Why we don’t own a cottage up north
Last Wednesday when we were driving back to Michigania after our traditional mid-week dinner in Petoskey, we accidentally took a wrong turn and found ourselves on a little dirt road that ended, quite abruptly, at a public access boat launch on Walloon Lake. It was an idyllic Northern Michigan-ish spot, complete with whispering pines, the gorgeous lake, birds, wildflowers in profusion, etc. etc. And if that’s not enough, right at the very end, next to the little beach, was this vacant tumble-down old house in a perfectly beautiful lot, neatly hidden away, with a for sale sign…
The very next morning Steve and I bundled the kids off to their various activities and zipped right back. We walked around the house several times, poked around the lot, tried to estimate its size, and daydreamed about fixing up? or razing? the house. We concluded that the public access was so small and inconspicuous that there would be no lack of privacy. We discovered a sweet little bird feeder; we basked in the sights, sounds and smells; and we called the realtor.
“It’s got 175 feet of lakefront,” the guy said helpfully. “They’re asking 1.2 million, but they might be able to drop as far as the low 9s.”
“Honey,” said Steve to me, after we hung up the phone and finished laughing at our misguided selves, “it’s time we get serious about this. We’ve been talking about having a cabin up north for so long, and it’s never gonna happen unless we MAKE it happen. Today we’re gonna buy a lottery ticket!”
We drove back in to Petoskey — what a sweet little town! — and stopped at a used bookstore. Which was an adventure in itself, and I will write a post about it shortly. Anyway we came out of there loaded down with books and very eager to get back to camp and start reading. We hustled back to camp, lugged our books back to the cabin, and dove right in.
“Oh, shoot!” said Steve, a few hours later, surfacing from The Peshawar Lancers. “We forgot to buy the ticket.”
Fun to see a pic of this — I’d forgotten that you recorded this little adventure in that format. It hasn’t sunk in that you can so readily do that.
I’m glad too, that you included THIS pic; the way the front porch was boarded up — with individual boards instead of sheets of plywood — was part of what caught my eye. That way of closing up a building speaks of times gone by. Thus, part of the initial fantasy-idea of this place was that it had somehow been closed up many decades ago, and if we’d have somehow taken possession, we’d have been picking up where folks left off in the 50s or 60s (or so).
. . . at least, I could sort of half believe that was the case — but not really: a house boarded up that long ago probably wouldn’t be still be standing.
Then again, this one looked like the only thing holding it upright was habit. There was a heap of debris on the porch and a broken basement window — probably kids going in to party/explore, but probably raccoons and such going in and out since.
But how did it come to such a state?
How such a place could have been left to rot? There are multi-million dollar properties all along the lakeshore. How could someone just leave this one sitting for so long?
This house wasn’t just a flight-of-fantasy for us, it was also a mystery. (I half expect Shaggy and Scooby to appear, and Velma to start in on the back-story).
I totally agree. The mystery was definitely a big part of its appeal. And yeah, Shaggy et al. would have fit in perfectly!