It'll ruin your life
Buying a lake house will ruin your life. Ten years ago we purchased a lake house in Meredith. That first summer was kind of weird. New house, new friends, new place to put the boat, lots of odds and ends jobs and the people at the hardware store knew me by name and knew my phone number for their rewards program. What did I get myself into? In previous years, I valeted my boat and came and went in the same day.
By the end of the summer, my wife had started to stretch her weekends and take the kids to the lake on Thursday. Then, she decided with her new found friends that she was going to abandon me and take the kids and live at the lake the entire next summer.
The next summer, three hours after the kids got off of the bus, they were at the lake….and I was living alone.
The kids made about 10 new friends (we live in a community in Meredith) and can you believe this….they took off with their friends every day. They went fishing, swimming, played games and only came back when they got hungry. My wife and her friends decided it was okay to have daily picnics on the beach and plan fun things for the kids…..and I was living alone.
Then, the wife and her friends decided that the boat was too much work for them to uncover and manage, so they decided that they needed jetskis. Then came the jetski tubing, knee boards and wakeboarding with my wife and her friends….and I was living alone.
But alas, weekends and vacations came I was reunited with these strangers. They had the gall to beg me to take them out on the boat and do things with them all weekend. They wanted me to go tubing, to go swimming and play games with the other dads who were… living alone during the week.
That summer came to a close and my wife had the nerve to tell me she and her friends….they were going to do the same thing next year. (and for the next 8 years and counting)
The following winter, we walked down to the lake and saw 10 snowmobiles crazily go whipping by us. What a bunch of crazies. I’m not even going to go into how I ended up buying 2 of them and my son and I spent every winter weekend for the next 8 years and counting riding all over NH. (and yes, we are now on snowmobile 4 and 5)
Now, my kids are in college and I’m thinking that I’m home free. Peace at last. Do you know what those kids did? They got jobs in the lakes region and spend every darn summer at MY lakehouse.
So, buying a lakehouse will ruin your life. You’ll crave for Friday to come, you’ll save up every minute of vacation to spend your time there and you spend lots of extra time planning on how you’ll make it your permanent home. You’ll get addicted to watching for ice out every year, if you become a snowmobiler, you’ll be begging for snow like when you were a little kid. You’ll never get rid of your kids. From what I've seen in my neighborhood, the older kids and grandkids show up almost every weekend. You’ll never guess the things they do when they get to the lake…
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