Another Camp

Night and day, from yesterday's tiny cottage. But this one beats everything else for character, says the owner, and I agree.


South end of Skaneateles Lake. It's noon, and the steamship from the village is slowly progressing down the lake to Glen Haven with a cargo of merry-makers from New York City. They took the train up for a weekend in the Finger Lakes. Tonight they'll dance and feast at the hotel, then climb aboard the steamship and make their way home again.

The ladies wear crinolin, the gentlemen wear boaters. They pull up at the Shady Beach Marina to disembark. Some go off to the little store on the corner, others wind their way to the hotel. Some look back up the lake and there, on the western shore, is a house going up.

Three stories high, built into the hillside, it rises from the stony beach. Inside the hardwoods are lovingly laid, the stone fireplace being built to warm the seasonal home on the cold nights of summer. Seven bedrooms for sleeping or dallying, all with windows toward the lake. The center is open so that from the hallway above the fireplace and massive dining room table can be seen, shouts can be exchanged. Oil lamps swing out from the walls in the long evenings, casting shadows on the heavy furniture.

The revelers leave tired and late and as the steamship chugs past they see the new Camp - hardly a cottage - rising up from the mist on the lake. Someday, they think, someday I will have a place like that.....

Camp

I was looking for inexpensive camps with a client a couple weeks ago and ran across a very sweet little place on Cross Lake. It was too tiny for my client, who wanted to live in it year-round and had visiting grandchildren, but we both admired it.

The entrance was off a small wrap-around deck into the one room that serves as kitchen, living room and main bedroom. The cabinets were old - the white metal kind I had in my camp prior to renovation. In fact, this camp was built about the same time, late 1940s.

The living/family/bedroom was dominated by a huge stone fireplace which would heat the place easily - maybe too easily! Hardwood floors, beamed ceiling, and a dear bathroom with circular shower in the rear completed the "main" house. The owners had added a carved orange sofa facing the fireplace - all the comforts of home!

The front porch added another "room." Currently it has a king size bed and a small table set for two overlooking the deck and the lake.

My description doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid. It's only 550 or so square feet - but every inch is filled with memories and the promise of hot days and warm nights on the lake. And the price? $54,900 - a steal!

Fall is in the Air!

It's chilly outside, relatively so. We've had a wonderful summer, filled with warm days and nights, an occasional storm or two, rainbows and gorgeous sunsets. Homes have been flying despite the dire warnings. Rates are still low, people are still looking, and life is generally Good.

Last night we had the first fire of the season at camp. The smell of burning wood was intoxicating. We needed it for warmth, not just ambiance. And the insulation placed in there when we renovated seems to work quite well - "warm as toast," came to mind.

I say "camp," but it's really a lakehouse or beachhouse. Wide open with the beams showing high above. There are no cross beams for support - the roof was engineered to not need them, and with the newly painted walls the effect is quite stunning.

I've seen two other camps - real camps - which make our lakehouse not a camp in the true Finger Lakes sense of the word. Two more blogs for the future.

But for now this will stand as another beginning. I've been embarrassed - friends have told me they read my blog but it's been a month since I've written. I apologize! The days have been long and blogging is so personal, so much fun, that I feel as if it's too selfish to do when there's either real estate to be managed or houses and people who require my attention.

But the reflection is necessary....and having this space to do it is wonderful!