The cost hit me as well. Heck, a "cottage" probably only costs about $100k to build. Recent prices per square foot are 50-150, averaging about $95/foot. With a foundation and roof in place, the costs should be a little less than that. Of course we dont know the extent of the damage. I know in some situations that required extensive removal and disposal, those costs to get to the meat of the problem were higher than the actual repair/rebuild work.
I did do some work on my rental last year. It was brick 1/3 of the way up, some "has had its day" siding, 40 year old windows, and needed re-roofing. I did the 'demolition' work of removing the old siding and windows, replaced the dry rotted window sills, and dragged 5 truck loads of the debris to the dump. I then had a guy some in, install the new double pane windows, stucco the are from the brick to the roof line, and then had a roofer come in and re-roof. My cost was halved for the net work total. Because the area the home is in has almost doubled in RE value in the past 5 years, basically every dollar I put into the place is recoverable. I'll probably sell it in a year or two and invest the proceeds if my other investment efforts work out.
So couple of ideas: bring in a general contractor who can stop by once a week and advise you on self-removal of siding and whatnot to reduce the cost. You might find this a more effective cost recovery than the part time job. Also if the damage isnt dangerous, ie the roof falling in or walls falling off, consider fumigating to stop further damage, leaving it alone for 5-10 years while you build up some cash working part time or through investments, and do the repairs later. Really out-there option if the damage is extensive...live with it as long as possible and knock the whole house down and rebuild it.
I might offer more constructive (!) ideas if I knew the age of the home, the square footate, the type of foundation, number of floors, size of the lot, real estate pricing situation in the neighborhood (rising, falling, ??), extent of the damage and its type, etc. By all means give us more info and there may be some better ideas.