Now that summer seems to be within reach, that means that cottage season is nearly upon us!  I suppose this means I should pick up our cottage quest where we last left off…

In June 2016, the hunt truly began, although we had had several near-ownership attempts before that (three in about 4 years, to be exact…two of which we had put in conditional offers on various locations where we were actually considering building our own place from scratch.  Building something from scratch is a life-long dream of Christian’s that I’m certain will one day be fulfilled…more on that another time).

We took a day off work and set out on a “day date”.  Our first stop was a fractional ownership option called Inaski Shores in the Kawartha Lakes region.  If you haven’t heard of fractional ownership, it’s partial cottage ownership without any fuss.  You “buy” 5 weeks (typically), with one fixed summer week and 4 other weeks that float throughout the year.  You have shared access to a private portion of the lake, shared amenities such as a pool, dock, firepit, games room, etc and there is shared community space with other fractional owners.  Cleaners come in every week when you are done and it really is a turn-key option for those who don’t want full ownership and OK with letting go of some privacy and autonomy.  Prices range from about $45K to $150K depending on where you are and what amenities are available.  It was a good place for us to start.  We chatted with other owners, had a picnic by the lake, and toured two of the units.  It was a lovely day and everything seemed pretty….ideal.

Off home we went.  More discussions, more searching, much deliberation.  After almost pulling the trigger on fractional ownership, we ultimately said “no”.  Yes, cottage ownership is more work and stress, yes it’s a huge financial obligation (many might say it is the most irresponsible financial decision one could make), but it was what we had always talked about.  No more half measures.  If we’re doing this, we’re DOING THIS.

Back to the drawing board.  Enter = Moore Lake.

On paper, it was perfect.  Christian being the designer-type that he is, has a dream of building a home for us one day, somewhere.  He came across a listing for a large piece of vacant land in a small quiet bay off of beautiful Moore Lake.  There was enough land to potentially sever and sell off the secondary building lot of land to another future cottager, which makes a heck of a lot of sense financially.  In August, our friends got hitched at Balsam Lake, just 30 minutes south of the property.  Opportunity was knocking and we took it!  Off we went, squirmy toddler in tow, to check out this too-good-to-be-true site.  Christian was giddy with anticipation.  After years of combing the northern real estate market, he knew this lot checked a lot of our boxes (and trust me, we had a lot of boxes).  There was one big unknown: what was the lake like?  We knew Moore lake was beautiful, but this bay left some question marks.  We drove up the winding road, parked, and set off down the overgrown trail to the waters edge.  It was beautiful: quiet, serene, tonnes of wildlife, and virtually untouched.  The only problem? Weeds.  A heck of a lot of weeds.

But oh man, bless my persistent, unshakeable husband.  He wasn’t ready to say no yet.

Before I knew it, he had striped down to his swim shorts and was heading into the lake. As he pushed off from the swamp-like shoreline into the murky waters, he shouts back to me: “It feels like zombies are attacking me!!” (pretty sure we had been well into the Walking Dead at that point).  He tried to swim, and it was no use.  There were just too many weeds.   Defeated, he trudged back to land.  We sat quietly on the dock for several minutes looking out over the water, willing ourselves to find a way to make it work.

A kind neighbour loaned us their canoe so we could paddle out and check the rest of the bay.  Maybe we could clear out the water entry near the dock and the rest of the bay would be OK?  No such luck.  It was pure weeds.  It was no site to build our dream cottage upon.  Defeated, we had to move on.

Christian was, in a word, heart-broken.

To help lift our spirits a bit, we stopped in at the Riverside Inn & Pub, a little place in Norland off of Hwy 35 that had come highly recommended from several locals and cottagers.  We ate outside on the patio, lamented about the events of the day, enjoyed some wine (which became a summer favourite since then: Errazuriz Estate Series Sauvignon Blanc – add it to your shopping list.  For less than $15/ bottle, you won’t regret it), and tried to figure out what to do next.

We sort of gave up for a while after that.  I remember specifically saying to Christian: “I don’t think we’re going to be able to check off all our must-haves….maybe we’re asking too much?”.  But again, my husband wasn’t ready to give up.

The fall approached, and the cottage-buying window was shrinking.  Not great news when you are on a mission like we were, but as the days grow shorter and the weather grows colder, it can be a bit of a buyers advantage!  You either sell your place before the snow hits, or sit on it for another 6 months until the cottage market heats up again.

In early October, there was a small spike in listings — the final push to sell before the long winter set in. Supply had increased, and a few new gems came online.  One that caught our eye was on a small lake called Clear Lake, interestingly just a short drive away from where our 2016 hunt first began at Insaki Shores.   We jumped on the opportunity to check it out and left our little guy with “Nana & Papa” in Orillia.  At that same time, another tiny place came up for sale on beautiful Catchacoma Lake (yeah, you say it like it is spelled) — conveniently where some wonderful friends of ours cottage every summer!

