Open Road

Hi,

I have stated many times that my dream is to live by a lake. My wife keeps asking: "What will you do there?"

This picture is the surrounding of my dreams. Of course we will have a much more modern and comfortable unit. Starlink for internet, HVAC, garage etc.

If I live in this environment, I can see myself doing some rowing and frequent hiking for exercise. Fish under a tree, garb a nap in a hammock, tend the garden vegetable and flower beds. Cook and eat well.

I would turn off all news etc. The most I'd do is a few hours of Open Road a day.

Best of all, I would not be hassled with traffic, crowd, and other people-related annoyances.

My dream scenario would be a cluster of 10-12 similar cabins. Like-minded friends and family can live within their own space, but still with human social contact close by. We can be as private as we like, and as social as we like. To each their own. Then we can watch out and help each other, contributing one's knowledge/interests as one pleases. That would be really awesome.

As for my wife? I don't know what she'd do living in a place like this. That is why we are not there. Yet....

Thoughts?

Also, anyone knows whether something like this picture exist? If yes, where geographically. I know that is not California. That is for sure.

CP

Pictures like these sure look dreamy. What you don’t see is the septic system, finding clean water, constantly battling Mother Nature to keep them from overrunning your home (plant life and animal life) and the long drives to grab some groceries or to see a doctor or to buy supplies to repair your home. Speaking of repairs, good luck getting a serviceman out there, Gretch can tell you, you have to become your own handyman for most everything. You might envision a nice nap on a hammock next to the lake, but the truth is you’ll spend most of your time fighting to keep your place looking well kept. I spent 5 hours trying to clear the mud daubers and cob webs off a small boathouse just a few days ago. Had dirt and mud all in my eyes and sinuses. Those batards will move in on you in a weeks time. It’s never ending.

ranger22 wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 1:54 pm Pictures like these sure look dreamy. What you don’t see is the septic system, finding clean water, constantly battling Mother Nature to keep them from overrunning your home (plant life and animal life) and the long drives to grab some groceries or to see a doctor or to buy supplies to repair your home. Speaking of repairs, good luck getting a serviceman out there, Gretch can tell you, you have to become your own handyman for most everything. You might envision a nice nap on a hammock next to the lake, but the truth is you’ll spend most of your time fighting to keep your place looking well kept. I spent 5 hours trying to clear the mud daubers and cob webs off a small boathouse just a few days ago. Had dirt and mud all in my eyes and sinuses. Those batards will move in on you in a weeks time. It’s never ending.

Oops!! Sweet dreams just turned into nightmares.

Thanks for sharing.

CP

Seriously, Ranger just shit all your dream CP!

I always go by what I call the "pizza delivery test"

If they won't deliver a pizza out there, then you're going to be in for a little more work than suburbia.

Not that this closes the door entirely but does make life more challenging.

But if you think about how you framed it with another dozen homeowners or so close but not too close, it could work if each one had their own handyman qualities. That way everyone helps each other out.

Now that's starting to sound like Utopia but could still be possible.

Ranger, you forgot about the mosquitos when out on the hammock.

In another word: Reality SUCKS.

Kinda like... getting married and having kids....

CP

You don't have to go to that extreme. There are plenty of places that come close, but have modern necessities close by.

I had a lake house for many years at Lake Arrowhead (not sure you have heard of that). 5,200 feet elevation (a little welcome snow in the winter). All utilities including sewer in place. Still in the forest. Lake 1/2 mile away and my dock was less than 1 mile, put my boat in the lake in April and took it out early October, otherwise at the dock in the water ready for use at any time. Only ~1:45-2:00 hour drive from home, easy trip to transform from the big city to the peaceful mountains. Both you and Margaret could be happy. There must be something like that near you.

My place was a modest 3 BR 2 BA place in the woods. Yes, there were neighbors and not totally isolated, but still a pleasant forest setting and feeling. Current prices range from $15,500,000 to around $500K, so you can pick your own level of privacy, or not, and luxury. My old place, and the lake ...

Chunpng wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 3:29 pm In another word: Reality SUCKS.

Kinda like... getting married and having kids....

CP

You know what they say: your wife prayed for a good husband, so she got you.
You didn’t pray so you got what you got.

Didn’t mean to shit on your dream, but now that I have…….

