Pine Cone

We've looked at the Beach. Wow, it's expensive. It is an area that is worth taking on that huge mortgage in order to get easy access to the water and lifestyle? Whilst I'd be fine doing a moderate renovation, if that means buying into an otherwise unaffordable area that I'd love to actually live long-term, still wow....

True, but at the end of the day, you'd still own your own asset rather than paying someone else for the priviledge of using theirs.

jandro

Growing up I remember many of my friends families had cottages of varying sizes. Most were on lakes and were not winterised. Usually they were about 1 to 1.5 hours drive from the city. I would often get invited for a weekend. I seem to remember most of the cottage owning familes rarely traveled elsewhere for their holidays - going to the cottage on the weekends and for a couple of weeks in the summer was the main holiday. The big draw for me was the fishing so I prefer lakeside cottages. I couldn't put up with the maintenance required with owning one though. I think in BC they call them cabins and there less common.

Stinkypup

Yes, cabins indeed-There are a reasonable number around here- a lot of them have to rely on solar power or generators at a push and are designed as Summer places on the lakes

Pine Cone

My friends family cabin is winterised. I've seen photos from their Christmas holiday there, complete with snow. Apparently it took 5 years of DIY to get it to that point and too add proper laundry facilities etc so it could be rented out occasionally. I have no idea how much you could charge to rent out a 2-3 bed cottage for a week though. I'm assuming you'd need extra liability and damage insurance etc.

What happens with cabins that are not winterised. Do you need to remove everything and leave empty to avoid it going mouldy? Does someone need to visit regularly to ventilate and do maintenance? Or are they just bloody cold but otherwise OK to be left as is over winter?

Photoplex

So, you're moving to the Toronto area?

jandro

I remember the owners left their furniture there over the winter. I spent a few winter days at these cottages - we either used electric heaters or wood stoves to keep warm. It took a long time to get the wood stove to warm the place when it was -20 C. In one case we had to walk a ways pulling sleds to get to the cottage because the road wasn't cleared in the winter. At the other cottage the owner paid for snow clearance on their driveway and it was near a major road (although extremely pot-holed). Break-ins during unoccupied periods were not uncommon, even if there was nothing too valuable.

Pine Cone

It's one option, among several potential work transfer options, that are being researched very thoroughly indeed.

not2old

A couple from our past lived in a condo near the lake in Mississauga, had a cottage that they went to every weekend. In the summer she would take the kids & stay till school started again in September. He would go every weekend.

When they retired at age 60, they sold the condo & moved to the year round road access cottage. In the dead of winter they head south for two months. At 71 they are still doing this. Cottage value is approx $300k

A second couple with no children now just turned 50 have a family cottage they inherited from their parents who built it in the 50's on 'go home lake'. They have modernized it over & over from the basic shack that was the weekend uninsulated cabin. They go every weekend summer & winter, average 2 hour drive.

The cottage is valued at $600k

magnumpi

Same here, we live close to the lake and several free and $$ boat launches, I ride a Seadoo on the hot days and fly RC planes when I can. Walks along the lake front with the dog and a paddle are the norm here.

Plus I hate the bugs up north, I have stopped going to our cousins trailer because of the bugs, mostly mozzies, but also then horse flies can take a chunk outa ya skin too.

scrubbedexpat133

Yes - vacuous self satisfying half wits who will clog up the roads for hours on end of a Friday afternoon and a Sunday evening (nearly always involving an accident due to incompetence) to spend time by a lake and bask in their own BS.
I understand those that live there year round but cant get my head around the herds of sheeple that do the weekend thing.

680 news radio in Toronto even has cottage country traffic reports in the summer complete with cheesy animal howl sound effect.

not2old

From the property tax thread

Consider this

If you want a 1-2 hr commute to work, why bother having a cottage - it only means double taxes, maintenece etc and likely you've considered $600k for a house in the GTA, then another $350k for a cottage, which gets you close to the million mark

Take a look at Niagara on the lake houses, right on the water. From the mls.ca website look at between St Catherines & St Davids water front houses.

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/M...&CurrentPage=1

This way you'll have the best of both worlds

Nice modern place in Vineland for $600k, water front

https://www.realtor.ca/Residential/S...Ontario-L0R2E0

.

bats

Cxwhat you really need is a downtown condo or house, a cottage in Muskoka, a hunt camp near North Bay and a condo in Florida.

dbd33

I didn't find it cripplingly expensive, I bought the house using a line of credit against my 50% of the house my, then estranged, wife lived in so there was no mortgage as such. I liked the area because it's an Anglo-Irish ghetto and so has many pubs. I subsequently fell into sailing, anywhere along the water would work for that; even Port Credit or Oakville if you're suburban by nature.

If you visit Toronto and still have the idea of having a cottage, I suggest sitting one Friday evening at Airport Road and Highway 89, anytime will do, from 3:30 until midnight.

JamesM

Cottages are boring.

Give me my condo with a/c, cable package and access to local pubs/patios every day of the summer.

It's a cradle vanity project that needs to die along with the baby boomers.

I am I said

OK, I'll bite and weigh in with the benefits of a cottage. But the qualifier is that Mrs IAIS and I regularly have the same discussion in the UK about getting a ski/mtn biking/climbing property in the Alps and cannot avoid concluding that we could stay in 5 star accommodation each trip and still be financially ahead.The pluses of cottaging, from someone who spent some time of his youth doing it:- the lake will almost certainly be warmer than Lake Ontario for swimming- fewer dead fish- it is a get away for the summer holidays, particularly when the children are young. The non-working parent [are there any of those left?] takes the children for the entire summer, the working parent joins the madness of the 400 north on Friday nights.- they tend to be great places for children to explore, get wet, go canoeing, sleep in tents, go fishing, etc [ok, not the packed in areas perhaps]- a separate set of friends and family with the cottaging neighbours- a place to hold family and friend get togethers- as the children get older, it is a relatively safe place for them to have parties [not that alcohol, water, and power boats are an ideal mix]It is possible to go up in the winter, but you are not necessarily going to be getting out of your woollens or even able to drive the last bit. It is part of that Canadian experience, though!Having said all that, the bugs drive/drove me nuts, too... which is one of the reasons I don't live in Ontario anymore.