I just passed on a river-front cabin

[scaleface]

I was just offered a cabin for rent . Water , electric on a small river with smallmouth bass . 800 dollars a year . It needs a lot of work. The owner says he would supply the material if I do the labor . Also I would have to mow the grass weekly , about 7 acres, he has a tractor with belly mower . Its a pretty good deal but I have my own house to work on before I redo a cabin . So I   reluctantly passed . 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I'm building big XMAS lighted trees for someone in order to fish from their property.

 

I love trading work for fishing access.  That said, earning income and taking care of your own home and family obviously take priority.    Outside of that, I'll do most any odd job in the fishing is good enough lol.  

[Deleted account]

Yeah, "you can crash and fish here for $800 and thousands in labor" sounds like a no brainer hard pass, wait, how's the fishing?...

[TOXIC]

I would have thought the amount of work you were putting in would be a fair split for free rent and usage.  My fishing partner and I are still kicking ourselves in the butt for turning down a cottage on Lake St Clair (Harsens Island) for $150,000.  

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

I would have thought the amount of work you were putting in would be a fair split for free rent and usage.

Not quite free , 800 dollars a year . I was tempted to accept . 

52 minutes ago, Deleted account said:

wait, how's the fishing?

15 years ago it was a smallmouth paradise . Constant flooding has seriously damaged the smallmouth population .

[J._Bricker]

$67 a month to work on the place when you’re not fishing? It must have needed A LOT of work @scalefacefor you to turn it down and probably saved you one hellofa headache ?.

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, J._Bricker said:

$67 a month to work on the place when you’re not fishing? It must have needed A LOT of work @scalefacefor you to turn it down and probably saved you one hellofa headache ?.

I hurriedly gotten myself into pickles before  . I thought long and hard but figured like you put it    a major headache in the making.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

If the fishing isn't dynamite, I'm not interested.   HOWEVER, if it's a special body of water with big fish....I'll go to no ends to please whomever grants me access to fish it.   Down here in the South, many if not most DD LGM are taken from smaller lakes and ponds that are privately owned.   Those are the places I'd happily trade work for.   

 

Learned this from my mentor.   He had all these magic honey hole smaller lakes around the state from doing favors or sometimes just treating people right.   He ended up spending most of his time fishing on water that contained DD fish without much to any pressure.......what more could you ever dream of as a Bass angler. 

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, scaleface said:

I was just offered a cabin for rent . Water , electric on a small river with smallmouth bass . 800 dollars a year . It needs a lot of work. The owner says he would supply the material if I do the labor . Also I would have to mow the grass weekly , about 7 acres, he has a tractor with belly mower . Its a pretty good deal but I have my own house to work on before I redo a cabin . So I   reluctantly passed . 

 

39 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Not quite free , 800 dollars a year . I was tempted to accept . 

15 years ago it was a smallmouth paradise . Constant flooding has seriously damaged the smallmouth population .

 

12 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I hurriedly gotten myself into pickles before  . I thought long and hard but figured like you put it    a major headache in the making.

 

Your boy has that entire deal backwards.

He pays you to work on that unit.

I'm thinking $800 a month should be more than fair compensation.

A-Jay

[scaleface]

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

 

 

 

Your boy has that entire deal backwards.

He pays you to work on that unit.

I'm thinking $800 a month should be more than fair compensation.

A-Jay

I thought the same thing . Plus I have access and free camping on a private spot on the same river . All I do there is supply firewood and pick up sticks . Heres the camp fire wood I supplied in 2021 

I didnt cut a single log either  . Our town has a place for the citizens to dump yard waste , After a major storm there is always a lot of wood cut up and thrown there . I just toss it in the truck and unload it at the camp .

[gim]

My parents have considered buying a lake cabin within 2 hours of their house for 15 years now.  They finally stopped even considering it because they always came back to the same question: why would we want to maintain TWO properties?