You mentioned living there, I took it to mean full time. As others have mentioned, there are part time options that can offer the rural experience and minimize inconvenience. My home has AC, full kitchen, 500 gal propane tank and a septic system. I pay a guy to keep the yard mowed and I run an insect sprayer that helps to keep the insect levels down. That said, it’s an endless list of things to do. Rarely is there a weekend when I go out and relax. I usually spent 1.5 days out there working and a few hours relaxing. It also costs me double utilities, double property tax (which in Texas is brutal), double upkeep. I bought it as an investment in my family and it has paid dividends for that (so far.) I believe the property value has also appreciated and will continue to appreciate as people start to discover this hidden gem an hour and twenty minutes from Dallas home. I do have to plan ahead for provisions when I’m out there because outside of a couple of bad restaurants the closest food store is 40 mins away, which sucks. I’ve got about 400ft of waterfront into big water. Sounds great, but the seawalls are stupid expensive. I had to repair about 40ft last year and it cost me nearly $50k once all was said and done. That was an expense I hadn’t factored into ownership, but live and learn. I also recently rebuilt the boathouse because half of it was rotten and/or destroyed from large waves. Lake is a nice big reservoir serving Tarrant county, big enough for large fishing tournaments and plenty of space for recreational boating. Yet I have enough space to never have to see or hear a neighbor when I’m out there.

Ranger,

That is a beautiful place.

You are on a BIIIG lake. Personally I prefer smaller ones. 10 acres max.

I once read that water-front property (ocean, lake and or river) is one of the highest appreciating assets. Most people love it and very limited supply. You are living right.

CP

lupo.sk wrote: ↑Tue Jun 03, 2025 2:47 pm Ranger, you forgot about the mosquitos when out on the hammock.

And no-see-ums.

that original picture had better not be in a location that gets snow......... It looks like a poor choice for year round living, and I suspect it is a seasonal residence.

Water front can be overrated............ I know frigggin "people" are way overrated!

If you can't fix repair maintain stuff you own, or pay someone to do it, you should not own it.

I gotchur waterfront and NO PEOPLE right here........


Want real water??????????? Fine, but I did warn ya about the fucking people.

Gretch wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 7:21 am that original picture had better not be in a location that gets snow......... It looks like a poor choice for year round living, and I suspect it is a seasonal residence.

Water front can be overrated............ I know frigggin "people" are way overrated!

If you can't fix repair maintain stuff you own, or pay someone to do it, you should not own it.

I gotchur waterfront and NO PEOPLE right here........


Want real water??????????? Fine, but I did warn ya about the fucking people.

Looks like there's a naval battle taking place in your 2nd photo!

The USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides"...... her semi annual "turn around".

She fires off a cannon salute at 8:00 AM every morning and at sundown every afternoon.

On the turn around (July) she fires off (21 gun, IIRC) salute when entering and leaving the inner harbor.

Not on the water. Wanted a little more elbow room for a summer place...and people suck. Easy access to a couple of boat ramps for the kayaks. And yes, couldn't do it without starlink. We're both still working.

I tried for a few years when we bought my former business partner's mother house in the Lake Almanor Country Club. Rented it back to them for 2 years but was very hard for us to make it up there during the summer as we had mother duty (be close in case she fell) to really enjoy it. When we bought it, we thought my wife's bother would take mom for the summer to Florida and we could spend the summer months there. My wife brother passed in 2023 leaving her as the only sibling to care for her.
We are in the process of selling this month, until a bad leach field did not pass the test which turn this into a shitshow no pun intended. But for the few weekends we did make it there it was peaceful and very relaxing, 1/2 mile to the lake beautiful 9-hole golf course just a golf cart ride away.

Skyhawk172 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 10:58 am I tried for a few years when we bought my former business partner's mother house in the Lake Almanor Country Club. Rented it back to them for 2 years but was very hard for us to make it up there during the summer as we had mother duty (be close in case she fell) to really enjoy it. When we bought it, we thought my wife's bother would take mom for the summer to Florida and we could spend the summer months there. My wife brother passed in 2023 leaving her as the only sibling to care for her.
We are in the process of selling this month, until a bad leach field did not pass the test which turn this into a shitshow no pun intended. But for the few weekends we did make it there it was peaceful and very relaxing, 1/2 mile to the lake beautiful 9-hole golf course just a golf cart ride away.

Lake Almanor is close enough to me in Sunnyvale, CA. I have never been there. Maybe I should take a drive up there to look at the area.

CP

Alot of Bay area residence, Retired LEO's and Firefighters. It is a beautiful lake and some of the homes on the water are beautiful it sits at 4400 feet and can get a lot of snow in the winter. probalbly a 5-hour drive. You do have to go through a lot of the Dixie burn scar, but it never really made it to the lake.

Dayum, I’m loving these pics and stories of lake homes. Great to see I’m not the only one on this path.

CP: I infer the motive behind your OP is the seeking of inner peace for yourself. A truism most that pursue such learn is that wherever you go, there you are. That is, changing your place will not bring peace because whatever turmoil you seek to leave behind will still be just as much within you at the empty lake as it was in the full city.

dryadsdad wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 3:24 pm CP: I infer the motive behind your OP is the seeking of inner peace for yourself. A truism most that pursue such learn is that wherever you go, there you are. That is, changing your place will not bring peace because whatever turmoil you seek to leave behind will still be just as much within you at the empty lake as it was in the full city.

