Two years ago, while we were vacationing in Door County, Wisconsin, we were out for a walk and saw a lakeside condo for sale. I went back to look closer, and fell in love with the view. We had to think long and hard about it, because (first) it's small - only 500 square feet - and (second) it was very dingy and run-down, and needed a lot of work. But after a second trip up to take a closer look, and much discussion, we decided to try to buy it.
We'd always wanted a place in Door County, since I've been coming up here almost every summer since my parents bought a cottage on Lake Michigan east of Sister Bay when I was in high school. After I got married and had kids, we continued to visit Door County for most of our vacations - first to visit my parents, and then (after they sold their cottage and then had to sell their townhouse when my dad became ill) by renting places ourselves. We had always figured that a place in Door County might be out of our price range, and I'd pretty much given up on the idea of waterfront property altogether, after seeing prices shoot through the roof over the last thirty years.
We'd looked at vacation properties in different areas around the Midwest over the past ten years, including central Wisconsin (deer flies and green lakes), southern Michigan (beer coolers and speedboats), and northern or central Indiana (little lakes with a million houses crowded around them). We decided that northern Wisconsin (around Minocqua) and northern lower Michigan (around Traverse City and northward) were nice areas and would suit our style well, but they are just too far to get much use out of while living in Chicago.
But we kept looking, now that our kids were on their own and I'd recently inherited some money after my mom passed away. And spotting this place at the tip of the Door County peninsula was suddenly an exciting find. It was actually in our price range, and the travel time (while a good long drive) was only slightly longer than what I was used to with the Sister Bay trips to my folks' places. The downsides included the condition of the place (gloomy darkened cedar paneling, ancient appliances, dingy smelly carpeting, rotten window frames, and a patio door with water condensed inside), very small bedrooms (8.5 x 9 feet), and a steep hill to get down to the place. There were also no washer and dryer in the place - they were up the hill in a laundry house - and the boat dock in front was severely damaged by ice (as in the middle section was gone).
So to make a long story short, we bought the place in November of 2012 and spent most of 2013 cleaning, painting, and fixing it up. By the end of the summer, we had a place that suited us well, and now, in 2014, we can enjoy it.
The purpose of this blog is to give me a place to reflect and tell some interesting stories about our vacations here, and eventually about our retirement. I'd always liked the idea of a guest book when we stayed at other people's places in Door County and elsewhere, so I wanted a sort of online version of that plus a journal. I also enjoyed a book that my parents had, called "Your Piece of the Peninsula" by a Chicago guy who was a longtime summer resident. In addition to his (now somewhat outdated) advice, he also recounted his own routines and way of living here, including his regular get-togethers with his drinking friends, whom he dubbed "The Cliff Swallowers." I feel like an updated version of such a journal is probably long overdue, so maybe this will serve... As long as I avoid the dreaded "TL:DR" trap (which my son usually accuses me of... Too Long: Didn't Read).
I'll also try to be careful so someone doesn't try to infer when it would be a good time to burglarize the place (or our Chicago home, for that matter), so I'll keep things rather vague. But there aren't too many condo developments at the tip of the peninsula, so I have to risk revealing some hints. After all, that's part of the appeal of the place.
