About us

Hi, we are Bryan and Janie Oliver, the builders and owners of Oliver’s Cove Hideaway.

I, Bryan, was born onto a mixed farm in the little community of Lake Francis, Manitoba, about an hours drive north of Winnipeg. Janie was born and raised in West Kildonan, which is now part of Winnipeg.

We met in 1979, married in 1984 and have four children:  Michele, Nicole, Alexander and Meghan. We built a log home a short drive away from where I grew up, starting in 1983 and continuing to build it while we lived in it for several years before it was finished.

I’ve worked at many places, including an aerospace manufacturer, oil rig worker in Alberta, meat packing plant, a carpenter in northern Ontario as well as other jobs for short times before becoming a firefighter with the City of Winnipeg in 1992. Janie worked at several jobs in Winnipeg before settling in as a housekeeper in a senior’s home in Winnipeg.

In 1994, we purchased an abandoned farm not far from where we lived and with much work, we transformed it and worked at it while working our day jobs. (Upstairs in the cabin in Meteghan, there are 2 pictures with 1961; the larger one is the farm I grew up on and the smaller is the farm we bought.)

In 2017, we took our first trip to Nova Scotia and fell in love with it. We came back in 2019 and explored it again, with making our plans to come here after retirement. By early 2021, we had both retired, with only our farm, which we would work in the summer months.

In the fall of 2022, after the Covid restrictions on travel were lifted, we came back and searched for property throughout the southwest corner of Nova Scotia, before settling on this lot in Meteghan. I came back at Halloween, pitched a tent and for a week, cut and cleared the scrub and mass amounts of dead and fallen over trees.

We both came back in February of 2022 and continued the clean-up, with construction beginning in March and the pair of us most of the building. The cabin was finished by July 2023, and it went up for rent on the various short term rental platforms.

We return to Manitoba every growing season to farm and come back to Meteghan in the fall to continue working on the property while living in the cabin.

In 2023/2024 fall and winter, we constructed the sunroom. In the 2024/2025 off season, we constructed and installed the hot tub and deck, as well as the other little cabin. Compared to Manitoba winters, we absolutely love the mild Meteghan winter!

As well, since retirement, we have travelled in January and early February when we’re not in Meteghan to various places internationally and have had a great time doing so. We love what we are doing.

In the end, renting Oliver’s Cove Hideaway is our way of sharing the life we’ve built and the place we fell in love with.

The cabin supports our ongoing projects and stewardship of the land, but even more, it invites us to welcome travelers into a space we crafted with our own hands. We get to keep creating—planting, building, and improving—while meeting wonderful guests whose stories and smiles bring the cabin to life in every season.

Knowing that people find rest, warmth, and a bit of wonder here, the same as we do, is what makes this work deeply rewarding for both of us.