“I’m coming to the cottage.”
This isn’t a text from your in-laws accepting your long weekend cottage invitation. Nay, these are the now-iconic words spoken by Heated Rivalry’s Ilya Rozanov that cemented the episode of the hockey romance as one of the highest-rated ever—and spurred a healthy dose of interest in said-cottage itself.
“We’ve had people come out because of the show and say, ‘I’d like something like this for myself,’” says Alisha Bishop, a senior architect with Trevor McIvor Architect Inc., the firm that designed the cottage.
Ironically, the Muskoka-based firm’s principal architect, who led the project, is a former hockey player himself. Trevor McIvor played three seasons with the Ontario Hockey League and helped the Oshawa Generals take home the Memorial Cup in 1990. “It was cool to see the characters in the same arena where he used to play, not to mention a building he designed,” says Bishop.
Heated Rivalry—originally a book by Nova Scotia’s Rachel Reid—follows the decade-long relationship of hockey stars Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander. And with secrecy at the forefront of their romance (thus far at least), there’s no better place to escape to than Shane’s secluded cottage set in Quebec.
“Like how it’s portrayed in the show, the client wanted a private escape where they could go and be with close friends and family and not worry about the world,” says Bishop.
But with its dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows, seamless indoor-outdoor atmosphere and proximity to the water, how secluded is it really? “A lot of emails and comments we’ve been getting are, ‘I thought this was supposed to be private,’” she jokes.
Thanks to the mature trees and rocky Canadian Shield that keep it largely hidden from view, “if you didn’t know where to look, you probably would never find it.” Perfect for quiet-craving cottage owners and secret hockey romances alike.
The firm had previously worked with the production company’s location scout on other projects, helping them source cottages and homes in the region. But from design inspiration to rental inquiries—sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it remains a personal property—they never could have guessed the response Barlochan Cottage would receive.
The team is continuing to work on a pre-Heated Rivalry boathouse addition to the property, a project they lovingly refer to as “the boathouse.”
While Shane and Ilya’s imminent return to the cottage is still unconfirmed for season two, Bishop has her suspicions. “From all the comments we’ve been getting about the next books, it seems like there’s going to be more happening at the cottage, so we’ll see.”
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