Do you live on the water?

1

11 footer

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Its always been kind of a dream of mine to walk out the back door and down to my boat at a dock.<br /><br />I've lived in the same house with my family since I was born, it was built the same year I was born. We are in a middle to upperclass neaghorhood, its a nice house with two and a half baths and four bedrooms. At one time we where the biggest house on the street, but many are tearing theirs down and building bigger ones. We have always been happy here and I never thought we would move.<br /><br />Well, a few days ago my dad comes home and tells us about a house he looked at, its on the Merrimack(sp) river with a large dock. Its a 30min boat ride for the ocean. The house is older, but <br />bigger then what we have now. It only has a one car garuge but their is room to go bigger. Being it was on the water I thought it must be packed in with other houses real close, but the sourounding houses are farther away them where we live now.<br /><br />My mom is going to look at it tomorow, and if she likes it, we're their.<br /><br />For those of you who live on the water, what are the downsides?
 
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BrianFD

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Re: Do you live on the water?

Well, if you can call a flooded back yard 'living on the water', then I'm there now.<br />Honestly, my wife & I were looking at houses on the shores of Buckeye Lake. That lake never floods (low-head dams keep it in check), but houses there start at $350K unless you buy a dilapidated (sp?) one for $180K and tear it down to build a $300K house. Too rich for my blood (unless I hit the lottery tonight.... hmm).
 
snapperbait

snapperbait

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Re: Do you live on the water?

Don't live on the water, but anytime your close to the ocean, you have the potential for a nasty tidal storm surge from a hurricane...
 
roscoe

roscoe

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Re: Do you live on the water?

Some people must have too much money if they can afford to throw away a 200,000 to $400,000 house, just so they can build a new one, they way they want it.<br /><br />Downsides: <br />water traffic / noise when you want quiet<br />high taxes<br />building and zoning restrictions<br />DNR restrictions<br />better own enough land, or someone will shoehorn another house in next to you someday<br /><br />I'd rather live one mile from the water.
 
sloopy

sloopy

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Re: Do you live on the water?

I live on waterfront, we have 600 feet of Cheat lake water front and our house is in a nice development. I will try to get a pic up.
 
1

11 footer

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Re: Do you live on the water?

We found this house because a friend of my dads lives next to it. He said its a 30minnett ride from the mouth of the river going headway speed only. So its a ways away from the ocean, the river is freash water where the house is. But the river is "slow no wake" threw the section where the dock is.<br /><br />It dosn't have a beach, its more like a seawall thing with a big deck and steps that lead down to the dock. <br /><br />Its been on the market for over a year, he is asking $875,000, prolbey a bit overpriced but he's looking of offers.
 
jtexas

jtexas

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Re: Do you live on the water?

biggest downside I can think of is you'll spend too much time on the boat, your wife leaves you, your new single friends want to party at your house all the time, you don't get enough sleep, lose your job, lose your house, end up living on the boat, move the boat to the Bahamas to escape the brutal Massachuesetts winter, open a beer-ice-gro-bait-daquiri stand on the beach, have a series of steamy yet unfulfilling romances with hot bikini babes, write a best-selling book about your experiences, meet a supermodel during a book-tour appearance on Oprah, fall in love, marry, settle down, raise a family, and live out your golden years fishing the reef with the grand-children. But other than that, I say "go for it!"<br /><br /> :)
 
OBJ

OBJ

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Re: Do you live on the water?

I wanna go with jtexas :D <br /><br />I don't live right on the water but I can be on the river in 10 minutes from my house. We have thought about looking for a house on the river with a dock, etc., but the Ohio can be one nasty girl when she wants to be. So....we opt for a short drive. No flood insurance needed and it's a nice quiet neighborhood.
 
JasonJ

JasonJ

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Re: Do you live on the water?

I can't think of any downsides at all to be honest. I have lived on the water for a year now and being able to just sit on the dock, let alone not messing with ramps is worth it. You can end up with more bugs, but that is what exterminators are for. One minor anoyance that I discovered this spring is that when the water is low, the fishing is good, and everyone walks along the shore fishing. It is like having people walking around just outside your backyard and there is nothing that can be done about it (property stops at high water mark). I caught a joker on my dock and I walked down and asked for his address so I could come over and walk around in his backyard and he disappeared quick. The peace and quiet is well worth it, and it is cool to sit and watch boats cruise by in the summer. Everybody waves and gives that "you live on the water, you rock" nod.
 
