HGTV's Scott McGillivray

Since 2008, HGTV host and handyman Scott McGillivray has helped homeowners throughout North America turn their properties into income opportunities. In his latest series, Scott’s Own Vacation House (premiering March 14), he applies lessons learned on Vacation House Rules (returning in April for a third season) to his newly-acquired cottage property in the Kawarthas. 

There Scott and his family, wife Sabrina and daughters Myah and Layla, set about renovating three 40-year-old cottage structures plus a boathouse. Helping is his “secret design weapon," Debra Salmoni.

First up is turning the guest cottage into a beach house, a spectacular transformation that begins with the removal of a 100-foot-tall white pine teetering inches from the front roofline of the cottage. After hiring a chain saw whiz who scampers to the treetop like a circus trick, McGillivray trucks the giant trunk off to a mill and has the pine turned into a portico.

On the podcast, we also discuss the soaring increase in properties (and in renovation costs), the impact of rising interest rates and the “rental tax” being introduced throughout Ontario’s cottage country.  Plus there’s Scott’s cheer-full pick for his favourite TV theme song of all time.