Their work is in New York City, but their hearts are just north of Parry Sound.

Careers have taken this dynamic couple from London, Ontario – where they lived for 25 years and raised three children – to Toronto, and then to the “Big Apple” last fall.

Their dream home, where they plan to retire, has been under construction near Parry Sound for six years, and it’s almost complete.

They can’t wait to get back to their Canadian roots for good.

“North’s our favourite place,” says the homeowner. The family has been heading to cottage country for 47 years and can’t imagine building anywhere else.

“I know Rome wasn’t built in a day,” says the owner, who hopes to make it their primary residence in five years. “This is our dream, so I’m willing to take it piece by piece.”

This winter, the downstairs bar will be completed by Ralph Flicker of Cabinets Exclusive, who also did all of the pine trim work in the home. Next year, the wine cellar will be built into the cold cellar in the basement beneath the upstairs portico. “It will be the classiest wine cellar in the north,” boasts Ron Bowman, owner of Bowman Custom Building Ltd., and the very talented builder of this exquisite custom residence. Bowman will use the collaborated designs from the owner’s travels to Europe to create the cellar. “She’s very specific with what she wants,” he says.

“I always have a sense of our wants and needs,” the homeowner agrees, noting that her husband gave her a 10-item wish list that included a “big honkin’ fireplace,” a shuffleboard table in the great room and a desire to wake up to the sunrise. He told her to knock herself out and she did.

The great room of this family home is designed to be people and pet friendly. The fabrics and flooring can handle all kinds of abuse from sandy flip flops to a wet dog fresh out of the lake. The homeowners and Bowman have ensured a comfortable gathering place. The “big honkin’ fireplace” was masterfully created by Selsman Masonry.

She and Bowman accommodated the “big honkin’ fireplace” with a stone masterpiece in the great room, complete with a convenient outdoor loading window.

Tyssen William E. Cabinetry in London took care of the shuffleboard, masking it under a grand table behind the couch that displays a collection of carefully chosen home décor items. The floor, made from rustic hemlock beams, was chosen for its durability, as was the furniture. “We wanted the whole place to be absolutely people and animal friendly,” she says. “I don’t like those paranoid lifestyles where people feel like they can’t get comfortable.”

During the holidays, the home accommodates a great deal of activity. Every Thanksgiving, 30 to 35 people pass through the doors.

Cruising into the driveway is a feast for the eyes. The stone home carries the landscape to its exterior with grace and beauty. The portico was designed by the owners after 47 years of getting rained on while unloading the car. “It is perfect for us and has solved all the problems over the years of cottaging.” During the winter, the extension helps keep out the snow.

The great room, kitchen and master suite face the water, giving the man of the house his wish to wake up to the sun, but the rest of the main floor occupies different orientations. “We wanted the house to be as low-keyed from the water as possible,” says the homeowner. The only way this could be done (in order to accommodate the family and their many guests) was to build the majority of the home away from the water. A mesmerizing, lush green view of the forest is nothing to frown at though, and this varied layout helps blend the home into the rocky forest. The landscaping has been kept as natural as possible.

The circular dining room features an impressive round table to encourage socializing during meal time. The wine bottle display was inspired by a friend with a vineyard in South America. The unique feature recycles exceptional and vintage bottles into art.

The dining room is spectacular with a grand, round table. “Round is so much more socially friendly,” she says, adding that tables line up out into the foyer during the holidays, that way, people can see each other. Empty wine bottles surround the table in open mesh cabinetry - a design inspired by their friend in South America who owns a winery. Many of the bottles are from the couple’s travels to Chile and other really good bottles they’ve had over the years.

The kitchen speaks for itself. “Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon” reads a sign above the doorway. This happy-go-lucky homeowner, with a flair for design, hired a cabinet maker from London to create a kitchen with the ambiance of a Tuscan villa. Many trips to Italy fostered a love of that country’s culture and architecture. Bringing a taste of Italy to their kitchen was a natural.

Built into a curved alcove of windows, the kitchen is one of three rooms where family can watch the freshwater lap against the sand.

A red brick, wood-burning pizza oven takes up one large corner of the kitchen. The couple took a cooking class in Tuscany six years ago. “My husband said ‘this is your dream home, so fulfill all your fantasies,’” says the homeowner, and she did.

Create-your-own-pizza parties are popular with friends and family. The oven can hit 700 degrees, so pizzas are ready in a flash. “Everyone has a ball doing it.”

The menu board offers a recipe for a life well lived: “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly like pearls slipping off a string.”

