What would you give up to live on the water?

[Bill D]

My wife and I are contemplating a move. The top item on our wish list for the new house is to be on the water with the boat on a lift.

More sq. ft, that’s cool. Big kitchen, great. Pool, whatever. But no dock, no deal.

This desire has led to a lot of conversation about what we would give up to live on the water, so I ask the members here, what would you let go to have a house on the water?

 

[CraigAR]

We are looking to move to a Gulf access canal home here in swfl and what we would give up is the square footage. We are in a 2600 sf home now and to try to get a house of this caliper on the water we would be looking at a million plus. We've been looking in the 1900 sf range but like you said it must come with a dock and lift. Location is key for us, I can do any updating/ upgrading inside if need be.

 

[Neutron]

I like my backyard privacy and wouldnt give it up to be on the water. I dont mind trailering since my ramp is 2.5 miles away.
Everyone can see right into your yard and house.
I own the whole end of a culdesac and can only see my neighbors from my front yard. My side yards to the back is all woods

 

[tdonoughue]

What would I give up?

My firstborn (easy to offer, as he is already 22 and no longer mine to offer). My second born (19--same situation). My eye teeth (wait, I don't know which ones those are). More seriously, I would love to live on the water, but the kids come first, so we are here with good schools.

More realistically, once we are kid-free, for us it is the flooding risk.

We flooded during Allison. Quite a mess. Very traumatic. Have no desire to do that again. I would give up a lot to live on the water, but about the only thing I would not give up is altitude of the house. Boat dock can be 25 feet below on the water as long as the house is up high.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

Interesting question as my wife and I are in that dilemma right now. We are currently under contract and in due diligence until Tuesday. The house we are looking at has a lot to offer but not nearly as nice as our previous home yet cost substantially more. That reality has been a big struggle for me to accept and I’m not sure if we’ll follow through or not. The dream of being on the water is what I have a hard time moving on from but it sure doesn’t come without substantial cost. Decisions......

 

[zipper]

A 500 acre property in Chittenden county, Vermont. My parents are selling their house with 300' of lake shore on Lake Champlain soon and making Florida permanent. They have sold their docks and lift already. But I am not interested in a house with a frozen lake for 5 mos. of the year. Wife and I are having a Beneteau 35s5 surveyed tomorrow and if all goes well, she will be our lake (RV) house until we decide to head to warmer waters. Keeping the Yamaha, for when I need to get somewhere faster. Soooo, ya two boats at the marina on slips this summer.

 

[Bill D]

Great feedback! All of these things apply... $/sq ft is almost double when there’s water. Space between houses is minimal since lots are mostly long and narrow to reach from road to water. Schools can’t be considered if you’re only looking at specific areas. (I don’t have kids, so no issue there) Flooding... ugh! What the hell does a 100 year event even mean anymore. “Didn’t flood in 2016!” Awesome, but I didn’t live there in 2016. Lol

 

[haknslash]

@Bill D where are y'all thinking of moving?

If it's a place on a river just make sure it's on stilts or high above the water. We had a place on Mitchell Lake growing up and one year we had a very bad flood. Thankfully our cabin was up on stilts but everything below the second floor was under water. Even reservoir lakes can flood so just keep that in mind.

Hope y'all are staying close by! Get a place on Smith (my sig pic) so I have somewhere to crash

 

[John McLaughlin]

@Bill D We are retired and live full time in what use to be our beach house on a canal that leads to the bay in Ocean City Md., however, more information on your status would make it easier in answering your questions because your needs in a vacation home at least IMO are different then a full time resident. For instance do you have children, do they live at home or are you empty nesters. Are you ready to retire or are your retired. What other hobbies do you have besides boating. I asked these because I believe your approach could be different depending on your scenario.

For instance we first bought the land then built a small 3 bedroom A frame vacation home with a deck, however we made sure we had sufficient land to add on an addition and a two car garage. We did add on when we made the decision to move full time to our vacation home. Now what I would not give up are bedrooms, at least 3 or 4 and two or three baths one of which is your master bath. I like open space so we have an open floor plan for our downstair living area (dining , living and kitchen). During the renovation we did convert part of the deck into a small year round TV room that works great for my wife and I. We also converted what was our bedroom into sitting room adjacent to our new large Master Bedroom on the ground floor. We do have an upstairs bedroom and loft however it is for guest as we seldom go up there. As you get older you just don't want to climb stairs, save your energy for more important things like asking, hiking, walking etc.
The answer to the kitchen IMO is it depends. I am not a believer in a big kitchen even though I am a damn good cook and baker and spend a significant amount of time in my kitchen. What is important is to have it organized so every thing is close by when cooking. I do have an island that I also use but mostly I am in the corner between the sink and the stove. Oh by the way only those items I use the most are on the counter Mixer, Alex Duetto Espresso machine, coffee grinder, vitamin and some other stuff. My other equipment is either on a cart or on shelves in aback bedroom.

