Two 1920s bungalows, and everyone who came to look
We bought a pair of run-down cottages in January 2003 and did most of the work ourselves. The magazines started arriving three years later.
Dark, dank, and a decaying smell from dead bats and squirrels in the walls. That was the studio.
What we actually bought
In January 2003 we were renters in New York City, looking for a place in the Adirondacks that could carry itself. What we found was a property with two 1920s bungalows on it, close to the Olympic training facilities and the Ironman course.
The smaller of the two — 320 square feet — was dark, dank, and had a decaying smell from dead bats and squirrels in the walls. We replaced the walls, the doors and the windows, and ran new water pipes in from the main cottage. The two-bedroom took nine weeks: tear out the bathroom and the kitchen, fix the walls, repaint, strip the carpet, refinish the floor. Todd and his brother built the kitchen cabinets. Sharon scrubbed an old claw-foot tub back to life and silver-leafed the outside of it.
“I wanted it to be very 1920s,” Sharon told Domino. “Most of the decor up here is all rustic Adirondack stick furniture. We wanted to offer an alternative.” We started renting in the summer of 2003, and through to Christmas 2004 we were driving up from the city about one week a month.
Domino came first.
Three years after we opened, Domino sent a writer and a photographer. The piece ran in the January/February 2006 issue under the headline Make a Vacation Home Pay for Itself, with the winter ‘before’ photograph sitting right next to the finished room.
Then television wanted the before and after.
Small Space, Big Style came for the renovation itself — the canopy coming off, the portico going on to catch the snow, the 320-square-foot studio turning into somewhere you would actually want to sleep.
Country Living made Sharon a Woman Entrepreneur.
Two years later, Country Living ran Cottage Industry. “The initial plan was to rent the cottages to our friends and colleagues during the times we were not using them,” Sharon said. “But then the idea took on a life of its own.”
Asked what advice she ignored: a real-estate developer friend had told her the business was too risky.
Thrillist put us on the map of Upstate New York.
Fourteen years after Country Living, a different kind of press: not how the cottages were built, but where to go. Thrillist listed us among the most beautiful places in Upstate New York.
BoutiqueHomes sent their readers up the Northway.
Two newsletters in the same year — East Coast Beauty and What’s New — describing a charming cottage escape in the heart of the High Peaks.
A podcast asked how a cottage becomes a brand.
Jasper Ribbers had Sharon on Get Paid For Your Pad to talk about branding — how two small buildings in a town full of rentals end up with a name people remember.
Insider counted nineteen, and we were in them.
The most recent of them: Insider’s guide to the best Airbnbs in the Adirondacks, chosen for hiking, mountain scenery and easy lake access.
Same two buildings. Twenty years of other people describing them.
What hasn’t changed
Between the first piece and the most recent one, the shelter magazines gave way to travel press and travel press gave way to whatever a podcast counts as. What they were looking at never moved: two 1920s bungalows on a quiet, fully fenced property, a ten-minute walk from Lake Placid’s Main Street and minutes from the Olympic venues.
We still do most of the work ourselves.
Come and see what they were writing about.
The Studio and the Two Bedroom Cottage can be booked separately or together.
Frequently asked questions
How old are the cottages?
Both date from the 1920s. They were bought as a run-down pair in January 2003 and renovated largely by hand — the two-bedroom took nine weeks, and the 320-square-foot studio needed new walls, doors, windows and water pipes.
Which publications have featured GO-Cottage?
Domino (January/February 2006), Country Living (September 2008), HGTV’s Small Space, Big Style, Thrillist, BoutiqueHomes, the Get Paid For Your Pad podcast, and Insider’s guide to the best Airbnbs in the Adirondacks.
Is GO-Cottage close to the Olympic venues?
Yes. The property sits in the Olympic village of Lake Placid, a ten-minute walk from Main Street, with the Olympic venues close by.
Can both cottages be booked together?
They can. The Studio and the Two Bedroom Cottage sit on one fenced property and can be taken separately or as the whole compound.
