August 20: July 16 was an important date for me. It was, in many ways, the midpoint of the 2024 cottage season. It was also the anniversary of the day I signed the offer to purchase Regatta Island in 2021, and the mid-point of the 5 year term of the mortgage I took I took to buy the island. When I did that, I had a “5-year plan” to work on the cottage and make it over in my own taste: take the old girl and bring her back to a comfortable and enjoyable place to spend the summer.
To that end, worker-mate and good friend Roy and I have added new decks, and built a new kitchen and bathroom. We have also finished dozens of other smaller projects, and new plumbing, wiring, septic and roof have been completed by contractors. I was thinking of all the progress that had been made on July 16 when I started to consider how the next half of the 5-year plan might unfold. To be clear: my intention is to try to return the cottage to its’ glory days of several decades ago. The restoration and hard work are key reasons that I dream of the island, and two things I enjoy most about being here.
Then I turned to the question of finances and my long-term financial security, and things became troubling. While most of my financial assets are tied up in the cottage. this was never a project intended to make a small fortune* in the real estate market. As the work has progressed, those assets have diminished to the point where I have had to confront the idea that, as my expenses continue to mount, I may not be able to complete all of the work I have in mind, or indeed, be able to continue to own the island for more than another 3 or 4 years. At that point, the money runs out and literally everything would be invested in Regatta Island.
Confronted with the fact that I will have to sell the cottage sooner than I anticipated, it seemed prudent to put a plan in place to finish up some more small jobs and see if the market for cottages has returned. Sales this year are virtually non-existent (except, apparently in the $5+ million range where sales continue), so I am working toward a possible decision next Spring.
Suddenly the cottage no longer feels like mine. As I walk from room to room I still see images of how I would like to finish the place, but I have to realize that I will not be the guy to do it. Someone else will have the joy of bringing Regatta fully back to life
- An old witticism, attributed to various people, posits that the surest way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one.