Do you have a summer home that you purchased? Has it been everything you thought it would be? Do you utilize it as much as you had hoped? We go back and forth on whether the cost and maintenance is worth the enjoyment we would receive. Our kids are finishing up graduate and undergrad degrees next year, so it isn’t like we have young kids schedules that we would have to work around. Two of the kids will land not at home, but close enough that if we would get a cottage within the 2-3 hour distance, they could utilize it a lot and would gladly do that. Both will be in jobs that job satisfaction is great, pay, not so much, so a free fun place to enjoy would be a great thing for them. Third child hasn’t started with the job placement, so no clue on her.
We are campers, so we do have a camper we utilize a lot. We had downsized on that when the kids moved off to school so there isn’t room for all of us. We love camping, but love the thought of having a place for the entire family to enjoy. And honestly, even if they aren’t able to enjoy it as much as they’d like eventually, my dh and I love to fish and would love to be on a lake somewhere. If we land on a certain few lakes, my dh could even commute to and from work these last few years before retirement.
I think being stuck inside this winter has us itching for new adventures!
Having a pleasant gathering spot for family reunions or vacations is a great idea.
Future spouses and grandchildren will hopefully be more eager to visit when they have vacation accommodations and atmosphere. Trying to entertain a toddler in an old persons home full of breakables is stressful, so keep that in mind as you decorate. Go for good form and function, and don’t skimp on quality sleeping accommodations.
I suggest you look for a place that will be both kid friendly and elderly friendly for your future needs. And if you can find close place that allows you to commute, well that is a great bonus!
Our cottage is our lifeline. It’s what the whole family looks forward to all year. It’s not fancy but it’s directly on a Great Lake, we have a beach and all you need to bring are your bathing suit, shorts, books, food and money for ice cream. The BEST life.
Ours was in H’s family for decades. H’s family and another couple were like you and used to camp. They finally decided to buy a lot - and put two trailers on that lot. Over the years the trailer was built around to a small but works cottage. It’s a little over 3 hours from our home - I do wish it was closer.
We were offered a share of the family cottage…and declined. It is lovely…on a lake. But way to remote for us. We also didn’t want the responsibilities of owning a second home, far away (a six hour drive…).
There are so many wonderful places to rent now. We are thinking we will rent someplace for 6-8 weeks in the winter…a different someplace. We can try lots of different places for the cost of a second home.
We can alsomrent someplace in the summer and have done so for the last many years.
Our main home here is in a somewhat rural area…with a gorgeous lake at the corner.
OP, two things also matter…
Depends on your line of thinking - for me:
Cottage = smallish, not perfect, may be some upkeep.
Summer home = more like a residence, well kept, more spacious.
What can you afford and what kind of time/$$ are you willing/able to dedicate to it - on a regular basis - because no “home” stays $$ free after you purchase. Are you are your H handy? Do you like to renovate, fix, upkeep things? Or are you just looking for a place you can drop the suitcase in the bedroom and head out to the deck for the duration?
We share two summer cottages and it’s too much, mostly because we have to drive 4 hours to one and 7 to the other. They are both very barebones. The one in Vermont gets electricity from solar power and has a composting toilet. The one on the Cape still has exposed knob and tube wiring and is not winterized at all. They’ve been in the family forever. There were plans to give the place on the Cape to the local conservation trust with the ability for us to live in it for the next 20 years. My Mom died before the paperwork was finalized and us kids are trying to figure out if we are okay with the plan. There’s something nice about going to a place over and over full of mementos of past generations. I’ve also rented condos on the Delaware shore with DH’s parents and it’s just not the same, even though they were all nice and modern and you didn’t have to worry about chopping wood, or taking care of carpenter ants.
The upkeep can become a burden as it’s on top of your normal maintenance of your home. I remember several Memorial Days or Labor Days were spent repairing pipes, stoves, painting, critter damages, or raking leaves. And then we suddenly had to pay higher property taxes as the town reassessed all summer properties.
But if it works for you then go for it. I recall driving to our cottage around this time of year and watching the ice fishermen on the lake, listening to the sounds of geese flying overhead, and hearing the highway traffic far away in the distance. A nice peaceful spot to sit and eat lunch and get away from the daily grind.
And if you get into a bind, you can rent it out for a few weeks too.
We have a cabin we built in the western Maine mountains. We love it, but it is a good bit of work. DH likes using his hands and figuring out things, so it’s therapy for him! Thanks to him, we have rainwater collected in a basement cistern, and it is pumped upstairs so we have a working toilet, shower, and sink faucets. There is no electricity. We have an electric pump that we run off our car battery in the summer. For the winter, DH just installed a hand pump.
Our kids (18, 21, and 24) have kind of lost interest in it for the time being, but I think they will like it again eventually. It’s a labor of love - it makes no sense as an investment. We could probably get only $60,000 or so for the cabin on 48 acres of land!
