I don’t think I’d like living next to train tracks. I know in the suburbs that’s a big thing- easy access to trains. And if we’re fly fishing somewhere in some isolated wilderness we’ll appreciate train tracks and walk on them just like a modern day Nick Adams, then we’d like them too. For me, for now, I don’t care for them one bit. If a train track runs through the scrubby woods behind your backyard, I’m sure you think that’s great, and maybe it is. But if we’re in Lake Geneva then we’re hoping to be no where near trains, trading instead the noise of a locomotive for the sounds of waves, and if we’re trying to hear the waves then today we’re in luck.
There’s a new listing this morning in the Lake Geneva Club, a listing that isn’t just sort of close to the lake. It isn’t just near-ish to the water, with a glimpse of it through some distant trees, a glimpse that we’d photograph in the winter to give you a much better impression of the size and scope of that glimpse, it’s in fact so close to the water that if you were afraid of water you’d be afraid of this cottage. Since you’re reading today, I’ll surmise that you aren’t afraid of the water, and that you’d like to find a way to get as close to it as possible for the lease amount of money as possible. That’s why we’re here and that’s why the newest Lake Geneva Club listing is important.
It should be mentioned that there are two other listings currently in the Lake Geneva Club. One listing is down on the water, priced at $1.395MM, and it’s a great old cottage but it’s priced like private frontage even though it really isn’t. The Congress Club has tried that of late- the whole, we’re sort of like private frontage so pay prices that are like private frontage, and it hasn’t worked all that well. But that’s still a fine listing and someone will probably buy it if it will print very near a million dollars even, preferably to the shy side of that benchmark. The other listing is forever up the street, and represents a massive gulf of differences between two seemingly similar homes. The one up the street is older and it’s up the street, and the one today is older and it’s by the lake. Think long and hard about which scenario sounds better. Then again, if you have to think long and hard about that then it’s obvious that you’re new here, in which case, welcome.
The Lake Geneva Club has two primary designs that dominate the architecture. There was, and is, a single story cottage version. It’s small and it’s nice, with a front porch that is now mostly living space, backed up by a living room with a fireplace on the outside wall and a bedroom opposite it, and then a galley kitchen with another bedroom behind that. There might be a dining space or another small family room behind the kitchen too, so that’s nice. This single story design is one of my favorite concise cottage layouts that I’ve encountered, and I love it today as much as I did many years ago when I’d walk through those cottages and fail to appreciate what I was looking at. The curse of youth isn’t anything more than an inability to appreciate things.
The two story design is more rare here, with a bedroom down and perhaps two bedrooms up, and this is the plan that I’m selling you today on the lot near the water with blue water views and a most easy, dead level walk from the front door that you’re about to own down to the majestic stone boat house that you’ll get to spend as much time in as you see necessary. $695,000 is the price of this new cottage, and with a few slight tweaks I think it could be a most perfect Lake Geneva cottage. The hard parts are already in place- the slip, the view, the proximity- and with a refinishing of all the wood floors in the house, and then a bit more paint and some subway tile in the bathrooms you’d be settled into lake home utopia.
The Lake Geneva Club has gone through some significant changes over the last few years, and every one of them provides new ownership with many blessings. There is a new road, a newer well, a new-ish pier design, and immaculate lakefront landscaping. This Club shines on the single lane scene, overshadowing Shore Haven, Sybil Lane, and in my opinion perhaps even Oak Shores. The current owners of this cottage have owned it for three generations, and it’s important to see the property passed on to someone who will love it as much as they have, which sounds mostly trite but isn’t.
In the basement of this perfectly maintained cottage, tucked into some old corner, there’s a fire hose. There might be three, but there’s probably at least one. This fire hose isn’t down here because the owner is a fireman, nor is it there because the owner has some strange affinity for long woven hoses. It’s down there because when cut in half fire hoses make for great pier bumpers. This is something that people in the Lake Geneva Club know, and if you’re the sort who thinks that sort of old school lake living sounds beyond attractive, you should consider joining this desirable club. (Unlike the co-ops, the Lake Geneva Club is traditional fee simple ownership, meaning financing is acceptable and year around use is permitted. And celebrated.)