(Sunday regurtitation time… a piece I wrote originally in February)
I’m a lake guy. If I can’t be on The Lake (The Lake is Geneva of course), I want to be close to The Lake. I want to hear the cry of the seagull and the rumble of a Streblow. I want to know I’m near the water, even if I’m not on it. It might be a sign of my fine taste, or perhaps just a pleasant result of my upbringing on the lakefront, but either way, the pull is significant and tangible. In spite of my love of all things water, I look back over the homes that I’ve owned, and only one of them has been very close to The Lake. My most recent purchase, the little REO job, is also “near” a lake, but it’s more of a country home than a lake home. With nearly two acres of wooded property, it’s really going to be quite a private retreat when I’m done with it. While I love selling houses on and near the lake, and would gladly sell you anything from a private lakefront estate on the North Shore to a small cottage in the Loch Vista Club, there’s undoubtedly something alluring about the oft overlooked country home. More specifically, your country home.
What? You don’t have one yet? Good, because then you can keep reading. What if instead of escaping the city of suburbs for a cottage at the lake, you escaped the city to a retreat in the country? The Lake Geneva area has a vast array of country properties available, ranging from a small cottage on an acre for $180k, to a sprawling mansion on 80 acres for $2MM. If you’re a horse lover, well, I’ll even find you a place with a white fenced pasture so your equestrian friends can frolic at will. Potting sheds, ample earth for gardening, four wheeling trails, a barn for big toy storage, you name it, the Lake Geneva market has it.
See, there’s more to The Lake than just The Lake. There’s a whole other vacation style out there, and it involves the country. Woods and streams and prairies galore. If you think all of that sounds like a lot of work, remember that I didn’t say you had to mow it all. In fact, a country home might not have any manicured yard at all, making the maintenance less than you’d have at a conventional lake home.
Speaking of country homes, my aforementioned country home renovation continues to plow forward. I must admit the task of having this project done a mere 30 days from now is growing increasingly daunting, but I just have to ignore the crippling pain of my $1500 a day budget and the late nights,
to say nothing of the scrapes and cuts on my delicate pencil pushing hands. It’s a lot of work, but I won’t let you down. The paneling has made this home into an adirondack lodge impersonator, but once the painter puts his sprayer to work, you’ll see the look I’m after. I built book cases this week (4) and installed the decorative rafters in the ceiling. If you’re wondering why they’re so far apart, it’s because of the darn skylights that were in my way. I wish they were closer together too. This week the trim will be going in, and the basement ceiling is being drywalled. Hopefully my MIA plumber shows up to fix a few leaks and change some plumbing configurations. Henry, if you’re reading this, smarten up.
In the mean time, if you’d like to find your own country home at The Lake, email me for a list of available properties that fall within your price range. Once you back up from The Lake a bit, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the quality and pricing of the inventory that exists in The Country. There’s a garden shed with a Walworth County address and your name on it.