Cottage Ownership

[Russtic]

Hello,
I'm a relatively new member but have greatly enjoyed this forum over the past year. I've learned so much about a truly special place and it's made me want to be at the lake more often!
I'm looking for opinions on cottage ownership for a young family about 1 1/2 hours away. We are a typical busy family with two daughters, 10 & 7. Both are active kids involved with gymnastics, softball, girl scouts, etc.
My wife says we wouldn't get enough use of a cottage to make ownership worthwhile as activities during the school year and other events during the summer would interfere. I think we could make it work.....but maybe we do need to wait until the kids are in college!
What does everybody think? Appreciate your input.
Russtic

[PROPELLER]

Think of it this way. There are approximately 24 weekends from ice out to the middle of October & maybe you can take a couple week long vactions. Just remember that if your kids are active with other activities, those 24 weekends may become 10-15 weekends. If you can afford hundreds of thousands of dollars for the "cottage", thousands for taxes and more for misc maintenance, a boat etc. Then go for it. Its a huge investment for a few weekends & maybe a vacation week or two.

[MAXUM]

There is the investment aspect of ownership as well. Of course as Prop pointed out there is the re-occuring cost factor to weigh in after the inital blow :eek: of purchasing something.

I would sit down and honestly weigh the cost of ownership versus the use you will get out of the place. That can then give you a good estimation of cost per use. ;)

Finally obviously summer is prime time in the lakes region, but winter isn't all that bad either.

[mcdude]

Russtic: If your family likes to ski, Gunstock is a hop, skip and a jump away. That greatly enhances the number of week-ends that you might want to use your cottage as a week-end get-away. There are always family members and friends who will rent from you for a week here and there or for a ski week-end. Investment in real estate is not a bad idea ....? :cool:
http://www.gunstock.com/images/photo_archives/redskier.jpg

[JDeere]

I would consider how fast the cost of lake property has risen and wonder if lake front property might continue to skyrocket thereby putting ownership out of reach once your kids get to college. One option might be to use the cottage for a two week summer vacation and then rent the property. You should be able to make enough on it to at least break even on your payment and you are able to take advantage of any increase in value the property may have and you have a write off on the rental property.

[Old Hubbard Rd]

I'm from MA. My kids are 8 1/2 & 11. The way we do it is we do not sign the kids up for anything that runs on weekends. My son does gymnastics during the week. He ends up missing most of his Sunday school, he does his Sunday school home work at the lake. My daughter does paino, jazz/hiphop & gets tutored all during the week. They go to camp for the 1st session of summer. Ocassionally we will stay home on a weekend if a very best friend has a birthday party or something REALLY important is going on. I can only remember missing 3-5 weekends in the whole year. We are up here almost every weekend!! It will be a different way of bringing the kids up. We are always together as a family. My kids will be great swimmers and hopefully will enjoy the outdoors. We're hoping that we are filling them with good family values. We love hiking and exploring all the outdoor fun stuff. We love to ski. The kids have friends at the lake. It's just a great place. I hope were doing the right thing. I think we are. I'm sure things could change when the kids get about 13-16 years old. At that point I'm hoping they'll be able to bring friends with them so we can still come up.

P.S. Not a bad investment all around!!
P.S.S. Theres a newly listed "for sale" in Meredith in a association for low $300's-Good Luck

[Rattlesnake Gal]

What does your family think about buying? It was an easy choice for us because we all agreed it would be great. We don’t regret our decision to buy a place on the lake. If we needed to sell it now, there would be a profit already. We’ve only been here 1½ years. If we had waited, it may not have happened at all. Our thinking was that we only had a few more years to have our sons around. Now we have a nice draw to keep them coming back. We did make the decision like Old Hubbard Road to not book any activities that run into the weekends. As for the summer, there are so many things to do up here in the lakes region. Why not shift gears and have fun here? We too live 1½ hours away, which is not a big deal at all. Buying our place at the lake has been one of the best things we have ever done as a family. Because our place here is so much smaller, we are together more. It has made for some excellent family time. Good luck with your decision.

