Encouraged by the positive comment, he soldiered on……

If I were to undertake a cabin project again, I would start again exactly as I had the first time. Of all the dumb luck, my first few steps in this venture were, even in retrospect, astonishingly correct. It was an accident of character and circumstance, not rational planning but, however I got there, we lucked out and began properly. Step one was ‘right on’.

Step one, of course, was to buy the property 30 years before I was intending to use it. It was cheap then. Affordable. ‘Course, we couldn’t afford it even then so we had to buy it with a down payment of dumb luck and then struggle to make chicken-feed payments but, no matter, it worked. We ended up with 14 acres of waterfront just a smidge North of heaven.

So, suggestion: you can’t start too soon finding the property. And starting does not begin with a realtor. It begins by driving around areas that you are attracted to. Again, I won’t bore you with my values (otherwise you’d end up next door!) but think about your capabilities, think about your age, think about how you want to use it. Don’t just assume that some subdivision called Angel’s Resort lots are what you want.

Once you’ve picked your area, I’d recommend going there and asking locals about ‘pretty spots’ and local problems, politics, community plans and prices and such. Half the properties we have out here for sale will never get listed. And they each have stories attached that a perspective owner should know about. They will mostly sell by word of mouth.

I remember asking our local realtor (on behalf of a friend looking in the area) to let me know if he came across a piece of south-facing, waterfront with plenty of fresh water and not too far out in the boonies. At least ten acres, well-treed and affordable. “Hell, Dave, that is what everyone wants and there are only about 15% of the properties with all of that and I only get a small portion of them going through me. Count yourself lucky where you are. It won’t happen twice!”

Put more bluntly: if you want something out here, let me know. If you want something more than twenty miles from here, go make some new friends in the area of your choice. It is the local guy who knows the good properties.

I have a lot to say about buying recreational property and some of it has a bias to it and all of it would take up pages so I’ll leave it there. Bottom line: realtors and recreational property developments are not the best way to buy property. It can work, of course. But it is not the best way.

Suggestion #2. Start collecting junk. I asked Sal last night what advice she’d give and her first words were, “Tell ’em to fill up their garage with junk. It seemed like the stupidest thing in the world to me at the time but I now see it as a great way to save money, help design the cabin and build up your stores of materials at a low cost. I never thought I’d say this but you and your stupid junk came in really handy!”

“Unh, Dave, what does she mean by ‘junk’?”

For at least two years before we came out here I was cruising junkyards and salvage yards, garage sales and second hand stores and even spring clean-up piles just to see if I would find something obviously useful. And I did. Lots of good stuff.

But, to be fair, my most useful source of good junk was BC Hydro’s salvage department which is no longer functioning. Never mind. There are still other ‘recovery’ departments of the government, BC Ferries, large construction firms, movie sets, marine and demolition companies that have things whose useful lives at the commercial level are over but which would still be more than adequate at the cabin. I got a bit carried with winches but, generally speaking, I can control the urge to collect junk. Usually.

Well chosen junk is virtually free. Always cheap. Typically, you pay just a smidge over scrap metal values. I got hundreds of heavy galvanized fasteners for ‘scrap’ value that would have been dozens of times more expensive if bought retail. For example: instead of a cheap thinly galvanized lag bolt that would cost $8.00 each at Home Depot, I would get a dozen surplus double hot-dipped lag bolts for less than $5.00. The risk, of course, is that you don’t come to need the ‘surplus’ purchases but, after seven years out here, my stock of junk is down to a couple of wheelbarrows full and I can still envision a use for everything.

OK, I may have an extra winch or two.

I guess the point of this entry is to say: start early. If you think you will be retiring in five years, you are already five years late. Start now!