My three biggest priorities were "nots" (maybe for this site I should say "knots"): not on the broads because of the wind and rough water, not a steep hill, and not an association.

I also have had 3 different Lake houses over the years and the one I have now fits the best for this time in my life.
My first was on Winni in Alton bay, my second was on Winnisquam in Sanbornton, and the one I currently have is is on Waukewan in Meredith.
Can't beat the less busy lake and where it's the town drinking supply for Meredith the water quality is watched closely.
As I have aged I prefer the less busier lake and the fact that I'm in a quiet neighborhood within walking distance to Meredith town docks.
I don't enjoy the crowded waters of Winni like I use to.

I have both. The difference is when it is not 75 or above I take the regular V hull boat. The wind on the pontoon boat is nice during the day when it is warm but less welcome if we go out to dinner or go visit friends and return at 9 PM on a cool summer night.

Also, early in the season or late in the fall the pontoon boat is just too open for the cooler temperatures. It really depends on when and what you are using them for.

When the water is 45 degrees there is a lot of cold wind on a pontoon boat. If I was on an island and only had one boat I don't think it would be a pontoon boat unless it had decent wind blockage in front.

Just one man's opinion. I am sure there are others!

I live on an island all season and I agree Completely! I have a very nice 27’ pontoon and a 22’ fully enclosed Eastern. If I could only have one it would definitely no questions asked be the Eastern!

Dan

Tritoon with custom enclosure
 

How about a enclosed 27' tritoon from helm to the stern. I designed it to have zipper curtain openings over helm along every sitting compartment having it's own zipper opening. Never have to put on the heavy mooring cover. Just zip up each panel encloses from front of the helm back to stern. Forward I still cover the front seating areas. Takes five minutes.

On a hot day unzip the enclosures and you have free flowing air even at higher speeds. Those who only want to sit out in the sun just move forward to the forward seats. Those who don't want wind or sun sit comfortably in the enclosed area. The helm can have all the wind or just zip up to fully enclosed or partial wind. Nice thing about this custom design enclosure it extends the boating season from ice out to late fall. And i never have to fight the big mooring cover. It is really cool looking because I had it designed so that it is all clear with very few seams. Ship Shape did the work for me and were so thrilled about the design they have pictures of it on their studio walls.

My first couple of pontoons (Manitou & Premier) had covers exactly like this. See pic of my Manitou taken 2008 / 2009, I had my Eastern then too. Yes you can do this and it certainly helps a lot but if your asking me would I take this setup over my Eastern...not a chance!

There is nothing like a hard top, hard side helm with wipers on your windshield in bad weather. No snaps or zippers to deal with, just jump in and go. The Eastern is our primary island boat as well as my primary fishing boat that is a real weatherproof workhorse that we count on to get us to our island home in any weather every single day.

I absolutely love tritoons also and will probably always have one and yes you can certainly get by on an island with that as your only boat with a setup as you describe....it would not be my first choice though.

Now if we are talking sunset cruises, general entertaining, water sports and having fun zipping around the lake...there is nothing like a tritoon with heavy horsepower!

Dan

Dan....hahaha Yes Dan I agree. Sunset cruises with windy days or cruise the entire lake on a hot summer day like we did last weekend. I agree with you. We have a enclosed t top for bad weather off the island transport to our mainland dock. But it isn't a totally enclosed Eastern which I would never take many friends out in a hot summer day cruising. I'm not comparing it to an Eastern or any totally enclosed cabin for cruising. We were just comparing toons Where would a windshield wiper go on a toon? And when you say there is nothing like a tritoon with heavy horsepower. I agree that is what we have. We have a Benny that can take the highest HP rating. I sold my 32' Scarab that I use to race Off Shore for a Bennington Tritoon.

As far as your enclosure on your tritoon it is nothing like we had custom built by Ship Shape. Just one example your helm enclosure looks like it is totally enclosed. Your not able to get any ventilation on a very hot day. On ours the total enclosure zips down where there is no enclosure. And i see the same for every seating position inside your enclosure. That is exactually what I didn't want. I saw what the manufactures were offering similar what you have and I did not want to be in that enclosure on a hot day. So with what we came up with in our design we can go cruising on hot or cold days with 12 people having their choice where they want to sit to be comfortable. I wouldn't expect your Eastern could have that many people enjoying a cruise around the lake in any kind of weather. But don't get me wrong. I had a 30' Eastern on Lake Erie that I loved. It is all about how we feel comfortable with where you boat today under the current weather conditions.

Just an fyi...The enclosure in that pic has soft screens behind the isinglass so we had full ventilation. The isinglass would roll up and snap into place and the screens allowed for full ventilation. I no longer have that toon and traded it almost 10 years ago...Back then there were not many performance toons on the lake.

