Do-it-yourself (DIY) expert Adam Holman wrapped up the first season of his web series Cottage Coach earlier this month with the final episode premiering on Oct. 3, and now fans will get the chance to talk projects with Holman and see his work in person at the 2019 Fall Cottage Life Show.
The show runs from Friday, Oct. 25 to Sunday, Oct. 27 at the International Centre in Mississauga. Holman will make appearances on the main stage along with author and Cottage Life contributor Leslie Garrett, who will discuss how climate change has affected cottage country, and Cottage Life recipe developer Tony Armstrong, who will take the stage for a cooking demonstration. Holman’s show Cottage Coach debuted in June and features DIY projects aimed at helping cottagers tackle the wants and needs they have at their summertime homes.
“Having your own cottage, you can’t just call somebody every time something goes wrong. You need to be able to fix things on your own,” Holman said. “Having a little bit of a DIY background or taking the chance and doing something yourself can save you a ton of money, you can get it done a lot quicker, and it makes it that much more exciting when you do finish a project on your own and you can show it off to friends and family.”
Holman started working with Cottage Life about five years ago as a producer, editing promos for their shows before taking a job focused on do-it-yourself (DIY) projects last year.
“It was a great opportunity to bring my background of building and woodworking that I’ve always loved into my job, and that’s kind of how it all started,” Holman said. “It started out with little DIY projects, and now it’s grown into these bigger Cottage Coach builds with a whole show built around it.”
He started off by creating one-minute DIY videos for Cottage Life where he was off-camera. Once he started hosting the videos, the series took off, which led to the creation of Cottage Coach.
Season one of the series features six episodes that are between five and seven minutes, showing projects like the creation of a floating raft and the construction of a firebox. The series also integrates the crew into the episodes, giving it a behind-the-scenes feel.
“Not every series goes behind the scenes and lets you see things that you don’t normally see, so we have shots with me talking to the director and people really like that,” he said. “They like the builds too. We’ve had great feedback and people have been building the projects.”
Season two is in the works and the crew has some cool ideas for new projects up their sleeves, Holman said. They’re also considering expanding the series to include seasons beyond summertime.
“We’re definitely looking at doing some fall and even some winter episodes possibly,” he said. “We want to appeal to not just summer cottagers but people that do live there all year round.”
With the Fall Cottage Life Show coming up next weekend, Holman looks forward to meeting more fans of the show. He’ll be making three main stage appearances to talk about distressed wood and heading to the booth afterwards to chat with visitors and answer questions.
“Having rustic wood and that very distressed feel is popular right now, so I’m going to be taking a regular piece of pine from a hardware store and talking about different ways to distress it and make your own projects out of it,” he said. “I’m going to be building a serving tray out of it and then if people want to head over to the booth after that, they can sign up for a DIY newsletter and have a chance to take the tray home.”
Holman encourages residents, cottagers and anyone interested in cottaging to attend the fall show. With 250 exhibitors, the show has something for everybody, he said, whether it’s that special item you’ve been searching for or simply a bit of inspiration.
Watch Adam Holman in the web series Cottage Coach, exclusively on CottageLife.com, and see one of his favourite projects in the video below. You can also see Adam Holman at the 2019 Fall Cottage Life Show that runs from Oct. 25 to Oct. 27 at the International Centre in Mississauga. Tickets are available now on Cottage Life’s website.
