My wife was born in Meredith and grew up in southern NH. I'm from mass (don't tell anyone) and grew up vacationing in Meredith. We were living in San Francisco when we got married and decided that when we started having kids we wanted them in a more rural and wholesome place. So 11 years ago we moved back to Meredith and we now have a 6 and 4 year old. Being back here - while it has its challenges - has been absolutely the best decision we could have made.
For what its worth our first two home were on Winni but we concluded that living year round on the lake was a mistake. All of your neighbors are summer people or retirees so it can be pretty lonely and desolate in the winters.
Our current situation - which works phenomenally for us - is that we have a nice year round house in a year round neighborhood and a very small, seasonal camp in an association on the water. People think we are crazy for having a vacation house 7 miles from our main house but I look at the traffic on 93 and think perhaps I'm not so crazy.
When we go to the camp we are on "vacation" (even if its every day in the summer). We have summer friends in the association, I turn my phone off when I get their, it feels like we are "away." When its real life time we had back to our year round house. In the fall, winter, spring we have lots of great year round neighbors and it doesn't feel as isolated as when we lived on winni year round.
As to cost, you can pick up the house you described off the water for about $300k and a rustic camp is going to cost at least $200k so it might be a bit higher then you want but not too bad.
The biggest challenge I see people having is finding a way to make a living up here that pays for the inflated cost of living. But if I remember correctly you can do your work from anywhere so you don't have to worry about that.
Good luck to you!
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