We were hanging with my BIL Dave and his girlfriend Elle. Elle was saying that her mother and stepfather owned a cottage on the Portage River, and they had gotten to the age where they had decided to sell it. My husband's ears perked up.
We went out to see it within days. Elle's sister Moe and her husband Matt have the house right next door, and they were doing the selling because they wanted to make sure the people who bought the cottage were not developers or AirBnb landlords etc.
My husband fell in love instantly. The property is right on the river, and the cottage had been updated with a nice loft and sunroom. But many other items needed to be updated. I was uneasy about the musty smell, the evidence of rodents, the mosquitos, the hour drive from our home, the water situation (they had a cistern for toilets and showers but brought their drinking water in with them; if we moved there, we'd need a new cistern and to truck in water), the septic, while brand new, didn't function, and the garage was falling in.
Plusses for me were the bald eagle's nest at the back of the property, the nature preserve across the river and another one just established on the property surrounding us, the neighbors Mo and Matt, and the fact that I knew Scott could fix anything and make it nice. Mostly, I could tell he wanted it really bad.
So we bought it.
We went out to see it within days. Elle's sister Moe and her husband Matt have the house right next door, and they were doing the selling because they wanted to make sure the people who bought the cottage were not developers or AirBnb landlords etc.
My husband fell in love instantly. The property is right on the river, and the cottage had been updated with a nice loft and sunroom. But many other items needed to be updated. I was uneasy about the musty smell, the evidence of rodents, the mosquitos, the hour drive from our home, the water situation (they had a cistern for toilets and showers but brought their drinking water in with them; if we moved there, we'd need a new cistern and to truck in water), the septic, while brand new, didn't function, and the garage was falling in.
Plusses for me were the bald eagle's nest at the back of the property, the nature preserve across the river and another one just established on the property surrounding us, the neighbors Mo and Matt, and the fact that I knew Scott could fix anything and make it nice. Mostly, I could tell he wanted it really bad.
So we bought it.
Exterior
Interior
More interior shots
The river view and the eagle's nest. In June 2024, there was a big storm, and the nest blew over.
There is a trail already, but they are going to make a bigger one eventually. In the time since we bought it, they put in a kayak launch next door and graveled the road leading to it.
We knew that the sunroom and the gabled loft were recent additions to the house. Later Scott learned that the kitchen and bathroom (front end of the house) were an earlier addition.
1. the earlier addition
2. the sunroom
3. the gable from the outside
4. the loft from the inside
1. the earlier addition
2. the sunroom
3. the gable from the outside
4. the loft from the inside
Here are two photos. One is the front of the house before the loft addition. The other is the back or river side of the house before the sunroom addition. These photos were hanging on the walls when we took over ownership.
Comparison pics, back and front of house.
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