A good size deck especially if your first floor is above the water like ours. Our front entrance is at street level however the back is about 10 to 12 feet above the canal so if you grill and BBQ be sure to have the space on your deck unless you like running up and down steps. Our back deck has four grills and a table that sits four. As we are on the water I see no need for a pool and besides many developments have a community pool. As to square footage just remember the more you have the more it takes to clean. My point is big houses are nice but 2 to 3 thousand is definitely more then sufficient especially if you are empty nesters.

As to the yard less is better as to who the hell wants to spend time cutting grass and besides weeds stay green in droughts.

One more point choose carefully your view. Be sure to maximize the water view from your master bedroom and living area. Anyway I hope this helps

 

[veedubtek]

We bought our lake house last July, and I wouldn't give it up for anything. At all. Except waterfront on maybe SWFL water or something. We wanted to downsize anyway, all that extra space you just accumulate extra stuff to fill it. Tripled the size of my garage at the same time though, and we still have our other house for storage/offspring. I'll tell ya though, our lake, even at 365 shore miles, feels a whole lot smaller now that we live on it.

 

[n1111z]

One thing, with a pool/lanai/dock/boat you don't need the square footage! Our 2,000 sq.ft. canal house is open to the outside year round and it feels just as big as our inland 4,000 sq.ft. house.

 

[DBamaC]

We really need to get together.

What would I give up. Square footage, flood security, convenience of living in a city and time...as in how long it would take me to get to civilization. I’ve been looking a bit too, but I need to get T and L out of K-12.

 

[mattschepker]

MY JOB......LOL

 

[swatski]

One thing to consider (just bringing it up here - as a concern that has not yet been brought up in the thread) is something I see where I boat - a small river called Meramec, MO.
As it is a "navigable body of water/channel" - property owners do not control the actual shore, a strip of whatever many feet of shore above the "normal" water level - which is public.
One obvious implication is that at low water level someone can literally (and legally) have a party in front of your water front property. Or - take a leak. Or - pitch a tent.
Which has caused many a home owner a headache and on occasion lead to violence: a drunk kid taking a leak got shot around here a couple years ago on my river... Pretty crazy.

Between water level changes that can be devastating, and a potential for unwanted company, we stopped thinking about it - at least around here, on a river.

My 0.02. (Don't meant to sound discouraging, just sharing notes!)

--

 

[seanmclean]

I'd be giving up significant state income and property taxes... just not willing to give up proximity to family (yet).

 

[2kwik4u]

My aunt bought a "vacation home" on the Ohio a few years back. It's seriously 45min from her permanent residence.

The wife and I seriously contemplated this when we built our house a few years ago. We were |...| that close to buying a house in a development that offered boat valet at a dock on the Ohio just upriver from Louisville. We visited the site 3-4 times, had a floor plan and builder picked out and everything. We were even OK with flood insurance and that risk, we love our boat and water that much......we didn't pull the trigger on that one for two reasons. First, the average age in the neighborhood was around 65. We are early 30s, so not many people to fraternize with after hours, or kids for our boy to play with. Second was the school system. Jefferson County school system here in Louisville is junk. We ended up landing in a small community in Floyd County IN with great schools and like aged and minded neighbors. Tons of kids play outside and the icing was a significant savings on purchase price of the home.

Short answer......we almost gave up a ton except what was best for the kids. Of course we had a location on the water picked out that kept our jobs and proximity to family and friends, so the sacrifice would not have been huge.

Once the kids are gone (new one is 7days old so it'll be awhile) we'll be finding a cabin style home on a lake. With any luck our retirement plan will hold good and we'll be retiring just a year or two after the last one leaves home. Long way to go to get there though, lots can change between now and then.

 

[Jgorm]

I've almost given up on that idea. I was fortunate to grow up with a dock in the backyard. It's bad ass! The problem is a million bucks gets you a 1100sqft condo with a garage down the street. My vacation house is 2 miles from the Colorado River. I could see potentially getting something in the river way in the future. 300 to 400k will get you on the water with a dock. Flooding is no concern with the massive water regulation on the Colorado. In San Diego there is also no flooding concern with no hurricanes, storm surge, etc.

 

[Peelz]

My wife and I regularly have this conversation.

We've earmarked Osage Beach, Missouri. (Ozarks) Once the boys are both out of school (6-7yrs) well probably give it ALL up and be full-time lake boaters, assuming we can find employment nearby of course..

were into buying experiences. and tired of just accruing 'stuff'. You cant take that with you when you croak.

 

[the MfM]

Nothing I guess. So we bought a cabin on the lake. That one day will be our retirement home.

Couldn’t justify the sky high property tax on a year round home on the water in a good school district.

 

[PEARCE]

My wife and I have thought about this off and on for a while. While it would be nice to have a house that fronts a lake, we really don't want the maintenance headaches. A neighbor of ours where we currently live has a lake house and the expenses and the things that have happened due to mother nature, just in the past five years, has been a nightmare. We want to be on the lake weekends at a time for now till the kids are out so we have a cruiser to stay on. Once the kids are on their own and we're retired we'll sell where we live and move to a smaller place that's closer to where we like to boat. If it has a lake view, great, but if it doesn't then that's fine too.