Real Estate, Course Corrections & Bang for the Buck
Well here we are again, at the end of one week and the start of another. I'd love to slow down the passage of the days right now, while I decide the best course of action for us, but I know time suppression isn't a viable option. At least not yet.......
After my initial visit to Whiskey Creek with Adam and Ri a couple weeks ago I have been thinking alot about the viability of purchasing a lot up there so we'd have a place to go camping, whenever we wanted to, without having to make a reservation 6 months or more in advance (the current state park system). So, during this past week I made a call to a Mr. Mark E. Todd, the owner and proprietor of Whiskey Creek. The purpose of the call was to set up a time to come up and have him give us the 25 cent tour around the grounds and explain the options available to us if we were to choose to become a member of Whiskey Creek. As luck would have it, he was available this morning at 9:30/10ish so with Adam and Ri leading the way, myself, Wanda and Chris left the house about 8:30 and pointed the van North for the hour drive.
After a stop at the McDonalds in Whitehall for a quick breakfast we arrived at the lodge about quarter to 10. Mr Todd (you can call me MarkE) was there and after introductions we headed into his office where he produced a variety of information, including maps and lot purchase prices. After a short talk the 3 of us jumped into Mr. Todd's vehicle for the tour of the campgrounds. Over the next hour and a half we looked at dozens of possibilities for a future basecamp. Some of them Mr Todd termed the "difficult" sites. Sites that required negotiating some degree of elevation to arrive at the future front door. Other sites were on relatively flat ground with mature Oak, Maple and Beech trees adorning the grounds. We circled a number of sites on the map that he'd given us over the course of our tour and at the conclusion of the ridearound we headed back to the lodge and did some more talking about the best way to finance things and get the utilities routed to the campsite. He also gave us a tour of the main lodge, which includes, among other things, an olympic size swimming pool and a laundrymat.
There is more to this place than just a campsite to be sure. Along with the 2 square miles of land that makes up Whiskey Creek, there is another 6 square miles of Manistee National Forest that completely surrounds the campground. So a person could concievably grab their camera gear and head off into the woods, be gone all day and hardly scratch the surface of what's out there to explore. To say that would be an ideal situation for me would be an understatement to be sure. Add into that equation a dirt bike for times when I would like to go further in an afternoon than my feet could take me, on trails that range thruout multiple counties and you're really making it an attractive situation. Toss in the fact that purchasing a camper to park there year around gives us the option of tossing some clothes in a bag after work on a Friday and making the hour drive there any time we feel like we need some fresh air and a campfire, without the pain in the butt of having to make reservations in advance.
What's not to like about all that?? Heck, I dunno.....I'm ready right now to go back up tomorrow and spend the day walking around, doing a closer inspection of each of the lots that appealed to us today, but the reality of the situation is that we'll have to wait to do that until next Saturday. For the moment that is the plan. barring any major issues we are going to make a return trip next weekend and try to find 3 or 4 sites that we'd seriously consider and can agree on. Right now the one I like the best is a "difficult" site with a beautiful view of one of the little lakes there, but the concern is that there is not enough useable space for a camper for now, or cabin in the future, plus parking and a dog run.......I'm going to draw up a schematic during the week so I can work that problem out along with an excel spreadsheet, set up by campsite number, to add up costs for each site that appeals to us.
To say this is a done deal would be overconfident until we talk to money people, but it's really a no brainer to me. We would get our money's worth out of the investment without a doubt and have a place to go to recharge batteries and sooth souls. It's not so far out, or far away that it'd get to be too much trouble to drive there, but it's far enough out that you'd know that the folks who come to visit you there really want to see you. :-)
At any rate I'm going to take the next 6 days or so to assemble some info, good and bad, and see how we feel by this time next week. The biggest problem of course is that this will have to change the direction we've been headed in since I made the proclamation last fall that we're selling the house and moving to the township. However since we started down that path the whole by-pass issue has reared it's ugly head again, this time as a done deal and has ruined a lot of potential sites right smack in the area I was looking to set down roots in.....along with that major problem is the fact (one I was already aware of but one that's started to really tick me off nonetheless), that the price of land south of the Grand River is considerably more expensive than the same house and 2 acres North of the river. I'm also being fussy about that 2+ acres and how it's laid out. Many of the places we've looked at have land, but it's virtually worthless. Either the frontage is way too short, so that you have neighbors plastered up against you on one or both sides or for some strange reason the original owner stuck the house on one side of the lot so you're once again right up against the folks next door. I hate to sound antisocial because it's not that I am, it's just that I want some cushion between my backyard and whoever lives next to me. I want some privacy and I don't want to be crowded. I'm not at all interested in selling the house in town to end up living out in the township with neighbors just as close to me there as what I have now.......
So, here I am, thinking it might be time for a major course correction so we can get the most bang out of our limited bucks over the next 20 years. I sure wouldn't blame my life partner if she was royally pissed at me for wanting to change the direction at this point, after 6 months of house renovations, but I'd like to think that I could convince her that what I'm wanting to do would be for the benefit of both of us, for a long time to come. There's no realistic way we could buy a new house and do Whiskey Creek too so there's bound to be some discussions ahead of us. I can sure see in my minds eye a small cabin perched on that hilltop with a deck out in front, overlooking the lake.....sounds like something I've dreamed about most of my life. We'll see how it goes. If it's suppose to happen, it will.
