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They had called their Georgina Island cottage their "tropical island." It was where Calvin Liu and Mark Oliver retreated every summer to leave the worries of the city behind. But then the ice hit, destroying their lakeside idyll — and all thoughts of escape.

It happened one night in April, and with startling speed, according to neighbour Bill Linders, who with his wife, Charlotte, witnessed the destruction from the safety of their home next door.

"The wind started at five minutes after 12 … and at 25 minutes after 12 it was all done," says Mr. Linders, who watched in amazement as the ice on Lake Simcoe destroyed the men's cottage with glacial force. "It was all over in 20 minutes."

The ice was more than a foot thick, and by Mr. Linder's estimation, at least 22 kilometres wide, the distance separating Georgina Island from the city of Barrie, located directly across the lake.

"It sounded like a bulldozer — crushing and crashing and tearing the cottage apart."

Mr. Linder says that the ice pushed the cottage, which was located just six feet from shore, completely off its footings. "[The ice] came in through one wall and went out through the back wall, completely destroying it." (The Linders' home is set back from the water and remained intact.)

The neighbour telephoned Mr. Oliver in Toronto, where he works as a venture capitalist, to give him the news. Mr. Liu, a family practice physician, says he nearly collapsed from the shock.

"We went up to look at the damage, and we both couldn't believe our eyes," Mr. Liu says. "It was so shocking, it made the front page of the local newspaper [the Pefferlaw Post]."

The article was accompanied by a photograph of the cottage, which had been featured in several interior design publications, including Canadian House and Home and Globe Real Estate . All that remained was the roof line, sagging into a chunk of ice as tall as a two-storey building.

Making matters worse, the house wasn't insured against damage from ice.

"Buried deep in our policy was an exclusion clause that means flooding or ice — water-borne objects — are not covered," Mr. Oliver says. "We seriously thought about demolishing what was left and selling the land, just to try to ease the pain."

Several contractors they consulted were of a similar opinion. Each in turn took one look at the cottage and declared it a teardown.

"We went into action to clear out what we could salvage, although the blocks of ice were ceiling high," Mr. Oliver says. "The roof was actually resting on the ice, which had taken out most of the interior walls."

A chandelier dangled incongruously above the debris, a remnant of the cottage that was.

"My moment came when we were taking things out of the cottage to move to safety," Mr. Oliver says. "Seeing the objects and the boxes out on the deck made me remember moving things in only four years ago, and how exciting and positive that was. Our first cottage experience. And then it felt like a closure to all that. The end of it. I was very sad."

But then they met David Beaudreau, a local builder who was introduced to them by their long-time contractor, Wayne Hoag.

The two cottage owners now call Mr. Beaudreau a miracle worker.

"[He] took a look and … with confidence, said that he and his boys could save the structure and move it back so it would be out of harm's way in future," Mr. Oliver says. "Calvin and I were a little skeptical, but he offered some hope. As it turned out, he really performed miracles with the structure, and we … had it moved back 40 feet onto a new foundation."

That involved putting the cottage on rollers, but only after men from around the island went into the building and — with their bare hands — removed the chunks of ice.

The cottage had become a cause célèbre, with everyone lending a hand. Says Mr. Oliver, "When was the last time contractors were lining up to get to your job?"

Out of destruction came a renewed sense of community.

Mr. Hoag returned early from his vacation and worked every day of the recent long weekend until 8 p.m. to dig a new water line, connect the septic tank, prime the pump and hook up the plumbing so that they would have bathroom facilities, Mr. Oliver says.

He, meanwhile, had already primed and painted everything white — the colour of new beginnings.

On the long weekend, the two men and several friends travelled to the cottage to continue its refurbishing and move in some belongings.

"Looking at the barren spot where the cottage used to sit brought back memories," Mr. Oliver says, "but looking back to where the new cottage sits, lit this weekend with lanterns, made the "[photographer Edward] Burtynsky" landscape in between the old and the new seem very magical. It was our first 'sleep over,' and a moment even more poignant than the original move-in four years ago."

Last Sunday morning, he adds, friends Christine Ralphs, the well-known Toronto interior designer, and her husband, Peter, "magically appeared" by boat from their cottage on neighbouring Snake Island. They helped move salvaged belongings back into the cottage from storage in Mr. Linder's garage.

Mr. Liu is now so suffused with hope that he has started hunting the local Goodwill stores and flea markets for those one-of-a-kind finds that will restore his summer home to its former shabby-chic splendour.

It's still going to be several weeks before the cottage is livable. In the meantime, Mr. Oliver and Mr. Liu are realizing what they have gained from the whole experience.

"Our new place will be more beautiful than the last, and full of new meaning that never could have been there in the beginning," Mr. Oliver says.