Dan

Our house buying experience on Winni is a little unusual but perhaps helpful. My wife and I, for both good and bad life situations, had purchased several homes in FL over a short period of time. Although we are both cautious by nature, major life decisions we seem to make quickly. We had always wanted to retire on a lake. As our adult children were up north, when we were able to retire we looked at the map and Winni looked like a good place geographically so we did a little research online. Most of what I could find discussed the Weirs and that seemed too busy for us. As luck would have it, we discussed our search with casual acquaintences who had a home on Winni and they told us we had the wrong idea and Winni was wonderful and had many lifestyles depending on location. They even recommended a realtor. We called her the next day, arranged to fly up and told her we made decisions quickly. We also gave her a price range. We had never been to Winni before and met the realtor on a cold day in November. We spent the entire day with her as she drove us around the Lake and explained the different areas and what was important. Location is all and she emphasized water quality in a lakefront home is paramount and other issues such as taxes, differences in the towns and numerous other factors that we now realize were essential to understand. That evening my wife found a home on the internet which looked great to us. It was on Long Island...we had no real idea where that was. The realtor took us to see the house the next day; she had not seen the house before. We loved it. She pointed out pros and cons. The design was excellent but the builder was not experienced and the amenities, except for kitchen, were pretty low end. The waterfront water quality was excellent but even though Long Island has a bridge it was an 8 mile drive to stores, etc. and we might get tired of it. Even though, it was empty in November when we were there, in summer, as we were near Harillas boat ramp, cars would be lined up on the road and the area would be very busy. She explained that M’Boro had lower taxes than many areas. The point is, that in 2 days with a good honest realtor, you can learn a lot. We bought the house that day. That was 17 years ago and everything she said was true...including the negative observations about the builder. She also told us to buy a used boat no less than 23 feet. We were fortunate but sometimes you just have to do it. Her name is Susan Bradley and I believe she is still working.

Seen many cycles of high prices and dead markets over the decades.

Would love a nice island. But logistics is a tad difficult for some of those isolated islands.

We have a camp on the Broads near Ellacoya state park. Yes when you get the 'three day blow' if the wind is from the west it can make swimming and boating a little bit difficult. But the open views, clean clear water and being centrally located on the lake are just some of the part we love about being in that location. From where our marina is we can basically get to any of the major town docks in just about the same amount of time (Center Harbor would be the furthest away). You learn to deal with the wind when it comes in because the trade off for the view and nice beach are well worth it...

Looks like LSP by the footbridge to me.

MSWLogo,
If you haven't already done so, be sure to have a conversation with Nancy and Doug Deporter at KW about your real estate search. They know about this area better than most other lakes region realtors, especially when it comes to island living. If you call in the early morning you'll probably find them sitting on their southeast facing island deck enjoying their morning coffee...

I have yet to meet anyone from NY in the Lakes Region. In fact I have only met like 2 603 born and raised. Everyone I have met since moving here from NY in February is from Massachusetts.

so true man in many ways has ruined Lake Winni. never did anything for me except put food on my table. been in New Hampshire all my life and in Moultonborough for 21 years Columbus day weekend is my favorite time of year.

We've gone the way of the craw-fish!

Yep they are gone with many more species of wildlife.

Whatd'ya think?

Year round sunset. Only 3 season but that can be fixed. Has new well and fairly recent septic. Even has a garage (which is in tough shape).

The little "lagoon" is neat. Loons literally nesting right out in front.

It checks about 19 of our 25 boxes ;)

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...92817039_zpid/

Nice home in a nice spot.

I'll take two please. :D

Did you get an offer in, the listing says it is accepting back ups!

Very nice, jump on that quickly!

Hopefully you get it. It's a beautiful location and a nice camp as well. Good luck!!

Yes, it's ours. So nervous buying on a lake we know so little about. But it sure seems like a nice spot.

Hopefully the loons will still be around by the time we move in, in early September.

It's kind of neat that Winnipesaukee is just 10 minutes down the road.

Congrats, and good luck!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Congratulations!! It does look like a pretty spot. The loons will be here until just before Thanksgiving. They know when ice in is coming.

Congrats! Squam is a beautiful lake and the area is a little less congested than Winni.
It can be more challenging to boat as it has a lot of rock outcrops but once you learn navigating the lake you will love it.

You are fortunate people- congratulaitons!
 

However- at 1.2, it seems a bit pretentious for people to refer to it as a camp.

Congrats, msw! As you probably know, you're super lucky to find any place on Squam, with less than a handful for sale at any one time. Hence the $1.2MM "camp". Kind of like the Bush "cottage" in Kennebunkport :)

I think the new one qualifies as a "camp", right now any way ;). It is currently 3 season, not insulated (but does have heat pump from new mini split), on pillars and doesn't have a single closet. Hard to get my head around all that compared to what we had on Newfound. I'm a bit torn on how much to put into it down the line versus rebuild it. Especially where a lot was just put into it. I love working on home improvement projects. I think if we did rebuild we'd get our investment back (and our taxes would go up, ugh). And trust me, it wouldn't be anything crazy and has to stay within the current foot print. The foot print is a nice size considering how close it is to the water. Often small cabins near the water have tiny foot prints. We really do want to use it year round (especially if COVID gets bad this winter). If I kept it as is I'd have a real foundation put under it.

This was the old place we'd call our "cabin" ;)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e0fc6d_b_d.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/52/168...dbfabb_b_d.jpg

Now I'm really Jealous! :eek::emb:

Very nice!
 