The title is a link to the Whiskey Creek site........
Time to give the brain a rest and get some sleep.
TC
After my initial visit to Whiskey Creek with Adam and Ri a couple weeks ago I have been thinking alot about the viability of purchasing a lot up there so we'd have a place to go camping, whenever we wanted to, without having to make a reservation 6 months or more in advance (the current state park system). So, during this past week I made a call to a Mr. Mark E. Todd, the owner and proprietor of Whiskey Creek. The purpose of the call was to set up a time to come up and have him give us the 25 cent tour around the grounds and explain the options available to us if we were to choose to become a member of Whiskey Creek. As luck would have it, he was available this morning at 9:30/10ish so with Adam and Ri leading the way, myself, Wanda and Chris left the house about 8:30 and pointed the van North for the hour drive.
After a stop at the McDonalds in Whitehall for a quick breakfast we arrived at the lodge about quarter to 10. Mr Todd (you can call me MarkE) was there and after introductions we headed into his office where he produced a variety of information, including maps and lot purchase prices. After a short talk the 3 of us jumped into Mr. Todd's vehicle for the tour of the campgrounds. Over the next hour and a half we looked at dozens of possibilities for a future basecamp. Some of them Mr Todd termed the "difficult" sites. Sites that required negotiating some degree of elevation to arrive at the future front door. Other sites were on relatively flat ground with mature Oak, Maple and Beech trees adorning the grounds. We circled a number of sites on the map that he'd given us over the course of our tour and at the conclusion of the ridearound we headed back to the lodge and did some more talking about the best way to finance things and get the utilities routed to the campsite. He also gave us a tour of the main lodge, which includes, among other things, an olympic size swimming pool and a laundrymat.
There is more to this place than just a campsite to be sure. Along with the 2 square miles of land that makes up Whiskey Creek, there is another 6 square miles of Manistee National Forest that completely surrounds the campground. So a person could concievably grab their camera gear and head off into the woods, be gone all day and hardly scratch the surface of what's out there to explore. To say that would be an ideal situation for me would be an understatement to be sure. Add into that equation a dirt bike for times when I would like to go further in an afternoon than my feet could take me, on trails that range thruout multiple counties and you're really making it an attractive situation. Toss in the fact that purchasing a camper to park there year around gives us the option of tossing some clothes in a bag after work on a Friday and making the hour drive there any time we feel like we need some fresh air and a campfire, without the pain in the butt of having to make reservations in advance.
What's not to like about all that?? Heck, I dunno.....I'm ready right now to go back up tomorrow and spend the day walking around, doing a closer inspection of each of the lots that appealed to us today, but the reality of the situation is that we'll have to wait to do that until next Saturday. For the moment that is the plan. barring any major issues we are going to make a return trip next weekend and try to find 3 or 4 sites that we'd seriously consider and can agree on. Right now the one I like the best is a "difficult" site with a beautiful view of one of the little lakes there, but the concern is that there is not enough useable space for a camper for now, or cabin in the future, plus parking and a dog run.......I'm going to draw up a schematic during the week so I can work that problem out along with an excel spreadsheet, set up by campsite number, to add up costs for each site that appeals to us.
To say this is a done deal would be overconfident until we talk to money people, but it's really a no brainer to me. We would get our money's worth out of the investment without a doubt and have a place to go to recharge batteries and sooth souls. It's not so far out, or far away that it'd get to be too much trouble to drive there, but it's far enough out that you'd know that the folks who come to visit you there really want to see you. :-)
At any rate I'm going to take the next 6 days or so to assemble some info, good and bad, and see how we feel by this time next week. The biggest problem of course is that this will have to change the direction we've been headed in since I made the proclamation last fall that we're selling the house and moving to the township. However since we started down that path the whole by-pass issue has reared it's ugly head again, this time as a done deal and has ruined a lot of potential sites right smack in the area I was looking to set down roots in.....along with that major problem is the fact (one I was already aware of but one that's started to really tick me off nonetheless), that the price of land south of the Grand River is considerably more expensive than the same house and 2 acres North of the river. I'm also being fussy about that 2+ acres and how it's laid out. Many of the places we've looked at have land, but it's virtually worthless. Either the frontage is way too short, so that you have neighbors plastered up against you on one or both sides or for some strange reason the original owner stuck the house on one side of the lot so you're once again right up against the folks next door. I hate to sound antisocial because it's not that I am, it's just that I want some cushion between my backyard and whoever lives next to me. I want some privacy and I don't want to be crowded. I'm not at all interested in selling the house in town to end up living out in the township with neighbors just as close to me there as what I have now.......
So, here I am, thinking it might be time for a major course correction so we can get the most bang out of our limited bucks over the next 20 years. I sure wouldn't blame my life partner if she was royally pissed at me for wanting to change the direction at this point, after 6 months of house renovations, but I'd like to think that I could convince her that what I'm wanting to do would be for the benefit of both of us, for a long time to come. There's no realistic way we could buy a new house and do Whiskey Creek too so there's bound to be some discussions ahead of us. I can sure see in my minds eye a small cabin perched on that hilltop with a deck out in front, overlooking the lake.....sounds like something I've dreamed about most of my life. We'll see how it goes. If it's suppose to happen, it will.
The title is a link to the Whiskey Creek site........
Time to give the brain a rest and get some sleep.
TC
posted by Tom Eckels at 11:20 PM
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