Perched on a hill above lake Danielson in Thorne, a new tourist destination is now officially open for business.
HillHaus Dômes Pontiac, named for the German heritage of the area, provides luxury accommodation in large, white mound shaped buildings in a remote setting. It is located off Thorne Lake Road and is open for bookings as of this Wednesday.
Currently HillHaus only has one dome in operation, with two more planned. Once they’re all set up, each dome will have a hot tub, a fire pit, a barbeque, a wood stove, a climatization system, a bed underneath a window ceiling for stargazing, running water, a full washroom and other amenities.
“It’s like extreme luxury glamping, ‘’ said Cory Larocque, one of the team . . .
members building HillHaus. Glamping is a tourist industry term for a kind of upscale camping experience.
The effort to build and get the domes ready for business has been a long process for Larocque, Jenna Jean-Marie, Phil Jean-Marie and Chantal Duffy.
“Cory, Jenna and Phil are all from Shawville,‘’ said Duffy. “We purchased this land about a year and a half ago. And we started kind of thinking about ideas on how to share the land, like it’s a beautiful piece of property with lake access. We wanted to do a family venture together and kind of get a project going.”
The crew went through many challenges in order to get to this point, including working through the cold last winter and the heat this summer, the rising cost in construction materials and a eight month long fight with Hydro Quebec which caused delay in getting the units set up with power.
“We spent the entire summer without any AC,” said Jenna about the lack of power on site.
“We also all have full time jobs. So we’re mainly here evenings and on weekends,” said Duffy.
The second dome is only a few weeks from completion and should be ready to go by mid October, according to Phil.
The domes themselves are made out of a triple insulated polyurethane material constructed over a steel frame.
“It’s like thick plastic,” Jenna said about polyurethane.
Each dome will also have a deck and an outdoor sitting area overlooking the lake.
All the lumber used in construction, including the decks, the floors, the counters and other pieces of furniture were all sourced from lumber harvested from the property, according to Duffy.
Duffy said this was a way for them to not only reuse the materials from the land, but also avoid the lumber shortages and price increases Canada has seen in the last year.
The crew also built a staircase down to the lake and plans on building a sauna for the guests.
The team also used local suppliers as much as possible, ranging from the people who treated the lumber, to the well drillers and more.
Units will be rented for about $225 to $250 a night plus tax, which will include all the amenities offered at the site, according to Duffy.
The units will be open all year round and are equipped with heaters for the winter. The crew said that there will be a range of winter activities that will attract guests during the snowy months.
“Thorne Lake road is actually the snowmobile trail, so people could bring their trucks and unload their sleds and leave right from here”, said Jenna.
“We also have 160 acres on this land, ‘’ said Duffy. “So a lot of snowshoeing and skiing trails. We also have the lake so there’s ice fishing. They can bring their skates and if they want to shovel off a little skating rink they can. It’ll be a great spot for the winter because we also have a wiggle cove inside so it’s kind of a nice cozy area.”
For the summer months they plan to provide guests paddle boards and kayaks for fun on the lake.
“We’re kind of in a good area because we have Ottawa so close, like about an hour and 15 minutes from here, ‘’ said Duffy about the site’s location. “And we’re right on the border of Ontario. So we also maybe have the Toronto market. And then we also have Montreal, which is two and a half, three hours away. So it’s, you know, a bit of a day trip for them to come up, but not impossible.”
“We’re most proud of just the amount of work that we’ve put in together and just like making it really a nice family business and doing it from scratch,” said Duffy, who also emphasized her pride in reusing materials off the land.
“We really think that this is gonna bring a lot of people to the Pontiac,” said Jenna. “I mean, Pontiac has a lot of really great businesses that we’d like to be able to promote. We’re doing a nice little guest book that will really bring out the brewery and the winery and the places that you can visit within the Pontiac while you’re here because we’re very centrally localized.”
“It’s a very unique stay, because, you know, there’s cabins everywhere,” said Larocque. “This is very different from staying in a cabin.”
