Lake House

We wanted a home on water for as long as well....forever.
Rick loves to fish and I love to be on, in, near, or by water in any way I can.

We used to rent a house on a lake every year. The last 3 years of renting a home at this lake we began to rent the same house each year for 2 weeks. 2 straight weeks sounds so spoiled and wonderful. It took us almost the whole 1st week to get to what we called “on Lake Time”. Lake time was slower and naps were involved. 
The pace was not specific and there were no clocks.
We traveled so much for work and our lives were always moving so quickly.
We always felt we had to be somewhere at a certain time.
That life was very scheduled and fast vs. Lake Time.
We found to just stop was more difficult for us for the first few days.
By the end of that 1st week we had finally slowed down and were on Lake Time and it was glorious.
But then it was time to go home and that wasn’t so glorious.
Because of that we decided to add a second week of true relaxation. 
That is how we came to finally decide on vacationing for 2 straight weeks.
It was a blessing that we appreciated and loved.

We would call and make our reservations every February 1st. Then one year I called at the end of January and the house was rented for the whole season. WHAT? We scrambled. We picked out 2 other homes – rented. There was nothing for the weeks of vacation that we both had gotten approval for from work. We were in a panic. The last attempt the realtor suggested we come down to the lake and see some homes, maybe we could just buy a vacation home there.
Yea, right lady was my thought. We don’t have that kind of money.

I made the huge mistake of telling Rick that she said we should come down.
He immediately said, “Why not what the hell else do we have to do on a cold February weekend?” I mentioned all the reasons why, like MONEY, 2 mortgages, 2 sets of utilities things like that.  But he said it would be fun. We’ve never been there outside of the tourist season etc. Let's just go for the weekend he said.  Okay he wore me down. We went.
On the drive down he told me we had gotten approval for X amount of money for a house. AH HA! So he’s been doing home work and not sharing with me and he got us approval already. I realized that he is serious about this. Oh no was my only thought.

This crazy ass realtor (aren’t they all though?) drove us to homes that were horrible. And she drove us there on these winding narrow roads at break neck speed. Rick sat up front with her and I was in the back holding on for dear life.

It was a very inflated realty market there in 2004. A dump was even outrageously expensive. But honestly it hasn't changed all that much today even in this economic climate.

The first house she brought us to was very small. A 2 bedroom for teeny tiny people. Everything felt small and low and just off kilter. I am only 5’2” so for me to feel tall you know it was off a bit. It had the oh so beautiful avocado colored shag carpeting in the KITCHEN! Dreadful house really. No real dock to speak of. Not one with a boat lift etc. The realtor kept telling us it already had a rental base. So if we wanted to rent it out we could pay the mortgage for the whole year. That idea started to appeal to us. But this house did not. Because when not renting we would be there and this house was way too dark, awful and uncomfortable. Not the feeling you want in your vacation home.

When we drove to the 2nd house. This house was beyond a fixer upper. I opened the double doors onto the deck and I was afraid I would fall 2 stories straight down. Inside were dogs and dog poop everywhere, on the floor on furniture. It was disgusting. It was frightening how bad this was. The kitchen was the size of my powder room in my home today. It was teeny tiny and Rick and I could not be in that kitchen together – we did not go anything further than the 1st floor it was that bad and oh so expensive. How could people live like this let alone show their home like this I wondered.  And the asking price was high.  I guess extra for all that poop. I would love to know who buys this type of home.  The land wasn’t that great or large so I was feeling quite depressed about this and once again thinking my husband was crazy.

As we are getting in the car we notice another realtor and a couple that we saw at the first house as well. Our realtor mentioned that they were on our heels. As we arrived at the 3rd home the realtor told me I would LOVE this one but she didn’t want me to see the inside until after we looked at the waterfront. She said if I went inside she thought I would only see the "pretty" and not look at the whole package.

So we walked down to the waterfront at the end of their back yard and we saw the issue. It was shallow here. Here in winter it was only 5 feet deep which meant it could be too shallow for a boat there in summer. So she was correct and we did not go into the house even though I really wanted to. The curb appeal on this house was nice as well so I imagine the inside to be so much better than the last 2. As we got into the car to head to the 4th house that damn couple was there again. The realtor said, “Let’s hurry because I think this one is the one and we need to get there before them.”

