What Kind of Cottager Are You?
March 12th, 2008Flipping through the March/April edition of Cottage Magazine, I stumble upon this headline, WHAT KIND OF COTTAGER ARE YOU? The article references La Casa Lakeside Cottage Resort, a new housing development situated midway between Kelowna and Vernon B.C. on Okanagan Lake.
These recreation properties are not actually on the water, but have water views, in addition to a pool, recreation facilities, your own private golf cart, and a boat slip. Can you really call these year-round homes with granite counter tops, gas fireplaces and plush interiors a cottage?
Maybe not 25 years ago, but today’s cottage is not the one your grandparents owned, or anything we experienced growing up on Rice Lake, Ontario. Resort developments, Deerhurst aside, were unheard of 10 years ago, but with cottages in Alberta and B.C. exceeding the $1 million dollar threshold, fractional ownership and condominiums developments are an affordable way to own a piece of paradise compete. Some of them even come with tennis courts, community centres and babysitting.
Cottagers’ tastes seem to be changing too. We’re becoming soft - more civilized. We need our creature comforts and are unwilling to part with them even at the cabin. Necessities like: dishwashers, Internet and satellite TV’s are just some of our must-haves.
Would I object if our cottage association decided to install tennis courts? No on your life, in fact I’d be downright thrilled. Or how about a skateboard park? Great idea.
What kind of cottager are you? Do you want to get away from it all and be left alone in peace, or do you want to escape to a resort like setting where in addition to the lake, you have all the amenities of home?
Cheers,
Julie
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March 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Life is pretty fast now and time is of the essence for a lot of families. I’m itching to get out ice fishing one more time this year. The schedules are making that difficult. Not everyone has the time to maintain another home on the water. Fractional ownership makes sense in some of these cases. Affordability for some and not having capital tied up in something you can only use a couple of weeks a year frees up cash for a winter holiday etc. I like my cottage year round. But having said that I don’t have a million dollars tied up in a non revenue generating asset either.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:49 am
I like the simplicity of cottage life. My family is happiest when we are there. We all laugh more and spend time conversing and listening to one another. Everyone is relaxed. No one is in a hurry to be anywhere, the phone rarely rings, no one runs around scrubbing,or fussing. and no one cares what they wear. The food and the coffee taste better. Oddly enough I even enjoy washing dishes when I’m there. (Especially the old plates and the cast iron frying pan.). I like the old blankets, books (there is time to read), the comfortable old couch that you can put your feet up on, the collection of old games, the smiling faces in the photo frames, the mismatched utensils (how did that happen), the wild flower arrangements and even the sound of the train going by in the middle of the night,, In the winter the kids tromp through the cottage in their ski boots and in the summer they skip past with wet feet. If we had granite counter tops, and high polished hardwood floors, a dishwasher and all the high tech toys - cottage life might not be the same for us.