LadyFish

LadyFish

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Re: Do you live on the water?

We've lived on the Gulf coast for 13 years now. I was raised on a lake in the Adirondaks. Personally, I love living on the water. Galveston is a barrier reef island which is 28 miles long and 3 miles wide at its widest point. <br /><br />There are as many downsides to living near or on the coast as their are upsides. We are willing to take the tropical storms, hurricanes and the fact that it could all be blown away in a heartbeat in exchange for the quality of life we have come to love.<br /><br />Coastal living is ever changing with its wildlife, weather, and the wonderful people we've met fishing and enjoying this lifestyle.<br /><br />Due to the nature of living here and weathering more than a few storms in our community, I can tell you that people here have a bond like none other that I was accustomed to. We all watch out for eachother's property. When Mother Nature decides to throw something our way, everyone helps everyone else with whatever they need.<br /><br />I think you have to be willing to sacrifice material things if and when a storm hits. But we didn't move here for material gain. We moved here to enjoy nature and its beauty. Oh yeah and drop the boat down and fish whenever we like.<br /> :)
 
J

Jack Shellac

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Re: Do you live on the water?

My family has had a house on Mobile Bay since 1947. All of the downsides have been previously mentioned, but none of them make up for the big upside of waking up on the water and walking out on your own dock to your boat hanging in the hoist. Sitting out on the dock at night talking with your family is hard to beat. We've lasted through hurricanes, tropical storms and everything that nature can throw at you, but it's been worth it. On the $$ side, if I had to buy the property now, I certainly couldn't afford it. As expensive as it may seem today, they ain't making any more of it.
 
sloopy

sloopy

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Re: Do you live on the water?

Here is the pic, as promised.
watermark.php
 
Kenneth Brown

Kenneth Brown

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Re: Do you live on the water?

I don't care about the brown water, I just want to know when he won the lottery and if he needs a consultant for anything at all.
 
sloopy

sloopy

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Re: Do you live on the water?

That was after hurricane Isabel (sp) the guy next to us is building a 8000 sq ft house! He kinda intruded on our space but we put up some wood landscaping walls and more trees, now we can't see him! Although they are still not done building his house.<br /><br />In the pic you can see my sailboat, an upside down BW (don't look J.B) you can also see my neighbors StingRay, it is the closest boat to the left hand side of the pic.
 
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Butch Ammon

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Re: Do you live on the water?

Nice photo, Sloopy!! :) <br /><br />I grew up in upstate NY in Poughkeepsie (Dad worked for IBM for over 30+ years, then retired in 1977). We had a summer cottage way way WAY up in the Adirondack Mts. {the rest of this story will make you sick...}<br /><br />In 1975, my parents bought the summer cottage. It was a small 2 bedroom/kitchen/living room/fireplace/full size screened porch/etc... type of place, right on the water.<br /><br />Amenities:<br />* 1960's era wooden/mahogany Thompson speedboat (w/40hp evinrude upgraded to 65hp Johnson).<br />* Old unknown brand wooden/fiberglass canoe.<br />* Boathouse/boardwalk/boat dock.<br /><br />Total cost for everything (1975): $45,000.<br />Approximate value in 2004 terms: $250,000-$300,000<br /><br />Here is a link to where I am talking about. The lake is called Lake Ozonia (again, it's WAY up in the Adirondack Mts) beyond Lake Placid, Saranac Lake areas. It borders Franklin County/St Lawrence County and is 8 miles from the tiny town of St. Regis Falls.<br /><br /> http://www.terraserver.com/imagery/image_usgs.asp?cpx=-74.61098784&cpy=44.59746247&usgs_res=14&t=pan <br /><br />Butch A.<br /><br />P.S. I currently don't live on any water, but in the suburbs of Richmond, VA and dream of owning a lake front home one of these days (if I hit the lottery!)
 
LadyFish

LadyFish

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Re: Do you live on the water?

WOW! Nice spread Sloopy. When's the party? ;)
 
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