In the late 70's I bought a piece of recreational property. The plan was to build a summer residence and we could spend our summers at the lake.
Things had moved along by the early 80's and we were ready to build a chalet type cabin. Now during the previous 5 years the whole project grew. We were avid do it yourselfers. We had put in a water and sewer system. The lot was completely forested and we had cleared what we wanted . Other improvements had been made. A small garage was built to store a holiday trailer and then pull the trailer out in the summer and use the garage for a kitchen living room. This plan worked well and we had lots of fun. During this time my kids were 6 - 13 years old.
I was ready to put up the building. I had plan made up. This cost me $990.00. At about the same time the realization came upon us that this project was becoming too big for us and the Micro Manager wanted a time out.
Well, the time out lasted a long while . We never did build. We did have a lot of fun spending time at the lake.The kids had experiences they'd never have had if they'd just stayed in town. Time went on. Time went on for a long time and the cabin never got built.
So today was the day that we looked at the plans we had made up and decided that they would have to go in recycle. We sold the property in 2014.
So the complete plan package was torn up and put in recycle.
It's one of those goals that was never completed but I'm not unhappy about how things turned out.
It's a good thing you are not unhappy with the way things turned out. Regardless of whether you built the property it does sound like you had a lot of fun there while the kids were growing up.
ReplyDeleteLots of good memories.
DeleteLife has a way of changing our plans. I try not to think about it in dollars and cents, hurts too much.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you know it's just the right thing to do to change plans.
DeleteYour dream was recreational property where you could enjoy family adventures. You got that, without the expense of building the cabin. Letting go of the cabin dream was easy.
ReplyDeleteIt was the only choice at the time. it left open some options.
DeleteOh my... These things do happen. I thought you threw out actual money... then again, it’s the equivalent, isn’t it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it ends up being the same.
DeleteOh my, was that hard to do?
ReplyDeleteWell, no. It was just the right thing to do.
DeleteAs long a you had fun at the lake, no matter the cabin.
ReplyDeleteWe had lots of fun and learned a few things along the way.
DeleteThat was a lot of money to end up in the recycle bin. But you did the right thing and apparently the whole area was well used, even without the house. The title made me smile, just thinking about how we spend our money. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt was in the day when kids roamed all over the place. they would be gone for hours. It was a forested area.
DeleteI would hate to guess at the number of £s I have wasted on unfulfilled projects.
ReplyDeleteWell, we didn't waste if we didn't do the project.
DeleteWell, maybe it was worth $1,000 to have your dreams put on paper and to have that goal, even if you never quite got there. It's most important that you used and enjoyed the property anyway!
ReplyDeleteAs a family we still talk about the good times. Lots of good stories.
DeleteA road not taken, but ... if it provided lots of family fun it was worth the thousand many times over.
ReplyDeleteWe ended up with more freedom.
DeleteWell, you still got good use out of the property!
ReplyDeletevery good use and lots of good memories.
DeleteYou know throughout our lives we make lots of plans but it is not always possible to carry them all out. You had the most important thing - all those summers the family enjoyed together. You can't put a price on those family experiences!
ReplyDeleteYes, we could have gone places and had less fun. here we had some ownership.
DeleteI feel a little sad that the cabin was never built... like an unrealised dream... but i guess that many of us have dreams like that.
ReplyDeleteThe completion was going to cause more problems than it was worth.
DeleteA get away is nice if one uses it. When my kids quit going I let mine go and now would like to have it back.
ReplyDeleteWe had the same situation where the kids wouldn't go out anymore. Now they would like it but I sold it four years ago.
DeleteI wonder if it feels worse to look back on the losses from thousands of dollars worth of scratch cards or the loss of a thousand on unrealised plans....
ReplyDeleteWell, I've never done scratch cards so that's one loss I never had. But I know what you're saying about some people with scratch cards.
DeleteI also thought about take away coffees or cigarettes. I'm just musing on the ways we spend money.....
DeleteSometimes our plans change. But it sounds like you had a great time there!
ReplyDeleteAww too bad you never got to build. We built a house without plans...we just sketched it out on paper ourselves...I wonder if that means I saved a thousand dollars:)
ReplyDeleteCatchy title - and in a way, it's true. But sometimes it's unavoidable, or else you'd be throwing good money after bad, as they say. It does sound like you made good use of the property, and did some of the development work that would make it easier to sell. We own a cottage and there were many times I would have preferred to have a much smaller building or even a trailer, as it's like keeping two homes to have a full size building to maintain.
ReplyDeleteHi Red, This post made me smile. Well, when you say let's wait a while it can end up being a long time. For you, it was the cabin. For me and my MM it was kids. We said it when we first got married and we're still waiting. That's been 40+ years now. I like to tell this story when folks ask me if we have any kids. Have a good day Red!
ReplyDeleteThe plans looked like a nice little cabin, but it sounds like you got plenty of enjoyment out of the place just as it was. And you had all the fun of planning and dreaming about the new place, and none of the work!
ReplyDeleteIt's important to dream. It's also good to let them go when it is time. I always wanted to be a principal. That dream died. I have let it go.
ReplyDelete