If you could own a cabin/land…

blackbay wrote:

IMO there is a huge difference between a cabin and a lake home. I see so many people that take suburbia to the lake with them, and you get what others have talked about, twice the amount of upkeep. That’s just a huge waste of money, time and energy. You won’t get away from building maintenance but that shouldn’t be that often. We have kept our property mostly natural with a small lawn that takes 15 minutes to mow, and that gets done maybe twice a month. The grass doesn’t get out of hand in between mowings either.

Exactly. If I ever get a cabin, I want a small place with mostly pine trees and natural. It bugs me that people complain about mowing grass at their cabin. It doesn’t have to be that way. You have to mow grass because you planted it and aren’t leaving it natural. And leaving it natural helps the lake water quality too.

I’ve always thought that the Big Sandy area up by McGregor would be a good option just for the easy traffic straight up 65. It seems like a faster trip to me than 10/169 up to Brainerd or 35 up to Duluth and beyond.

queenswake wrote:

I’ve always thought that the Big Sandy area up by McGregor would be a good option just for the easy traffic straight up 65. It seems like a faster trip to me than 10/169 up to Brainerd or 35 up to Duluth and beyond.

That area is awesome. And also killer fishing on the river near by. Plus riding wheelers if your in to that

Rainy river…….nuff said

I would move to Northern Wisconsin in a heartbeat. Problem is I would be single. FW says no way. She loves it there for a couple weeks only.

I’d never build near water. If I want the fishing or water sports I’ll travel to it. The reasoning here is that water equates to year round noise. Our 40 is all woods with a pave highway 200 feet up the drive. The highway gets minimal traffic thru the day and basically none after dark. The quiet is deafening and a source of unbelievable solitude. Animal come in as the sun gets deeper into the horizon and usually do their thing while we do a bon fire. No light pollution whatever so stars and northern lights are seen right off the porch. I can’t imagine life on a lake with all the noise. I’m afraid I’d use jet skiers and water skiers for plinking.

I couldn’t agree more, Tom. My pick would be a one room cabin on min 20 acres in the Superior National Forest near the BWCA. Lots of lakes and hunting.

I’ve read the posts and it all sounds good so I’m not ready to settle (do like the Park Rapids area though)

For the guy’s out there that “believe” their FW is against it. My FW was dragging her feet, actually had her heels dug in. We finally agreed on a place, we go up every other weekend.
She now starts planning our next visit when we are driving home from the cabin.

When we were shopping for a place we met quite a few Couples that said the same thing.

My FW was against a SxS also until she saw all the fun people were having, guess what I have sitting in the shed?

Cabins and property in addition to the regular HOME require management in many forms. If grass is opted for, expect the have to mow it and do yard up-keep. Trails….they’re work as well. A big thing is to have rules, not only for you and your wife, but kids and company. Since you and your wife hold title to the place, the two of you make the rules for everyone else.

The one thing I would do personally is to have a bonded locksmith come out and install high security locks and padlocks with keys that are not able to be duplicated. Nothing is more maddening than to get to the cabin and find a grandson and a few friends lounging and boozing after using a key that his dad gave him for baiting bear the year before and he had it copied. Or to have a daughter and her husband want to use the place for a week so they can “relax” and when you get there the day after they go home the grass is ten inches tall….part of anyone using a cabin should be “relaxing” on the mower before they go home.

Cabins are wonderful places but they seem to pull in lots of others who want some of the good time without any contribution to up-keep or costs and these things can spiral out of hand in a heart beat.

We have a cabin up at Mille Lacs but with hunting land and not directly on the lake. I actually prefer trailering my boat to go fishing because for a large lake like Milly it allows me to choose which access I want to use based on proximity to where I plan to fish that day or easily trailer to other lakes. Once you purchase/build on a lake you are now signing up for spending a vast majority of your time fishing that single lake. Plus we have acreage and it saves a boatload, pun intended, on property taxes.