Having a toddler-free day to ourselves, driving several hours between properties on the same day made a lot of sense.  We teed up two showings: the first stop at Clear Lake, and the second on Catchacoma.

I should point out here that right away this was a build vs. buy decision for us.  The place on Clear Lake was a good size, multiple bedrooms, fully functioning and fairly move-in ready.  Over on Catchacoma, it was a full-on development process: building plans, demolition, construction, road allowances, the whole bit.

Clear Lake was just as the name would suggest: Clear.  It was calm, quiet, quaint, clean and very relaxing.  The only hitch?  The realtor before us hadn’t put the key back in the lock box.  Yes, after hours of driving and coordinating, we couldn’t get into the darned place.  We peered through windows to get an idea of the cottage as best we could, walked the property, spent time on the dock and checked out the neighbours…but we never actually went inside.

Yes, that would be Christian and our Realtor trying to see about….err….an alternate entry.

What we loved about the Clear Lake property was that it could be updated fairly easily, AND it was on a double lot.  Being city folk with a 20-foot wide lot, the prospect of all that SPACE up north was a big selling feature.  The property felt very private and was surrounded by trees…a welcome change from the tightly-packed city of Toronto.

Off we went, 1 hour away, to check out the tiny run-down place on Catchacoma.

What is magic about this lake is that it’s part of a 7-lake chain system and the lakes are absolutely beautiful. Boating for miles, wide expanses of water, amazing sunsets…and as previously mentioned, friends just around the corner!

Being the ocean-loving gal that I am, I was pretty sold on Catchacoma from the start.  I loved the idea of being on a large lake.  The biggest deterrent was that, as expected, the existing cottage would be a tear down.  There would be piles of approvals and hoops to jump through in order to build a new place, not to mention a road allowance situation to deal with.  But we were still hopeful.  Could this be a 2-for-1 dream machine?  The dream of cottage ownership AND the dream to build from scratch?

I remember looking out over the water and almost feeling as if I was back out on the West Coast.  The feeling gave me goosebumps.

On our way back to nana’s to pick up Harrison, we debated back and forth.  Do we put in an offer on Clear Lake?  Or Catchacoma?  Or neither?

Key lesson learned in the cottage hunt: it is NOTHING like buying property in the city.   In Toronto, you can look at a house and then go find a dozen comparables that are the exact same lot size, same neighborhood, similar type of house, similar finish and get a very good sense of value.

Up north it is seriously the wild west.

Is is southern exposure?  What’s the frontage?  What’s the lake quality?  3-season road or municipal?  Good fishing?  What amenities are nearby?  How big is your lake?  Is it boatable?  Does it have boat motor-size restrictions?  How far is it from Toronto?  Does it have a well?  Septic?  Outhouse?  What are the zoning restrictions?  Is it water access only?  Is it winterized?

and on. and on. and on.

There are no comparables, there are no apples to apples. It’s apples to papayas. Or more like apples to…..tacos.  Mmmmmm tacos…..

So what’s a cottage-loving couple to do?  Put in some offers, that’s what!   We threw caution to the wind and went for it.  (OK, we didn’t throw caution to the wind.  There was hours of conversations, a tonne of research and some very extensive spreadsheets….have you met my husband?).

We went for Clear Lake.  We low-balled an offer and waited.   The owner came back with a counter-offer knocking just a few thousand dollars of the price.  Point taken.  I mean, it had only been listed for a week or so.  We came back again by upping our bid and that offer was turned down.  That deal was dead.  Back to the drawing board.

Onto option B: Catchacoma.  In went our bid, we held our breath and waiting to hear back.  We received a call the next day from our agent sharing with us that our offer had been conditionally accepted!!  I remember standing in the middle of the Porter Airlines lounge when I got the call = we were going to be cottage….builders.

I boarded my flight to head off to a work conference while Christian went to work crunching the numbers.  Before our 2 week due diligence timeline lapsed, we knew what we had to do.  The numbers didn’t lie: we had to let the beautiful property on Cathchacoma go.  Our dream to build would still be realized one day, but this day wasn’t it.

November was quickly approaching, the cottage buying season was drawing to a close, and we were right back to our starting point.

And then…our agent called.  The what-we-though-was-going-to-be-final deal on the place on Clear Lake had fallen through.  We offered again, and this time, we knew we had the upper hand.  The season was basically over and we were able to secure a long term close date to save of unecessary expenses over the winter!  The deal went firm in early November and in 5 looooooooong months, we would finally get the keys.

On March 31st, we again took the day off for a “day date”.  We drove to Lindsay, met the lawyers, signed the papers and got the keys.  We were officially cottage owners!  Check that one off of the bucket list.

As we gear up for another much-anticipated second summer at the lake, it’s amazing to look back and reflect at the journey we took to bring our family to Clear Lake in the first place.

Interested in enjoying a week at Clear Lake with your family and friends?  Check out the rent our cottage page for more information.

Photo Credit: Angie @ Ear to Ear Photography