By Broc Watkins
On October 28, 1977 my parents, Rich and Barb Watkins closed on a property on Harwood Lake. There were two “cottages” on one property, they were completely dilapidated, run down and dirty. Sold at that time for 18,500.00 there was a LOT of work that needed to be done, but Dad had a vision of what they could be.
Painting, cleaning and carpentry work was first started on the” visitor’s quarters”. When the visitor’s cottage was made acceptable for use, the real work began on the main family living quarters. It was a big undertaking but with the help from friends and family members, the home began to take shape. Beginning with a new roof, new windows and siding – then the interior was completely redone from ceiling to floor. It was originally tagged as the “recycled cottage” because my dad would make use of discarded/recycled materials.
I remember one project, he was working on a Kroger store remodeling and he collected the old floor tile that was being removed from the store. Mom would heat the tile up on her electric griddle, we would scrape the old adhesive from the back and dad would glue them to the floor, those old tiles held up for many years. They called it “Watkins Glen”, others called it “The Recycled Cottage” and there was one time when I called it “Work Camp” because there was always a project or work to be done, but there was no place I would rather be. After a lot of remodeling on the main cottage I think it was my nephew Adam that dubbed mom and dad’s cottage or the main cottage, “The Lap of Luxury” and the visitors cottage ” The Ghetto”….lol that is a name that has stuck over the years. For 25 years this was our point of destination, every summer and any weekends we had time, this has been the site of many happy gatherings of family and friends.
But in 2002 dad passed away, mom kept the cottages as long as she could but ended up having to sell them. Neither I nor my sisters were in a position to keep the cottages, so with heavy hearts we helped mom move her belongings out. It was ten years later that we learned the cottages were for sale again.
My wife, Denise, and I talked about the possibility of getting them back – our kids had graduated from school, and had moved out of our house so there was nothing really keeping us there. We sold our house and decided to make this our home. I’m so grateful that Denise shares the love that I have for Harwood – it truly has our hearts and there is no place that we would rather be. I’m picking up where dad had left off with the projects – it seems there is always something that needs fixed or updated. But it is so good to be back, we have had family and friends back up here, we really love it. When we moved mom out, there were a few things that we had left behind, some fishing equipment, tools in the shed and hand written notes in the cabinets about the property information. It was so very cool when we moved back to find some of those things still here as if we had never been gone. It is funny now when mom visits us here – she said she can see a reflection of her life with dad, here now in our life with our kids and friends here. I’m so happy to have the Watkins on Harwood again….