Will

mxskeeter wrote:

I would move to Northern Wisconsin in a heartbeat. Problem is I would be single. FW says no way. She loves it there for a couple weeks only.

I have the same exact problem. I love it up there. Have a buddy that is a float guide for muskie on the fly. Hoping to get a trip in with him this year. I hate to admit it but the more time I spend fishing in WI the more I want to keep fishing over there.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

For the guy’s out there that “believe” their FW is against it. My FW was dragging her feet, actually had her heels dug in. We finally agreed on a place, we go up every other weekend.
She now starts planning our next visit when we are driving home from the cabin.

When we were shopping for a place we met quite a few Couples that said the same thing.

My FW was against a SxS also until she saw all the fun people were having, guess what I have sitting in the shed?

Word. My usual approach to these things is I pretty much know in advance of what any of the wifes objections are going to be. So before I even approach her I research everything. I line up financing so we know exactly what the payments would be etc. Sometimes by doing this I talk myself out of things and the process never even gets to her which is also a good thing.

Before I even approached her on the property on Whiteface I had been up to look at it so I knew the exact drive time. Talked to the owner numerous times and knew his best price. Talked to the bank and knew we were pre approved and what payments would be. She is just hard wired to resist everything initially. Then she gets over the hump and is all of a sudden all in and this is the best thing we ever did.

So now I’m taking her up to the property on Monday for her to look at it. She’s already wondering where her inflatable mattress is
The benefits of being married for 35+ years is you learn how to do the dance.

Keith,
I also told my wife that she will need to buy herself new “Cabin Clothes, Shoes and Boots” when we get a place.

“Hard wired to resist everything” you just described my FW to a T

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Keith,
I also told my wife that she will need to buy herself new “Cabin Clothes, Shoes and Boots” when we get a place.

“Hard wired to resist everything” you just described my FW to a T

Haha you are crafty I never thought about the new clothes angle! I even threw on the table that I would give up my yearly trip to Devils Lake ice fishing for perch as a way to cut expenses. Risky move on my part for sure but I was fairly confident in her reaction and fortunate for me I was right. I go with my son and son in law every year. As soon as I said it she said “No you are going to Devils Lake the boys would be disappointed if you don’t!
I love it when a plan comes together!!

Ice Cap wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>eelpoutguy wrote:</div>
For the guy’s out there that “believe” their FW is against it. My FW was dragging her feet, actually had her heels dug in. We finally agreed on a place, we go up every other weekend.
She now starts planning our next visit when we are driving home from the cabin.

When we were shopping for a place we met quite a few Couples that said the same thing.

My FW was against a SxS also until she saw all the fun people were having, guess what I have sitting in the shed?

Word. My usual approach to these things is I pretty much know in advance of what any of the wifes objections are going to be. So before I even approach her I research everything. I line up financing so we know exactly what the payments would be etc. Sometimes by doing this I talk myself out of things and the process never even gets to her which is also a good thing.

Before I even approached her on the property on Whiteface I had been up to look at it so I knew the exact drive time. Talked to the owner numerous times and knew his best price. Talked to the bank and knew we were pre approved and what payments would be. She is just hard wired to resist everything initially. Then she gets over the hump and is all of a sudden all in and this is the best thing we ever did.

So now I’m taking her up to the property on Monday for her to look at it. She’s already wondering where her inflatable mattress is
The benefits of being married for 35+ years is you learn how to do the dance.

This would have the opposite effect with my wife. She wants to be right so if I immediately countered all her of objections with researched information she would just get frustrated. Weve only been together for about 5 years so I’m still learning how to work the system. Women are more difficult to figure out than a rubix cube. I think the wisest men simply stop trying and just hope you catch her on a good day.