When I lived in NYC I bought a place out on Long Island out near the eastern end of Fire Island (not as far – nor as tony – as the Hamptons. At the time, mortgage interest rates were 17% (remember those days?!?) and between maintenance and mortgage costs, I could have stayed in vacation rentals and/or gone to nice hotels whenever I wanted. Moreover, property values ultimately tanked, so I lost money in the end when I moved across country. I must say, however, it was nice to have a place to escape to as NYC in the summer is not always the most pleasant:
Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head…
Now I live in a place where I don’t feel a need to escape from and can be on vacation anytime (great weather, pool in the backyard, beaches down the road). Much better mousetrap.
Husband and I toyed with the idea. Still toy with it occasionally. We’re not very handy, fix-it-up people, however. We’ve opted to do rentals instead and enjoy the opportunities to check out different places. A nice thing about being a renter of someone else’s place is, to me, it feels like more of an escape. I don’t feel the urge to (or the guilt if I don’t have the urge!) to fix things that might need fixing or touching up or painting, etc. I can just relax and put it out of my mind. That’s something that I find harder to ignore if the place is mine.
When we travel to a particularly beautiful spot we imagine owning a 2nd home. The last spot we dreamed about was a lake in Montana that we camped at this past summer. In reality the homes were expensive and it is far from home that we probably wouldn’t use it much.
My inlaws have a house on the ocean about 2 hours from where they live. After a break in they decided to turn it over to a vacation rental company. It makes a nice income and they use it themselves several times a year. We go up as extended family about once a year. As the families grew we now have to rent a 2nd home. If they didn’t rent it out it would be a costly getaway.
I do know several friends who have condos or homes in ski resort towns. They all tend to use them both summer and winter.
My H has a dream to own a boat. He periodically looks but hasn’t purchased anything. I tell him I’d be shocked if he ever actually bought one. I think the biggest obstacle is that in our area in addition to buying the boat you have to buy a slip to keep it in. We could rent a slip 45 minutes away but I think that would be a deterrent to using it. If we had it in our marina you would just drop by to tinker or sit outside and have lunch. I would support him in his decision but I’d much rather charter a boat in different locales.
Like anything–having a summer place has its pros and cons. We’ve had our place for 10 years. It’s not directly on the water, but it’s on an island and the closest beach is 1/4 of a mile from the house; we are less than a mile from town. Our place is winterized so we could go all year, but we don’t. We close up from mid-December to May. From May to December we are there most weekends and for longer periods in June and July. Our main residence is 100 miles from the town where we get the ferry.
We rent our place for a month in August, which is peak tourist season, and that goes a long way to paying expenses. All of us have come to like the off-season more than summer because the island is much quieter. We have a caretaker who does maintenance and checks on things when we are away. We started a tradition of spending Thanksgiving at our vacation place and both my kids are always there; my son-in-law’s parents come as well as the kids’ friends who hsve plans for Thanksgiving.
My H does lots of deep-sea fishing. There are tons of bike paths around the island as well as hiking trails, activitescI like more than fishing. It is a bird watchers mecca (I don’t birdwatch but have bff’s who are serious birders and they love visiting.) H and I are seriously considering selling our main residence and living on the island place full time now that he’s working less and less. I feel blessed to have these choices.
We sold our motorhome and bought a little cabin on a little lake 4 years ago. It’s heaven, It’s only 75 minute drive door to door, we keep it totally stocked with clothes, food, all of our regular toiletries so we can go for a day or a week on a minutes notice. Whats funny is it’s tiny relative to our house and yet we have friends reserving their next weekend as they leave! DH is very, very handy so he has been doing a lot to make it comfy for us - including installing a washer and dryer so we don’t have to lug laundry back and forth and we are currently remodeling the kitchen.
Never buy lakefront property without knowing about what’s underwater. Our lake was infested with milfoil and every summer we had to pay for a harvester to spend one half day pulling up the weeds from the water. A few months later they were back again thanks to the nearby treatment plant’s chemical spillage, but that’s a different story.
One favorite memory was the time my sister-in-law fell out of the paddle boat and into the water by our dock. Both of her feet were grabbed by milfoil tentacles. She struggled to free her limbs, but merely sunk like quicksand deeper and deeper into the muck. She screamed and her husband grabbed her and eventually pulled her back into the paddle boat while those of us onshore had a good laugh. She still talks about this whenever I see her.
OP, if you have been a camper it may be that you don’t need/want something grand. As I said, there are cottages/cabins and then there are lake homes!
We find as our kids get older (19, 24, 28) they seem even more attached to our cottage and can’t wait to get there. There is nothing better than scheming to just throw some things in a duffel bag, grab some food from the cupboard and freezer and jump in the car to go to the lake. In our family anyway.
If your H could commute back and forth even better!
Great question. We have thought about the same thing.
We like to go to a variety of places, and worry that if we had a place of our own, we’d feel bad not using it and going other places instead. I have thought about combining resources with others do do something similar.
My guess is we will never do it, because we would feel the financial strain of owning another place, and it would limit our ability to go on other vacations. BUT, as we figure out where our kids land, we may lean in the other direction.
Since our noise is near the lake, hiking, bike trails, and is in the woods…I think it IS a summer cottage. Actually…folks around our lake do rent their homes sometimes.
