Cabin-Buying Tips for City Dwellers | The Family Handyman
A rural cabin can be a great escape from city life. But consider these tips before you invest in a weekend getaway spot.
If y'all live in a built-up surface area, especially a large city, the desire to escape to the great outdoors may really pull at you. Metropolis dissonance, pollution, crowds and chaos brand a uncomplicated piffling motel in the wood sound tempting indeed. Yous may fifty-fifty long to buy your own getaway spot to escape to on weekends, where you can breathe fresh air, run into the stars at night and appreciate solace with nature.
But how do you make sure your weekend retreat doesn't first to feel like an obligation, or a financial hardship? Earlier you accept the bound, consider these cabin-buying tips, written with city-dwellers in mind.
Go With Something Simple
If this is your offset foray into holiday home buying, or if you're a renter who'southward never owned a abode anywhere, choose a simple cabin in like-new or at least very good condition. The fewer extras, the fewer things tin go incorrect. You lot need bedrooms, a bathroom and a basic kitchen in a solidly congenital construction — and, of course, a cute natural setting.
Don't Create a Financial Hardship
Tin you afford this vacation cabin without altering your day-to-day lifestyle? Yes? Then go for it.
But if ownership a cabin ways really cutting back at home, giving up vacations or taking on too much debt, then the stress isn't worth information technology. Find something more affordable, or wait until you're in a stronger fiscal position.
Exist Realistic Near Bulldoze Time
Y'all arrive abode from piece of work on Fri evening, pack up the car and hit the road to your rural retreat. How long do you realistically want to exist in the car? Factor in traffic and, on Sunday, the time spent repacking the auto and driving habitation.
Only y'all know what feels like too much for you. Our accept? A drive of more than two hours will speedily beginning to feel like a slog.
Know Simply How Remote You Can Handle
"Away from information technology all" sounds magical until you're away from something you really need, whether it'due south a grocery store, a gas station or a hospital.
Before you purchase a remote cabin, figure out where the closest essential services are and make up one's mind whether you're comfortable with those distances. As well, if there's an emergency, can first responders reach your location? Less dire but important if you lot need to stay connected: Can you get reliable WiFi at your rural outpost?
Don't Arrive an Obligation
"We have to go to the cabin again this weekend." That's a judgement you never desire to utter as a cabin owner. Yet you lot've made the investment, and you may well feel obligated to drive up and enjoy the cabin every weekend, fifty-fifty when in that location's a great cake party, food festival or concert happening in your metropolis.
Nosotros don't recommend buying a cabin unless you're certain y'all'll use it frequently. But we likewise don't think it has to be an every-weekend obligation, particularly if that means missing out on other activities you savour.
Don't Overestimate Your DIY Skills
Your DIY skills may be limited to winterizing your toilet when you close upward the cabin for a few months — and there's nil wrong with that! Simply be sure that you don't look at that fixer-upper cabin for auction and say to yourself, "I can prepare it!" when you don't take the skills or the tools for the job.
Yes, both can exist caused with an investment of money and time. But don't rip off that one-time roof unless you know how to put on a new one!
Invest in Some Tools
As you outfit your new cabin, make sure your shopping trip includes a spin down the tool alley of your local home center. You'll need a basic hand tool kit, some outdoor hand and garden tools and, depending on your cabin, a few ability tools.
Instance in point: When my partner and I owned a motel in W Virginia, nosotros didn't know we needed a chainsaw until a tree fell across our driveway afterwards a big winter storm.
Know That Maintenance Is Time-Consuming
A garden or driveway total of weeds. A pile of forest that needs to be chopped and stacked. A log cabin that needs a new coat of stain. A deck that needs waterproofing. These are all cabin maintenance tasks that can take up a lot of your precious weekend time.
If you find these activities relaxing and enjoyable, you're in luck. Only like at dwelling, at that place always seems to exist something that that needs to exist done at a cabin.
Consider Cabin Security
The tree that roughshod beyond our driveway really did u.s.a. a favor. That was the only thing that kept vandals from breaking into our cabin the aforementioned weekend they broke into all the cabins around us.
Even if you don't go along anything of value in your cabin, a cleaved window or front door is plush to replace. Consider what you need for motel security and holiday dwelling insurance. If yous install an alarm system, will it link to the closest law station? And how much will the system cost to install and maintain?
Ask Yourself Whether the Home Volition Grow With You
If you're a immature couple merely starting out, a small rural cabin tin be an exciting first step in building a life together. Just what if kids come up along? Is your motel safe for babies and toddlers? And what if those babies and toddlers grow into teens who aren't interested in spending near weekends at the cabin? Consider how (and if) the cabin will abound every bit your family grows and changes.
Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/cabin-buying-tips/
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