When we pulled up I hated the color of this house. It was a horrible brown/orange that was like a hunting camp not a lake house. But as we walked onto the porch and wrap around deck/porch it was sturdy. This was the first house built well.
We hadn’t seen that before on any of these tours.
We walked inside and the owners were older and very nice.
Like your grandparents. The house was extremely outdated but the rooms were a good size and it was in very good shape. Good Bones as they say.  There was a daylight basement with beautiful French doors out to the backyard and water.
But the basement was not finished. Ooh that gave us ideas.
Just concrete walls and we knew we could make this a wonderful lower level.
Rick and I walked to the dock. Sturdy, smaller than we would have liked but okay. It had a roof over the boat and it had a lift so our boat could be lifted out of the water if we did rent this or for the winter months.

The couple chatted with Rick and of course loved him. That is how we got this house.  My charming husband.  They even admitted that to our realtor. They were from NJ but originally from this small coal mining town in central PA that Rick was from. They bonded over people they both knew and places they both visited. Rick complimented the older man on his workmanship on the house and that made the old man sit up straighter and just beam.

We left there and knew this was the house. We made an offer when we got back to the realtor’s office. We went back and forth a few times and then the house was ours. They were so happy with Rick and thought we would take such good care of "their" home we got this really for a steal.

So now we had a house on a lake and I went into panic mode. Yes we could afford it but what about the inside – all the updates, all the furniture needed. Oh brother I was feeling overwhelmed.

So this brown house became our new vacation home. Oh how I hated this color.
But we decided we would rent it out and we would need to get busy on the inside first so we could get some $$$$. We pretty much changed all we could in the short amount of time possible. We got it in March and began renting it by June 1.

We could only go there on weekends so this was a lot of work in a short period of time.
We painted everything. It was so dark in there and all the trim was a very dark brown. The ceiling was brown the floors were brown - brownapoolza. 
Paint and primer became my friend.
It was a summer lake home and I wanted it to be bright and light.

That daylight basement that was nothing was now made into a game room, bar area, tv area, 1 bedroom, 1 bath and a laundry room. We screened in the area off the master bedroom for a great place for naps in a summer rain storm.  We painted everything even the kitchen cabinets. They were very late 70’s(although built in the 80’s) like the Brady Bunch.
It was not done with the finest of furniture and accessories but it was to be rented and I knew that people would be throwing wet towels on dressers etc so why buy nice furniture? IKEA, Costco and Target became my 3 places for the lake house. It was bright,clean, fun, effecient home.  All one could ask for.

This is what it looked like from the lake.
Isn’t that color horrendous? More like a hunting camp vs. a lake home to me.

This is what it looks like now after we painted it.

Yep Rick and I painted this ourselves. We did all the work here ourselves. That is my only talent sadly enough.
We rented it for several years. It was difficult to say the least. Yes it paid the mortgage but I found it painful in oh so many ways.  People don’t treat your home well. People are pigs.  And they stole the darnest things.  People took bowls, measuring utensils, skewers for grilling, glasses games, puzzles etc. I couldn't believe it. Some I would attribute to being thrown out by accident.  Somethings were obviously stolen.

The last straw came in 2007. A family knew they could not check in on Saturday before 3pm yet they did. The cleaning people were still there and told them they couldn’t come in until 3p. They told the cleaning crew that they were told by Peggy that it would be okay.

Now the cleaning company knew that in order to arrive before check in time the family needed to have a letter from me stating they could come early. They had to show the cleaning crew this letter. I also would advise the cleaning company/property service in advance of anyone arriving early so they could make arrangements to have it cleaned by the time they got there. Neither was done. So these “lovely” people just committed lie number 1.

The cleaning crew called me when they left to tell me that they couldn’t clean well because the family came in and the little boy was a brat and climbing all over their vacuums and bothering them so they finally just left. I told them I would take care of this and that it was okay for them to just leave.

The following day, Sunday morning, Rick and I were enjoying our morning coffee and reading the Washington Post when the phone rang. Normally at that hour it’s someone who has read our ad in the Post to rent our home so we figured it was an inquiry.
Rick answered and the person on the other end said, “My name is Attorney Dickhead (name changed so he doesn’t sue me) and my clients are at your home at Smith Mountain Lake. You better hope you have insurance.”

Rick asked, “What are you referring to sir?”

Attorney Dickhead said, “There has been an accident at your home. Do not call my clients we’ll be in touch” and Dickhead hung up.