 

They have no intention of mowing, watering, landscaping, shoveling, cleaning, or maintaining a cabin property in addition to their homestead.  I see the point too.  Keeping one house/property in livable condition is hard enough as a home owner myself.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

My parents have considered buying a lake cabin within 2 hours of their house for 15 years now.  They finally stopped even considering it because they always came back to the same question: why would we want to maintain TWO properties?

 

They have no intention of mowing, watering, landscaping, shoveling, cleaning, or maintaining a cabin property in addition to their homestead.  I see the point too.  Keeping one house/property in livable condition is hard enough as a home owner myself.

Luckily our second lake property only needs mowed about 5-7 times a year and gutters cleaned about the same frequency. My dad designed it all to be low maintenance. I do need to rebuild the back deck and more importantly I need adult supervision while doing so 

[gim]

21 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I do need to rebuild the back deck

I'd use composite decking to stick with the "low maintenance" theme of the property.  It'll cost more up front but there will not be any staining or rotting wood in the future.

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I'd use composite decking to stick with the "low maintenance" theme of the property.  It'll cost more up front but there will not be any staining or rotting wood in the future.

That seems to be the way we are leaning but holy smokes that stuff must be 24 karat . The strategy so far is don’t go near the railing haha. The wood is from 1989 but I don’t think you can get wood nowadays that’s quite as “pressure treated” as it was back then. It rots a good bit faster now according to a guy I know that builds docks and decks 

[gim]

7 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

That seems to be the way we are leaning but holy smokes that stuff must be 24 karat

Oh, I'm aware.  If you intend to be there long term I think it would pay off though.  I'm sure you're the one who will be doing most of the manual labor there in the future.  Unsupervised, of course.

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Oh, I'm aware.  If you intend to be there long term I think it would pay off though.  I'm sure you're the one who will be doing most of the manual labor there in the future.  Unsupervised, of course.

That’s  a good point, it’s the forever home. Probably just have to borrow and try to pay it off as fast as possible. It’s 32x8 I think, not a massive project. One level rectangle. Me and a friend can screw it all together but still have to buy the boards. The in-laws said they got 12 1” thick composite boards for $800 something dollars, I’m not sure how long they were though  

 

im also told their are many different brands of composite now, seems it used to be just trex 

[gim]

7 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

It’s 32x8 I think, not a massive project.

Generally you just need the composite decking for the floors/rails.  The supports underneath can be treated lumber.  My parents did this to their deck about 5 years ago.  All they had to replace were the floor boards, rails, and the steps.  Anything under the flooring or anything that sits vertically doesn't take near as much of a beating from the elements.

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Generally you just need the composite decking for the floors/rails.  The supports underneath can be treated lumber.  My parents did this to their deck about 5 years ago.  All they had to replace were the floor boards, rails, and the steps.  Anything under the flooring or anything that sits vertically doesn't take near as much of a beating from the elements.

My carpenter fishing pal was over one day and we were standing underneath it. I said man I gotta replace this whole deck. He says why? If I took a bit right now and drilled into your trusses, I guarantee they aren’t rotten. Then he started knocking on them and said they are solid. 
 

Like you just said, it’s all the stuff above that is weathered 

[12poundbass]

7 hours ago, gimruis said:

My parents have considered buying a lake cabin within 2 hours of their house for 15 years now.  They finally stopped even considering it because they always came back to the same question: why would we want to maintain TWO properties?

 

They have no intention of mowing, watering, landscaping, shoveling, cleaning, or maintaining a cabin property in addition to their homestead.  I see the point too.  Keeping one house/property in livable condition is hard enough as a home owner myself.

Over the years my parents have had a couple of cottages on lakes. One was my stepdad’s house, so when they married that became a cottage. It was a half hour away from our house so it was used fairly frequently. They sold that and bought the property on Big Bay de noc which was almost 6 hrs away. They sold that several years later. 
 

Both were fun and a lot of memories were made, but a lot of time was spent doing up keep, instead of R&R, fishing, or golf like it was intended for. 
 