They each have their own style! You may have left a great location, but you have found another on Squam- enjoy the improvement tasks!

Welcome to Squam, i've been following this thread but didn't think it would end up on Squam. I've been on the lake 60 years and have had a carpentry business for 35 If you need any assistance weather on the property or getting around on the lake feel free to pm me. Congratulations your future generations will appreciate you

BTW when I started this thread it was this island property we were torn over.

The place is absolutely gorgious. They spared no expense in building this place.

Cindy and Tim Melanson are listing agents and they are great too.

I'm kind of shocked it's not gone in this market. This house would be $3m on the mainland.

It is unusal for island properties to have a drilled well and this does. As well as huge "new" 2 bay boat house, 3 acres and 225 ft of frontage.

If my wife was in better health I think we might have gone for it.

Sellers are very reasonable too.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5...92830793_zpid/

The new property on Squam isn't likely to happen.

We just got the septic site assessment and it was a pretty harsh report I didn't expect.

The lot was small (1/3 of acre) but narrow long dimension being further away from the lake. With leach field at the furthest distance away (lot is 209 feet deep).

Septic was 3 Bedroom (450 gal/day) and "newish" installed 2002 or something under current "State Approved" guidelines, but house was on lake water at that time. So that was all good. They installed a brand new well within the last year or two. So I thought state approved, way back from water and brand new well, all good.

However, they put the well within the 75 foot radius of the leaching field, almost the whole leaching field is inside the 75 foot well radius (starting at 50 ft).

The site assessment down rated the septic to a 1-Bedroom. From 450 gallon/day down to 125 gallon/day (so as not to contaminate the well).

We wanted the option of possibly rebuilding. And it would have probably been 1.5 story (currently 1 story) 3 Bedroom (same as now) all within the same existing foot print. Which is 1416 sq feet, which would be very spacious by moving two bedrooms up.

There are tons of rules of where the well, septic tank, house, lake and leaching field can be. There was room to keep leaching field outside the 75ft but that would place it closer to the Septic Tank and house. The 75ft radius also encroaches on both neighbors land as well by quite a lot (50 ft on one, also small lots). I think the Septic Tank needs to be some higher grade in order for well to be closer to it. Still puzzles me why they put the well where they did (there might have been not better place than where they did).

They could have also sleeved the well to increase the effective distance of the well from the leach field. But they didn't. That can get very expensive though and that sleeve would have to be really deep I think (~60 ft I think).

Functionally I know it's probably fine. But getting approvals / waivers is a bit of a crap shoot. And if we ever needed to sell (for what ever reason) before any potential new work that *might* get past all this, it could severely limit resale.

Are we being stupid or smart walking away? We were paying over asking.

For the record, we've been through this Septic sh$t before. Our last home we got because the previous buyers backed out due to non state approved septic. The house only 7 years old, including septic when we bought it. But it was classified as 2 bedroom septic and not "State Approved". So if it failed you'd have to find another way, lot was narrow along the lake. The Well, House, Septic and Leech were all on close quarters. When we went to sell we had a buyer at near asking price all lined up. We got the site assessment and it labeled it as "2-Bedroom seasonal". Buyers ran so fast the door didn't hit them on the way out. Next buyers were fine with it, but also a little bit lower selling price. I think this is all partly why I trapped myself into confirming we HAD to sell it.

I would run away from that unless the owners were willing to drill a new well somewhere else on the property far enough away from the septic. I'm surprised they drilled the well that close to septic in the first place.

Yuck! Sorry to read that on multiple levels. I hope you find a great place soon.

We experienced exactly the same thing when we almost bought a place on Squam. Four bedrooms, including a guest cottage that was charming but falling down slowly, and a recent second floor addition to the main house. On inspection we discovered the lot dimensions were impossible for anything more than 2.5 bedrooms, and a clever ploy was the only thing that enabled them to add the second floor. So, just as in your case, a ticking time bomb of septic failure and/or responsibility, and also risk that rebuilding cottage would not be allowed.

Squam is a magnificent lake, but the price is often a fundamentally flawed house.

It turns out the new well was put in 100% conforming. They added a 40 foot sleeve which essentially reduces the required set back proportionally depending how deep the sleeve is. All town approved. I thought for sure the assessor didn’t know it was sleeved and would adjust the load capacity back up to the original septic design. They specifically call out the new well as the reason for reduced load capacity. But they would not adjust it. It’s just to much money to risk what some board will approve or not approve some day. Everything was done by the book. I feel bad for the seller. But there are enough uneducated buyers out there that it will probably sell for the same money quickly.

Need a Cliff-Notes Version...
 

My lawyer/neighbor's new winterized three story place shares a septic system with a neighbor and had a shared dug well OK'd within 60 feet of the leachfield. Their "garage" became a huge bedroom within days of moving in.

What are you doing wrong? ;)

I am a bit confused by this and have a situation that may be similar. A small (.40 acres) lot that currently gets water from lake. If I do a well it will have to be within 75 ft of my state approved 4 br septic. I was told it would not be an issue if they added a sleeve. Are you saying that although I may be able to put the well closer to the leach field than 75 ft I am in danger of losing my 4 br designation should I need to replace the septic?