Upstairs, the green guestroom features a sunbathed window bed and pull-out cot, as well as a double bed to accommodate the often large crowds during the holidays.

The red brick from the pizza oven is carried to the stove’s backsplash, unifying the party space. The reclaimed hemlock floors, ceiling beams and window frames add to the Tuscan feel of this special kitchen.

A two-piece bathroom is conveniently located just opposite the foyer. A split granite slab creates a two-tiered countertop. Above, is a rustic wooden mirror from Muskoka Living, while below is a slate floor with a leaf-tile border.

Hemlock steps with granite risers lead guests to their exclusive second floor, which was built into the attic to reduce the height of the home. Pine plank walls take the place of traditional drywall in the stairwell and on the entire second floor. Bathed in white paint, with a black glaze to highlight the knots in the wood, these maintenance-free walls keep the upper level light to counteract the shade provided by the trees.

A sitting room has plenty of seating, as well as a tiny kitchen area with a sink, fridge and coffee maker (hidden in custom cabinetry) so guests can wake up and have a cup of coffee in peace or look after a fussy baby away from the bedrooms. “I wanted it to be a private kind of apartment, separate from the rest of the place,” says the homeowner.

Four small bedrooms on this floor would have been too dark and cramped, so they opted for two large communal sleeping quarters. A sweet green family bedroom features a window bed (with pull-out trundle below) and a double bed. The blue room across the hall is a great place to spend vacation nights.

“There have been times when four adults will be sleeping in one room and talk and laugh into the wee hours of the morning,” says the homeowner, adding that the home can sleep 22 people, with the surrounding landscape available for camping.

One of three rooms for the grown-up children, this bedroom is breathtaking, with the stone backdrop to echo the fireplace, and double doors opening onto the downstairs living room.

A white staircase takes the three children (all in their 20s) to their rooms in the finished basement. The kids wanted to be downstairs together. They all went to university on the east coast, so the basement of the home has been nostalgically named “The Lower Deck” after their favourite bar in Halifax. They designed the entire floor plan and drew straws for their rooms, one featuring a red brick corner wall, another boasting a magnificent stone wall that carries the fireplace and exterior material into the downstairs entertainment area.

“I count them in because one day this will be theirs,” the homeowner says. The basement also features a huge games room and a bar, built by Flicker. There’s even a fish tackle display room and soon-to-be wine cellar.

“They’re all passionate about the cottage,” says the homeowner. “We have great weekends together.” The kids bring their friends and share the special vacation time. The friends can often be found in the kitchen helping with meal preparation. When they discuss bringing a gift for the homeowner, she tells them she would much rather a DVD of the photos from the weekend. “It’s a really fun reminder of that weekend with that bunch of people,” she says. No wonder memories are so important in this place of reunion. The kids are spread around the world now – in Boston, Dubai and Toronto.

The master suite is a place of luxurious rest. The en suite features a two-person Jacuzzi tub, as well as a two-person shower, clad in natural tones of marble. “I just got these pictures that pop into my head,” the homeowner says. She ran everything by a designer friend, who passed away last spring, and whose family spent some time at the cottage where so much of her personality remains. She always had the right answer for every project, the homeowner remembers fondly. The space called for a substantial closet for balance, but the homeowners couldn’t think of a use for one. The solution: a closet façade that pulls out to reveal hidden storage to stash gifts and really good bottles of wine. “We try to utilize every nook and cranny.”

The owners were thrilled with the work by Bowman and his tradespeople. “Everything was possible without compromise,” she says. “They’re just major, major talents.”

The home has been designed so that each room has a different orientation to lessen the size of the façade from the water. Therefore, the space is filled with many opportunities to enjoy unique views. The cedar deck optimizes this view with stainless steel cables for pickets to avoid blocking any opportunity to gaze out at the lake.

“This is quite spectacular,” says Bowman. “Most people think we only do high-end, but we do it all.”

Bowman will create the home or cottage you want, simple or with all the bells and whistles you’ve always dreamed of. “Ron was a pleasure to work, very attentive to detail. With such a huge and long project, the personalities need to work,” she says.

Family and friends are given the option of having the run of the place as well. “There’s no way that we would build a place like this and keep it to ourselves,” says the homeowner, who lends keys out to the special people in their lives. “It would make me sick to think that it’s sitting here not being used.” She has a saying that fits with her philosophy on the home. She says that it’s not that a close family needs to have a place like this, but if they didn’t have a place like this, they wouldn’t be so close.

“It’s a magical place in a lot of ways,” says the homeowner. “It’s our happy place.”