P.s. hope the wife doesn’t see this post lol

Sometimes you could shoot Hitler in the face or be the one to find cure for cancer but it’s not good enough for the wife. She just needs to hear it from somebody other than you. Employ a close friend or brother in law or somebody in the circle to say the same thing you said only in slightly different verbage,

What sounded stupid and ridiculous from your lips all of a sudden sounds genius to her from somebody else’s lips. My sons are already well versed in this tactic. Let it become her idea from other sources. Takes a long time to perfect the technique but it is truly worth the effort.

I just tell her what I’m doing or what I want to buy and then I do it.
Let alone I dont have a cabin, but i do have 3 boats a couple wheelers, dirt bikes and a new truck. She didnt want or have interest in any of it.
I see there is a huge difference in a cabin. But if i let her make ever decision I wouldn’t have any thing. And would never be on hunting and fishing trips.

if I could and time and money were no object,I would have to have three of them.
one in very remote Canada,one near Bemidji as I love the beauty of that entire area.
and one near the ocean for various reasons that only I understand.

We went the cabin in Canada route. Under 100 dollars in prop taxes sealed the deal. I go up there 2-4 times a year and with the cost of property tax I still think I’m fishing for free. The down side is the 10 hour travel time including the boat ride to the cabin

Mike.

I was pretty lucky. Buying a house on a lake was actually my wife’s idea.

Growing up, my grandparents lived on a lake and I spent virtually every weekend there, loving every minute of it. But for the in-between years, I got used to living a different lifestyle. Boat in the garage on a trailer meant I could go and fish anywhere I wanted. I loved fishing different lakes each weekend. Every summer we would rent a cabin at a resort for at least a week.

Over the years my wife started telling me that she wanted a place of our own. I did not want the expense, or the work. I also did not want to feel that I HAD to go to the lake every weekend due to the amount of money ownership was costing me. I also did not want to give up the variety of different lakes. Or endure traffic jams every weekend.

But I agreed to look. I wanted a big enough lake so I would not get bored. A reasonable commute (2 hours) with a number of different possible routes to avoid congestion/construction. We found it 8 years ago and I could not be happier.

As far as the work goes I discovered a couple of things. 1) I fished to relax and get away from it all. 2) when I am at the lake I am relaxed and away from it all. It does not matter if I am in my boat, on the dock, or on my mower, I am relaxed and away from it all. In the past 8 years my boat trailer has moved less than 8 miles (round trip from the garage to the ramp spring and fall <0.5mi) since I have only been on one lake…

not MN, but Crystal Falls, MI back on Peavy Pond.
Attachments:

Microsoft-Edge-3_28_2019-10_13_55-PM.png

Watch out we don’t need anymore Phans in Iron County Mi. I already have that area locked down!

I have a seasonal place on Mille Lacs and we love it. Beer is cold when we get there and minimal work. Drive time for us is under 2 hours, big factor also.

As for the idea of living where you want to spend all your time, I’m not sure. I’ve always said I wanted to live on a lake since I was a kid. I wonder though, if I’d still view it as “home base” and still be looking to “get away”. Sometimes I think I’d do well at a nomadic lifestyle as I do enjoy the change of scenery.

We have a cabin on Mille Lacs. Reading through this post I can relate to most of it. I grew up going to my grandparents cabin and loved every minute of it. My Dad and Grandpa put me to work often to “earn my keep” it wasn’t anything too hard. The cabin we bought, we have done a ton of work to it. Practically have rebuilt the whole thing, in fact had I known what I know now I would have bulldozed it to begin with and bought a nice camper until we could afford to rebuild. I do enjoy going there but the constant work that needs to be done gets to be a burden sometimes. One thing I really enjoy is sharing our place with others, friends and family. I like to give others the experience of camping, fishing, watersports, etc that don’t often get to do these things. Last spring I took out my brother in law and two nephews out fishing. The oldest nephew caught four fish, all of them the biggest fish he had ever caught in his life. He was so excited, as was I to be a part of those memories. If I were to do it all over again, I would find a place on a smaller lake.