Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg

Last night was another Oldies Dance, sponsored by the local Oldies radio station and hosted by a lodge on that enormous lake with the even LONGER name.


The group of fun folks we've sat with for the previous two dances was there again and, as usual, we had a blast. One of the couples told us they'd seen our photo on the radio station's website! I checked it out. Paul looks so young here!


Before the dance, we drove by a couple of houses for sale on the lake. We weren't impressed with the two houses we went to see. To be affordable and on the lake, houses are VERY small and generally sit on a postage-stamp lot between neighbors, who are also on postage-stamp lots. A house that would cost $200,000 anywhere else in town is $450,000+ on the lake.

We drove by a for sale sign and pulled in to check out the house. It was on a dead end street with only about four other homes. The last two houses on the street were boarded up, seasonal cottages. The house for sale was a positively gorgeous place on what appeared to be close to an acre of land. We wrote down the information and spent the night dreaming of this awesome house where we could watch the sun setting over the lake from our gazebo.

It was about 1AM when I got home, but I couldn't wait to see how much the house was. I looked it up on line. Paul was guessing $550,000 to $650,000. I told him I thought it would be $750,000 minimum.

$1.7 million bucks!!!

Well, we have good taste!!

The house was more than we really need. I fell in love with the location. The lake frontage is really more Paul's dream than mine. I'm more of a country girl. This house was in a nice neighborhood on the quiet part of the lake. The houses were not all crammed together and there were lots of mature trees. It was QUIET, which is what I like. I'd get sick of living where noisy boats blow by constantly and you hear lake front bar parties late into the night. (Sound really travels over water.) I definitely don't want to live where houses are all crammed tightly together. I hate that.

So...what's up with those two boarded up cottages?? One of them sat on a large, level lot and it was at the very end of the dead end road - an IDEAL location. How do you find out who owns something like that? It would be a great place to buy, take down the cottage and rebuild.

Why do we do these things?? We're still at least a year away from being able to sell our houses and move. Dreams are nice...until reality steals them away! Why invite disappointment??