Canadian history on Backroad Bounty

You never know what will be uncovered during an episode of Backroad Bounty. Will hosts Marty Gebel and Peter “Bam Bam” Bamford procure a cool neon sign hidden in a disused storage room, a box full of collectible Matchbox cars aching to see the light of day, or an old stand used to hold cans for a long-forgotten brand of car oil?

What these guys find, what they pay for them with plans to re-sell—and the stories behind those items—are at the heart of the Cottage Life series as it heads into its sophomore season. I hopped in the car and drove two hours outside of Toronto to Ingersoll, Ont., where Gebel and Bamford were busy searching for buried treasure. I found the pair climbing around the cluttered, humid third floor of E. W. McKim Quality Home Hardware in Ingersoll’s downtown, calling out to one another—and to store owner Bob Mott—when they discovered something cool. There was plenty to chat about. Among the items the fellows were interested in? Old ice skates, wooden boxes, vintage hardware store displays and a sign that once hung in front of the store. And while the items the boys found had interesting stories attached to them, the future episode’s setting did too: Mott recalls how the hardware store was a buggy shop during the 1800s.

“Searching for items is in their blood,” Joe Houlihan, president of Our House Media, Backroad Bounty‘s production company, tells me during a break in shooting. “They’d be doing this whether there was a TV show or not.” Season 1 of Backroad Bounty saw Gebel and Bamford tooling around cottage country, poking around decrepit hotels, barns, overflowing basements and garages in search of finds they could fix up and re-sell; this go-round has expanded its boundaries.

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“This season feels more like a buddy road trip,” series producer and director Marshall Kaplan says. “It’s about the characters they meet along the way. It’s always about the amazing stuff that they find, but there’s humour and more of a story, more meat to the bone this year.”

Houlihan points out Backroad Bounty “sneaks history” into each episode through the tales told and items purchased; he himself has learned an incredible amount of Ontario history from his program. Among the areas the duo visit in Season 2 are Grand Bend, Quinte West, Harcourt, Port Dover, Walkerton, Wiarton and Owen Sound where the pair entertain each other as much as they do viewers.

“Marty is Bam’s best audience,” Kaplan says with a laugh. “Bam is a really good entertainer and Marty laughs at every one of his jokes. They may be interested in different things, but at the end of the day they both love the hunt.”

Season 2 of Backroad Bounty will air on Cottage Life.

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