JamesM

To have a vaguely decent experience boils down to the people you are with.

That is the problem with a remote cottage. You can't get away. It's palatable for 24 hours but you could be stuck there for days.

I preferred my old room mate's family cottage, up at Port Elgin, in most respects. It was closer to Oink's description but there was a Crabby Joes Bar and Grill round the corner when people started to irritate me.

Photoplex

Meh... FIL has an amazing place down on the waterfront on the Shuswap.

Winterized, open fire, AC, huge deck, hot tub, speedboat, own beach, all manner of fruit trees (peaches, apples, cherries, berries, nectarines etc), a garden full of veggies, 5 minutes to a bunch of golf courses, 1 hour to a bunch of ski resorts, 2 local organic craft breweries.

What's not to love? Just the 5 hour drive out there. But then, with SW AB being in the "foothills" there aren't a lot of lakes here. The ones that aren't reservoirs, are in provincial or national parks and you can't build on them.

And after a while you barely notice the 5 hour drive at all.

Pine Cone

Ha ha, I was once invited to spend a weekend in a friends grandparents weekend static caravan in rural Wales. It was exactly like this, complete with grandparents PJ's still in the beds.

Stinkypup

Just one hour from here..... Erm where did your FIL leave the keys to the front door .. And the boat?

Photoplex

It's not like the Okanagan is downtown Baghdad either!

Stinkypup

Yeah, Kal lake/Okanagan isn't bad but we aren't lakeside!! Pleeeeeeeease?

Tirytory

Oh give over, there are tons of coffee shops and bars to boat to, let alone drive to. Given that Lake Muskoka is one of three lakes connected, you could have boated to Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Port Carling, Rousseau, Windermere etc etc for your pint on a deck side patio.

Tirytory

I have to say we live here, and even I'm not convinced by lake side living. Of course, it's amazing when it's 30 degrees plus and you have your own private dock to jump off and fabulous for the kids, but you have to wait for the lake to warm up so the swimming season is later than the boating season and even the nice weather when it starts. You would be paying for a cottage, taxes and maintenance in which the main attraction lasts from June to August, maybe the first couple of weeks in September, although once the rain and cooler weather starts the lake cools down quickly. You could get a fully winterised cottage and use it in the winter but then you still have to consider a two hour travel in winter in often poor conditions because of lake effect snow and what activities you might use it for then (snowmobiling etc) and is it even worth it to have to keep a cottage open in winter given heating costs, someone keeping an eye on it etc.

Oh and most properties in Muskoka are taken off the market for winter so searching now for comparables won't net you much joy. Usually around April, May properties start appearing again..

JamesM

A lot of hard work for a pint. And you have to take the people you may be running from with you.

BristolUK

All the more rewarding.

bats

Yep, cottages are usually damp mouldy places filled with smelly old furniture and ancient and hideous lamps with dubious wiring. The walls are covered in nasty wood panelling, that's if they aren't planks of yellow wood. There's no sound proofing so you get to listen to other people farting, snoring, and or shagging most of the night. The loos are on small septics, there'll be a sign saying that cottage rules apply "If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down", it's pretty vile pooping on the accumulated pee of the other residents. There'll be cards, board games, and books about living in the backwoods for entertainment. Outside you'll find a canoe or kayak, maybe a pedallo, fire pit, and rusty old BBQ. The dock will be rickety and surrounded by weeds in which nasty black water snakes lurk.

No wonder everyone drinks at the cottage.

BristolUK

@bats

You just wrote the new version of this, from 2 minutes in

I am I said

I recognise this more than the descriptions of hot tubs and decking. But you left out the long drop.

dgagitw

I don't really get the cottage ownership thing either. I've had a few great weekends at other people's cottages and I'd consider renting one for a couple weeks for a holiday maybe, but otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's a ton of cash and an immense amount of hassle for a few weekends a year in benefit. Maybe it used to make more sense when fewer families had both parents working and the mother + kids could spend a couple of months there in the summer?

BristolUK

Just as people swap time shares does 'cottage swapping' go on?

Or does it sound even more dodgy than wife swapping?