So we were frantic. What kind of accident? Is everyone okay? We have insurance to pay for this type of thing why wouldn’t they call us? We leave them all that information in their welcome packet as well as being posted at our home. (all over I might add)
So we called our neighbors to ask if the house was still standing. They said yes.
Whew, okay check that off the list.

I called the property service next and asked if she would go over to the house because it states in the lease they signed that we have the right to come by the house whenever we like if they don’t respond. They were not answering our phone calls at this point. Another charge too for us because this is a Sunday.

Two hours later the owner of the property service went over to the house to find only the wife and children there. They had some luggage by the door. She asked to go in and the wife said, her husband would be very upset because she isn’t suppose to speak to anyone.
Our property service agent said the woman seem frightened but then let her in when she told her she had the right to be there. The woman at our home said that her son fell off our fireplace while hanging from the mantle and broke his leg. Mantle? He was hanging from the mantle?

The young boy of 5 was sitting on a chair with his leg up on an ottoman.
No cast but he looked upset like he had been crying.
The property service agent took photo’s of the damage to our home and then asked if they were leaving as she walked by their luggage.
The woman said. “We’re not sure yet. “

Property Service – “Well you do know that it states in your lease that if you have to leave to call the homeowners to let them know. If you don’t you will forfeit your weekly rental rate.”

“Well I am not sure what my husband will allow us to do”

Which is a strange statement to make don’t you think?

So now we didn’t know if they ever left or not.
We both took off work on the next Tuesday to meet with our insurance agent.
We got there and saw the damage to our fireplace, all items on the mantle, the floor etc. No big deal really. It was all just stuff.  I asked the agent if they had heard anything from their attorney and he said no. We didn’t know what had happened. As far as we can tell the kid climbed up the hearth (13 inches high) and jumped up to grab hold of the mantle. The mahogany mantle is just over 100lbs. It sits atop bricks. It is not secured down. 
According to the insurance company and the home inspection they said it wasn’t necessary due to its weight. It was something we looked into prior to renting.
Apparently this 5 year old jumped up and hung from it causing it to tip towards him like a see saw. All things on the mantle came tumbling down and the mantle fell onto the corner of the hearth and broke a couple of bricks as well as damaging the mantle.
Where the kid landed in all of this is anyone’s guess.

Our deductible was $4.00 more than the cost of replacement and repair. But we didn’t know what these people were going to do because they would not respond to us. In the mean time the insurance company took their photo’s, talked to us, the property management company, their cleaning crew etc. and we all waited for Attorney Dickhead or someone from this family to contact us.

Oh they sure did. They wanted tons of money. This went on for 1 year.
And during that time all I could think of was how simple this would be if their child had fallen on our property and they had just called us. We would have told them to not worry about the house, get him to the hospital. We have insurance for that and send us the bills. We would have worked with them. But to just call and say, “hope you have insurance” is pretty damn sleazy to me. Our insurance would have paid for his medical bills and we would have returned his money for the week even though legally we didn’t have to. Rick and I aren’t bad people. We would have felt horrible about them losing their vacation as well as the child being hurt. But now we were angry and honestly even hurt.

As this dragged on the insurance company would tell me they were thinking of just settling. I was so angry. These people did everything wrong and we had to settle and have our rates go up?  Their kid was hanging from a fireplace mantle. If this kid hung from the ceiling fan we would still be at fault? What the hell is wrong with this picture? They knew from their signature on the lease that they had to call us and they choose not to do what was right.
But the insurance company didn’t agree with me. They gave them $35,000 for the inconvenience, paid all his medical bills, surgeries and refunded him the weeks worth of rent.

After that we stopped renting.
We didn’t care if this was a financial stretch we couldn’t go through this crap again.
And now here we are having had such a bad year in business that we are contemplating renting out our home again. I so don’t want to. But I also don’t want to lose our home or have to sell either. Even in today's lower market we could never afford a home like this again.  The costs have gone through the roof down there and even during the down turn in the economy.  The cost of this home today would have been out of our reach back in 2004.

We have a few more weeks to discuss this and in 2 weeks we’ll be going down there for some spring cleanup and hopefully some relaxation. I know Rick will be doing some spring bass fishing and that will make him really not want to have to rent this to others.
But you have to do what you have to do. Here’s to winning the lottery right?

Our blood pressure lowers as soon as we get there. Oh the house isn’t ever going to be in architectural digest. Our Golden Pond so to speak.....It’s just a little slice of slower life on water that brings us both such joy. ….All 3 of us.