My wife has expressed interest in getting a camper or buying a cottage (eventually) up north somewhere. I’ll dig my heals in on that one. If I’m going on vacation I want to do the things people do on vacation, not the same thing I do at home. 

[gim]

2 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

If I’m going on vacation I want to do the things people do on vacation, not the same thing I do at home. 

Some resorts here on lakes up north have RV or park model sites available seasonally. They are a flat rate that includes rent for the “summer” season with electricity and lake access. There is no mowing or property maintenance required. No paying property taxes either. That’s the kind of weekend I can do.

[TnRiver46]

9 hours ago, gimruis said:

Some resorts here on lakes up north have RV or park model sites available seasonally. They are a flat rate that includes rent for the “summer” season with electricity and lake access. There is no mowing or property maintenance required. No paying property taxes either. That’s the kind of weekend I can do.

My buddy has a camper they park on Norris lake from march-nov. The kids can ride circles around the campground on their bicycles and swim all summer, all they have to worry about is storms and ants haha 

[gim]

45 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

My buddy has a camper

A lot of people that own those big fancy ice castles use them in the off season for this sort of "weekend camper."  Most of them come factory installed with air conditioning now too.  Our ice season has gradually been getting shorter and shorter and its hard to justify spending 25 grand on an ice castle that you can really only use for 1-2 months all year.  My brother in law had one that he recently sold and he said he used it way more in the non-winter months as a camper than he did as an actual ice fishing shack on the winter.  The primary issue is that you need really thick, safe ice to use them.  Like 15+ inches of good ice.

[Darth-Baiter]

i would have to poop gold bars to buy a second property. 

 

the math just doesnt make sense.  buying the place and paying for maintenence for something i dont stay at full time is not right for me.  i would rather take that same money and vacation at various places.  i'd AirBNB the place next door.  plus, i think i would get bored of the same thing over and over again.  

 

 

renting it to only have to work on it for the occasional fishing trip.  hard pass.  that's like a timeshare

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

i would have to poop gold bars to buy a second property. 

 

the math just doesnt make sense.  buying the place and paying for maintenence for something i dont stay at full time is not right for me.  i would rather take that same money and vacation at various places.  i'd AirBNB the place next door.  plus, i think i would get bored of the same thing over and over again.  

 

 

renting it to only have to work on it for the occasional fishing trip.  hard pass.  that's like a timeshare

It helps to be born on 3rd base like me……..

 

I’ve got a very lower middle class salary but I’m good at showing up and sweating so my family lets me do stuff. Like stay at a lake house and clean the gutters cut the grass, chop firewood, vacuum, sweep, dishes, chimney sweep, drywall (with supervision). And buy composite boards……. Hahah

 

im Probably the only one crazy enough to have jumped on @scaleface’s potential proposal, but that’s just because I’m crazy and $800 is in my tax bracket haha

[Darth-Baiter]

6 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

It helps to be born on 3rd base like me……..

 

I’ve got a very lower middle class salary but I’m good at showing up and sweating so my family lets me do stuff. Like stay at a lake house and clean the gutters cut the grass, chop firewood, vacuum, sweep, dishes, chimney sweep, drywall (with supervision). And buy composite boards……. Hahah

 i was once bobbing around in my kayak.  fishing.  i was tired from the long stretch to get there and i would by lying if i didnt say i wasnt distracted from the long haul back.

CLEARLAKE:

all day i was hearing a lady chainsawing and raking.  i was fishing off her back beach.  she would drag a garbage can back, dump it and bring it back for a refill.  every time i saw her, i would yell, "hey that looks heavy!!!  you need help?".  she was an older lady.  

 

my buddies commented, "oh, Mr Niceguy!"  a nearby bassboat laughed at me.  i mumbled back, "hey, imagine if we could park in her driveway and launch our kayaks right here!!!".

 

everyone:  "oh..shrewd..."

 

hahahha..  i am gonna keep at it with the old lady.  hahh