Mind Over Matters!!!

But I'll still take Crater Lake or Lake Louise over Manhattan/Downtown LA/Chicago/Dallas. Any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

CP

dryadsdad wrote: ↑Wed Jun 04, 2025 3:24 pm CP: I infer the motive behind your OP is the seeking of inner peace for yourself. A truism most that pursue such learn is that wherever you go, there you are. That is, changing your place will not bring peace because whatever turmoil you seek to leave behind will still be just as much within you at the empty lake as it was in the full city.

That may be true in terms of ultimate inner peace, but I had many years with my mountain house and just being there, outside and in the woods, and on the lake, was always a very welcome respite from the big city hustle and bustle, very relaxing and enjoyable. And if inner peace was an issue, I'd guess the relaxation of a mountain / lake house would surely help sort out and settle inner peace issues.

It might be a crappy little house...
But it's MY crappy little house. There is NO WAY that I'm moving to town EVER again.

The silence really is deafening.

This is NW Ontario, 2 weeks ago. No human sounds at 5:30am, dead calm. Your brain tries to fill in the background sounds that should be there. That is silence like it was 2000 years ago. I don't have the remote life, but I can rent it in small, managable quantities. It is spiritual. Off-the-grid, no roads, no power lines, no internet. One buddy could get Starlink texting on his phone, but I wanted no part of it. The reddish sky is from distant fire.

GaryAZ wrote: ↑Fri Jun 06, 2025 11:11 pm The silence really is deafening.

This is NW Ontario, 2 weeks ago. No human sounds at 5:30am, dead calm. Your brain tries to fill in the background sounds that should be there. That is silence like it was 2000 years ago. I don't have the remote life, but I can rent it in small, managable quantities. It is spiritual. Off-the-grid, no roads, no power lines, no internet. One buddy could get Starlink texting on his phone, but I wanted no part of it. The reddish sky is from distant fire.

That is one heck of a shot.

Thanks for sharing. Spiritual is how I feel when I'm close by a lake.

I have spent virtually my whole life living the urban (Hong Kong) or suburban (SF Bay Area) high-intensity life. In the past few years, every time I am by a lake, I find myself at peace and totally disconnected with the daily grinds.

It is an incredible feeling. Longing to feel that more of the time.

CP

I had a next-door neighbor in the 80's, chief pilot for AA that retired. He had spent his last 5 years on the job planning his new life. He was going to buy a sailboat, do a 3-year sail around the world, and then spend the rest of his life sailing to the places he liked the best. After he retired, he bought a $1MM sailboat (whatever that was in 1980 - I know nothing about boats). He sailed out of Galveston, down the east coast of Central America, thru the Panama Canal and up the west coast to San Diego.

He left the boat with a broker in San Diego, flew home, and said "I never want to see another fucking boat as long as I live!"

My advice: try it before you buy it.

Wife and I love the Pacific Northwest. We stayed for a week a few times at the Cliff House on Whidbey Island:



House is on 17 acres, stairs down the cliff to the rocky beach. We had to plan ahead to visit, because the owner had a regular renter that took the place for 6 weeks every summer. We have relatives in Chicagoland and NY that have summer places they go back to every year. Before you commit and buy a place, rent one for two months and see if you really like the isolated life long term. You may find that a long respite every year refreshes your soul, but that you also like the things that cities can offer (health care, restaurants, museums...).

I have been studying rental as a trial. CA is out as we have lakes, but no greenery, except for a few winter months. Lake Tahoe is a beautiful lake but its barren all around it. The western states are similar. May have to be in the mid west, or south, to find greenery around water. Thus the image in the original post. Still trying to figure out where on Earth such places exist.

I was really serious about moving to Welcome Lake in Woodinville, WA. That area is as close as it comes to my mental image. But then we learned that western WA (the WA tech hub) is just as bad as CA in terms of politics, culture, and people. So I stopped looking there. Still trying to find a place at this point.

That place may only exist in my dreams.

CP

Whitefish Lake MT?

GaryAZ wrote: ↑Fri Jun 06, 2025 11:11 pm The silence really is deafening.

This is NW Ontario, 2 weeks ago. No human sounds at 5:30am, dead calm. Your brain tries to fill in the background sounds that should be there. That is silence like it was 2000 years ago. I don't have the remote life, but I can rent it in small, managable quantities. It is spiritual. Off-the-grid, no roads, no power lines, no internet. One buddy could get Starlink texting on his phone, but I wanted no part of it. The reddish sky is from distant fire.

