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My wife and I have a small, 1 BR summer "cottage" of about 700 sq. feet, with a garden and lawn in a colony of other small summer places. It's on a big pond and while it's on the edge of Copenhagen, it's very quiet. We spend 6 months in our flat and 6 months down there. The summer period has become longer as our summers have lengthened by about a month over the last 15 years since we bought it. We got a new water and sewage system for the entire colony about 8 years ago; had our house insulated and are on the verge of buying a heat pump to prolong our residence. Now, if only it would stop raining.
that is really the problem . every time we went up there was chores to do or repair . it sucked after a while .
we needed a gardener , a snow plow guy , we had to have someone come and do the gutters and leaders 2x a year as living in a wooded area can be rough .
the biggest issue was we don't drain the house when we leave as we hope to use it in the winter . our temperature monitoring box would call us at 2am to tell us temperature is dropping . is it a power outage in the area ? is it just us ? is the furnace broke ?
it really is a hassle when you are 2-1/2 hours away .
the other issue is we never went any where else because it is so costly to maintain we felt guilty ..
after 5 years we got bored too. we did everything in the area and the walk around the lake or the woods grew stale .
.
so we sold it 4 years ago . the people we sold to sold 2 years ago for 60k less .
Vacation home? I don't even own my own home...yet. Must be nice to have that luxury. Now lets hear all the stories of how "hard you worked" to be able to have a vacation home
I could afford a vacation home, but to me, the maintenance and upkeep of two homes does not sound like a super fun way to spend one's retirement. Personally I just don't see the point.
we were going to retire to where our 2nd home was . the house was in the pocono mountains in pa . just a beautiful area on lake wallenpaupack and its 52 miles of shoreline .
but once we thought about things with our retirement hats on things changed .
no public transportation system if we couldn't drive
few hospitals ,specialists and facilities .
winters were cold and long with little to do if you are not skiing
if i wanted to work a bit in retirement there was no where to work for decent wages .
we ran out of new things to do .
the list went on and on .
so we sold it and realized everything we would want is right here in in queens in nyc where we live .
Vacation home? I don't even own my own home...yet. Must be nice to have that luxury. Now lets hear all the stories of how "hard you worked" to be able to have a vacation home
why are you even in a thread then about vacation homes ?
No, I want to see the world. If we had a second home, I'd be like everyone else and say 'oh we bought this home blah blah blah, need to go use it. I like museums, great concerts, fine dining. I live where the later two are at a premium. And many people have second homes where I lived.
I like adventure, can't do that in the same place every year.
Growing up my grandparents had a wonderful house on a lake that we visited in summer. So of course, when I could, I bought a beautiful summer house on the water. I find that I rarely use it. Family is scattered all over the world and I can count on one hand the times they have been able to visit. We always feel guilty going elsewhere for vacation as we have an asset sitting empty if we do. And just recently my sister bought a timeshare where she wants ME to come every summer.
So the vacation home is getting sold, which makes me sort of sad as I still love the idea of having one. We may buy in a different location or we may just rent places when we travel as we used to.
Do you have a vacation house? Do you use it?
This is probably temporary, but we have two vacation homes.
Our main house is in W. MA - in a very nice area. People actually go there to go on Vacation!
But we always liked the beach/water and I learned to sail - so we bought a small condo near Newport Rhode Island. We use it 80-100 nights per year and have some friends and family there (maybe 10 nights total).
Then my wife fell in love with the Sarasota Florida area - where we would often go for a week or two...even rented houses for a month during the winter. So we bought a small old ranch house there, where we also spend 100 nights or so per year.
So, maybe it's an endless summer for us for a few years. I can see how it may eventually become a PITA - and we will sell one or the other and maybe do some traveling instead. But they are all in such nice areas that it seems to beat traveling. Having everything set up perfectly in a small house or condo beats dealing with people and staying in places where 100's of other have soiled one thing or another.
So, yeah, I'd say we are the rare birds who actually use our vacation houses. We are retired and used a lot of of our retirement money to "invest" in the properties. I think they bring us more pleasure than looking at a bigger monthly brokerage statement.
why are you even in a thread then about vacation homes ?
I see others posting they don't have vacation homes... did you ask them too?
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