[camp guy]

Maybe you could rent for a season, or a year, and see what it would be like. The investment in a second home, albeit "only" a cottage, will be serious, and, if I may be so bold as to say so, should only be undertaken if all family members are basically on board with the decision. Some of the activities that children sign up for during the summer through their hometown recreation departments are quite nice, but the activities a child will be exposed to in cottage living will last a life time. How many of us remember learning to run on the rocks along the shoreline, turn over flat stones and catch crayfish, dig for earthworms and then go "drown" them in hopes of catching the big one that didn't get away, pick up fallen dead wood and have a bonfire to celebrate nothing - just life. These experiences only happen within the family setting, not the local rec department. Think about it, then go for it !!

[KonaChick]

We had to make the same decesions 4 years back when our kids were 9, 6 and 4. I have to say it's important to be a part of your towns activities..my kids are all avid soccer players so during the fall if we get in 2 or 3 weekends up we we consider ourselves lucky!! 2 of the 3 also play basketball in our town rec. league but somehow we still manage to come up 2-3 Saturdays a month during the winter to snowmobile. It's all about give and take..sometimes we can't make the games because we feel being up here doing our thing is more important to us as a family. Life goes on...missing an occasional rec game is not the end of the world. This past summer in order to stay up here addtional time we registered our kids for soccer camps UP HERE!~ They had a great time and met some new friends even. Yes there are times when we miss things and our kiddos miss activities with their friends..but I wouldn't trade that for all the tea in china when I think of the things my kids have been exposed to and now love to do ; water skiing, tubing, knee boarding, nature walks, snow mobiling, jet skiing, time spent when family and friends come up HERE, driving and docking the boat better than their father, Thanksgiving with 25 of their relatives:), fishing, swimming out to the floating dock with their cousins, camp fires, hide and go seek at night, fireworks off the dock, taking the boat to Ctr.Harbor to see the fire works..the list is endless. You will NEVER regret buying a place up here. It will give you endless memories and happiness for the rest of your lives and hopefully your grandchildrens lives as well. Good luck with your decision and hope to see you on the lake. Remember though LAKE TIME is different than regular time. You'll understand this after you've spent some time here ;o)

[Bear Islander]

Gymnastics, softball, scouts etc. are great activities 10 months of the year. But compared with spending the summer at a cabin on the lake it is no contest, not even close.

When I was a kid my mother packed us in the car on the last day of school, said goodbye to the neighbors, and headed for our summer place. We came back after Labor Day.

I look at it this way. All those great summer activities were thought up to entertain kids that don't have a lake cabin.

[dpg]

And don't forget the other side of the coin. Is the place alright? Did the last wind storm ruin anything? Did the roof cave in with the two feet of snow on it? I hope a window didn't break or the heat did not die (if you even keep it on) in that case did the pipes freeze? Places are fun but you also become "tied" to them. Sometimes you will even feel almost "pressured" to use it, well, because it's there.

[KonaChick]

We've found the pressure isn't so much "having" to use our place up as "wanting" to use it but can't for whatever reason. Having to do something and wanting to do something are 2 different things entirely!!

[DRH]

Russtic,

You've gotten a lot of advice here from many different people who have provided their own perspective on lake property ownership. I agree with pretty much everything they have said.

We bought our place at the lake ten years ago, and it was a second home until last year. (We live here year-round now.) We've never regretted buying when we did, for many of the reasons others have mentioned here. As a practical matter, if you buy a place on the lake and if for some reason it doesn't work out for your family, chances are you could always sell it for what you paid for it, or more likely, make a profit. Yes, there were times when we sat at home in MA wondering if our boat was getting pounded by the waves of a storm, or how much snow would be waiting for us in the driveway when we went up the next time (we came up every weekend, year-round), but in the long run it was definitely worth it for us, and we'd do it again.

I would suggest you give some hard thought to what benefits you and your family would want to get from owning a place at the lake. As others have said, your priorities might have to be adjusted (such as the kids' weekend activities at home, etc.), but if that would not be a problem and you can swing it financially, it's really a matter of whether you'll be happier spending weekends and vacations at the lake, or at home. There are countless things for kids (and adults!) to do at the lake. And we always found it to be a great stress reliever, as well. We could practically feel the stress of our "regular" life drain away each Friday night as we drove up to the lake!

So, although it's a personal decision you and your family will have to make, I think the other posters have given you some excellent advice and suggestions. Let us know what you decide to do!

[gravy boat]

Russtic,

My family was fortunate enough to have a cabin on the lake throughout my life, except for about 5 years (I'm 41). When growing up, our NJ town had tons of stuff to do for kids. Yet I have only two activities that I remember from our town, and very few memories from either. Swimming in the town pool, and playing softball for about 3 years. There were lots of kids at both -- from all over our town and the surrounding towns. Yet I don't keep in touch with any of them.

