On a bit of an impulse, we bought a cottage on Lake Ontario...sight unseen.
The backstory is that we have been vacationing on the Lake for the last couple of years, visiting my best friend and her family who has a house in this community. Last year we considered buying a property but it was sold before we had a chance to put an offer in. The disappointment was real and since then I've checked periodically to see if anything was on the market. These houses tend to stay in families for generations so I wasn't expecting much but lo and behold I found a property in April that had just recently been put up for sale. We called a local real estate agent and asked her to go in and take lots and lots of photos so that we could get a good sense of the place. While the house was clearly in need of a refresh, the agent seemed to think all we needed to do was replace the rugs and clean the windows to be in there the first summer. The inspection came back pretty good as well with no major issues reported.
J went to NY for the closing and called me from the house. "I have the keys and I'm in", he said. "Oh good" I replied. "Oh no, not good", he answered.
Apparently our standards of living are much higher than the agents or inspectors. The property ended up being a MUCH bigger project then we had expected and for most of the summer we lived in a construction zone. Before we arrived, I was happily buying furniture which had no place to go as much of the walls, windows and flooring had to be replaced.
When we finally moved in we were luckily without a toilet for only 12 hrs! We took showers every couple of days, piling the family in the car and driving to the local campsite to use their facilities. We slept on air mattresses and used wood planks to keep the windows open
We even had friends come to visit and stay overnight. I tried really, really hard to set the right expectation that it was only slightly better than camping.
But at the end of the day, we are so very glad we made the purchase. It's a beautiful spot with our own private beach out back.
We get to frolic in the sea, play bocce ball on the beach, grill out every night, watch the sun set and sit around bonfires toasting marshmallows. Just as summers should be!
The backstory is that we have been vacationing on the Lake for the last couple of years, visiting my best friend and her family who has a house in this community. Last year we considered buying a property but it was sold before we had a chance to put an offer in. The disappointment was real and since then I've checked periodically to see if anything was on the market. These houses tend to stay in families for generations so I wasn't expecting much but lo and behold I found a property in April that had just recently been put up for sale. We called a local real estate agent and asked her to go in and take lots and lots of photos so that we could get a good sense of the place. While the house was clearly in need of a refresh, the agent seemed to think all we needed to do was replace the rugs and clean the windows to be in there the first summer. The inspection came back pretty good as well with no major issues reported.
J went to NY for the closing and called me from the house. "I have the keys and I'm in", he said. "Oh good" I replied. "Oh no, not good", he answered.
Apparently our standards of living are much higher than the agents or inspectors. The property ended up being a MUCH bigger project then we had expected and for most of the summer we lived in a construction zone. Before we arrived, I was happily buying furniture which had no place to go as much of the walls, windows and flooring had to be replaced.
When we finally moved in we were luckily without a toilet for only 12 hrs! We took showers every couple of days, piling the family in the car and driving to the local campsite to use their facilities. We slept on air mattresses and used wood planks to keep the windows open
We even had friends come to visit and stay overnight. I tried really, really hard to set the right expectation that it was only slightly better than camping.
But at the end of the day, we are so very glad we made the purchase. It's a beautiful spot with our own private beach out back.
We get to frolic in the sea, play bocce ball on the beach, grill out every night, watch the sun set and sit around bonfires toasting marshmallows. Just as summers should be!
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