Lake Geneva Land

Let’s quick pretend you’re looking for a cabin. Not a cabin here, mind you, but a cabin anywhere. Not exactly anywhere, but within this state, somewhere, North or South, East or West. You’re geographically liberal, but design specific, so you’d buy a cabin on a big lake or a small stream as long as the property was wooded, mostly. You want this cabin to be small, but not too small. 900 square feet is about right for your purposes of escaping your mundane everyday, and small means that the cost doesn’t exceed your modest budget. The cabin must be rustic, but not too rustic. It must have one bathroom, and the toilet cannot be one that composts. We’re looking for rustic, not barbaric.

There must be a fireplace, ideally, but a wood stove will do. How else are we to warm that cold wooden cabin on those few days during the winter when we escape there, to snowshoe or to just split wood? And why would we split wood if we had no fire to stoke? So, we need a fireplace, maybe a stove. And we need a toilet, one that flushes. We also need a chair, or a couch, so we can sit and read. We don’t want the internet to follow us to this cabin, because the internet is everywhere, always on, flashing and beeping, and we’re trying to get away from all of that. We need a television, but not to watch live shows. We need that TV to play movies that we pick up at the small store that’s not too close to, but also not too far from, our small cabin. We wouldn’t watch anything stressful, instead we’d watch slow movies where the characters speak with steady purpose, nothing too fast and nothing too suspenseful. We wouldn’t rent scary movies about people in the woods in small cabins, for obvious reasons.

If this is what we’re after, and we have the entire state as our marketplace, this should be so easy to find, right? After all, we’re just wanting a small cabin, ideally painted brown with white or dark green trim, and we’re willing to drive the limits of the state to find it. Our budget is modest, but most markets in the state are too, so we have options. Lots and lots of options. Except that when we start exploring those options, they aren’t right. One that we find has the perfect setting, down a narrow gravel road. But the cabin is too small and the stove is on the front porch attached to a propane tank. Another one has a wonderful stove, a Viking one, but it’s right next to seven other cabins that were likely built by the same bearded craftsmen, so it’s out. Another has a great lot, a great cabin, a great roof, but no fireplace. No wood stove either. The Realtor tells us that wood stoves aren’t allowed in wooden cabins here, because of the troubled relationship between fire and wood.

We are frustrated. We have but one desire, and a whole and varied state to fulfill it in, and we cannot find satisfaction. We find the right land, but with the wrong cabin. We find the right cabin, but the land is flawed. We are basic in our goal, but the idea of having a cabin to escape the stress of everyday is, at its very core, a goal that can only be fulfilled if the cabin is right and the view pleasing. There’s little point in escaping one type of stress and driving to be met by another kind of stress, even if that new stress is simply a result of a giant stack of freshly split wood with no fireplace to feed it into. This is why building happens. Whether in some far flung wooded land a ways to our north, or right here in Lake Geneva, near the lake or on it or miles from it. Building eliminates the need to find the right structure, and we instead have the joy of focusing only on the land. So let’s find some.

Few markets can offer vacant land for $30k and $8.75MM, but Geneva can. Here are the vacant properties with lake access and lakefront on Geneva. They are varied, and there is literally something here for any budget. Looking for a small lake access cottage in the woods? We have that. Want to build a small lakefront house on a nice lot? Covered. Want to build a massive compound, an ode to your success, a shining beacon that announces your arrival? Easily accomplished here.

But what if lake access isn’t what you crave? What if you’re wanting a country life, someplace you can have a large garden and an orchard, somewhere you can have some bees busily making honey? What if you’d like to shoot guns into hillsides and ride ATV’s through the woods? What if your vacation home doesn’t involve navigable water, and instead just some space to breath and think and be? Well, then consider these country parcels. They are beautiful, which is why I included them in your list. Maybe it’s time to stop looking for the right house, and instead just look for the right dirt.

Photo by Matt Mason Photography.