We only spent about 2 to 4 weeks at the lake since I can remember; yet I have so many great memories throughout my childhood and teenage years that revolve around my time at the lake. And I met my closest friend up here as a teenager and we remain best friends.

My best memories revolve around the lake. Not sure if this helps, but I hope so!

Gravy :D

[Rolie]

.........and the real reason for owning a cottage at the lake...

...because it's better than not owning a cottage at the lake!!!!

[robjnh]

We built a home on Winnisquam two years ago and decided to sell this Summer after we found out our third child is on the way in December (other two are are 3 and 6 YO). After finding out it was sold then then having the deal not go through, we found out how much we would miss the place and the memories and we are not selling.
I am lucky enough to be able to work out of my home most of the time so we spent all summer up there and We have gone back almost every weekend since.
I think if you start the kids out young enough and keep the weekend and Summer commitments to a minimum then it all works out. My oldest learned to waterski and swim completly on her own this year and my son will be there next year at 4. I think the pride and smiles alone are worth it......
Good Luck

[Merrymeeting]

We've owned for 6 years, with many, many more spent at my parents place. 3 children, all involved in sports and town activities. We have never regretted the decision. As stated earlier, the biggest problem is not being there.

As mentioned by someone earlier, one of the keys for us is that our children's best friends are at the lake (ages 16, 14, and 11). So having them not want to be there isn't an issue. We've often thought that we're lucky in that respect. If they didn't want to be at the lake, it would be much tougher.

[jpcoleman]

It has been mentioned before but winter is just as nice up here as is the summer. We have been here for ten years. I few years back my then 10 year old son said he wanted to get into ice hockey. I gave him the option of joining hockey or getting seasons passes to Gunstock. We have been happily snowboarding as a family ever since. Go for it, neither you or your kids will ever regret it.

[Island Girl]

I grew up going to a cottage on a lake all summer. We moved in the day school got out and came back the day before school started. My most wonderful childhood memories are of being there. I did not participate in summer activities but am not sure I missed much. I learned to entertain myself, playing in the woods, building play houses, waterskiing, and all that I learned about engines, house building (my Dad built our summer house as we were growing up), wiring, etc. has stood me in good stead as an adult.

I was always sorry that I did not have a place for my kids to live in the summer, although they went to my parent's place a lot.

It has been an adventure having a camp on Winnipesaukee for the last few years and I hope to be there until I am old and crabby.

As others have said, you can always sell it.

[SIKSUKR]

I.G.,Your story sounds just like mine.I would move to a small lake in Southern NH right after school let out and return a couple days before it began.I didn't get to participate in little league baseball or hang with my home friends at the public pool but the fun of being on the water everyday outweighed that by far.I graduated from learning to swim to eventually barefoot skiing two or three at a time.At that time there were no restrictions (or we didn't know about them)on how many people could be towed so we once had 10 people at one time being towed behind the same boat.We had to start skiers from three different boats and hand off ropes till finally 10 were in tow.Day after day on any water toy we could find.Fun memories.And like you I.G., My dad worked on the camp for many summers,tearing it half down,excavating dirt by hand from the cellar to make more space,building endless stonewalls and stairs.It seemed like slave labor at the time but what I learned from those years are priceless to me now. SS

[meredith necker]

I too grew up with summers at the island. It was a 4 hour trip from Mass and once we got there we stayed. There were always sticks to pick up, forts to build, deer to watch for, morning swims and then afternoon swims, learning to water ski behind an Aluma Craft 14' with a 15 h.p. Evinrude, rowboats to go out in and neighbors to play with, games to play and on rainey days 52 pickup, popcorn and smores and koolaid (or zarex) and exploring the attics. Once home again we just waited until next summer to come and got As on our English papers when we wrote about experiences up here in the summer. Some of us liked it up here so much that we stayed when we grew up and now I keep running into people's children who now are married and have their own cottages. It is an experience that can be live changing. Reading after lunch, making terriums, fishing, cleaning the church before weddings, going to bed and listening to the frog under the neighbors dock, listening to the wind in the pines, the water lapping on boats and shore, watching lightning over the lake. . .worth a million dollars. . . . . . . . .