2 weeks ago, a group of us were on our annual fishing trip in Northern Saskatchewan. As always, one of the best moments is when we run out of cell coverage on the drive up. It guarantees the rest of the trip will be bliss.

couple hours north west of Montreal.

Just a quick sunset pic from last Saturday evening. Pictures never match the real thing.

facelvega wrote: ↑Sat Jun 07, 2025 6:27 pm I had a next-door neighbor in the 80's, chief pilot for AA that retired. He had spent his last 5 years on the job planning his new life. He was going to buy a sailboat, do a 3-year sail around the world, and then spend the rest of his life sailing to the places he liked the best. After he retired, he bought a $1MM sailboat (whatever that was in 1980 - I know nothing about boats). He sailed out of Galveston, down the east coast of Central America, thru the Panama Canal and up the west coast to San Diego.

He left the boat with a broker in San Diego, flew home, and said "I never want to see another fucking boat as long as I live!"

My advice: try it before you buy it.

Wife and I love the Pacific Northwest. We stayed for a week a few times at the Cliff House on Whidbey Island:



House is on 17 acres, stairs down the cliff to the rocky beach. We had to plan ahead to visit, because the owner had a regular renter that took the place for 6 weeks every summer. We have relatives in Chicagoland and NY that have summer places they go back to every year. Before you commit and buy a place, rent one for two months and see if you really like the isolated life long term. You may find that a long respite every year refreshes your soul, but that you also like the things that cities can offer (health care, restaurants, museums...).

Funny, came to this thread to post something for Pong drawing a corrally to boats.

Methinks that doing anything remote like your original post above would quickly turn into major regrets. Yeh, it all looks idyllic up front, but give it a while and I think you will regret it. Need medical care (at our age that is a major issue)? Here in the big city we call them groceries, in something like that they call them "provisions", and you really need to think about the convenience of getting them.

I had my lake house for about 14 years, although ex's family had their own nearby so for many prior years that was available. (Just had to plan to go there when the MIL wasn't!) It was within easy driving distance (1.5-2 hours). It was always wonderful when I got there, many weekend trips but also some week long summer trips. If you really sit down and think about it, a part-time lake house within a reasonable driving distance is a much, much better idea.

I'm 100% open to a part time lake house. Unfortunately, nothing within driving distance of the Bay Area has annual greenery, a serene lake, and no crowds. If such a place exists, please let me know where. I'll be forever grateful.

CP

Chunpng wrote: ↑Mon Jun 09, 2025 6:54 pm ... nothing within driving distance of the Bay Area has annual greenery, a serene lake, and no crowds. If such a place exists, please let me know where. I'll be forever grateful.
CP

Actually, there is a place not far from the Bay Area that checks all the boxes. Those of us that live there, sworn to secrecy, typically will not say to outsiders where it is. But since you are part of the Dive Bar crew, I will give you the inside info. If you head north on the 101 about 15 miles, then turn off on...

...wait, there is a noise downstairs. What? NO! NO! I WON'T TELL!! NO! PLEASE! ARRRGGH 893q4894rgnbz . ...

facelvega wrote: ↑Mon Jun 09, 2025 7:13 pm

Chunpng wrote: ↑Mon Jun 09, 2025 6:54 pm ... nothing within driving distance of the Bay Area has annual greenery, a serene lake, and no crowds. If such a place exists, please let me know where. I'll be forever grateful.
CP

Actually, there is a place not far from the Bay Area that checks all the boxes. Those of us that live there, sworn to secrecy, typically will not say to outsiders where it is. But since you are part of the Dive Bar crew, I will give you the inside info. If you head north on the 101 about 15 miles, then turn off on...

...wait, there is a noise downstairs. What? NO! NO! I WON'T TELL!! NO! PLEASE! ARRRGGH 893q4894rgnbz . ...

I see the Uber Libs Nazis got you....

CP

When we were looking we needed airport access within about an hour - we both still work. We're 45 minutes to an airport with service by a couple of majors to Seattle, Denver and Salt Lake. Works for our needs.

From what we saw in our multi year search, being reasonably close to an airport generally gets you enough shopping and healthcare. Distances are further than in town, but drive time traffic and frustration can offset some of that for the better.

I rarely get jealous but now I’m jealous of all you MFers

We go to friends a lot. He is a very successful software guy and works like ten hours a week. That’s the key. His two doc friends who go too said no way they have the time.
I was looking for awhile until…kids sports.


Place is magical.

Chaos wrote: ↑Sat Nov 22, 2025 6:29 am We go to friends a lot. He is a very successful software guy and works like ten hours a week. That’s the key. His two doc friends who go too said no way they have the time.
I was looking for awhile until…kids sports.


Place is magical.

Heaven on Earth. Places like these do not exist in California.

Thanks for sharing.

CP