The Hideaway is the remote, wooded property that my husband and I are developing in the Georgian Bay area of Ontario, Canada. Surrounded by acres of tall cedar trees, it's like our very own, large campsite. If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see it pop up from time to time in my stories. And if you get my newsletter, you'll be kept up on the latest developments that I share with my subscribers.
For More about the Hideaway
This story, which first appeared on May 21, 2015, as the initial entry on my previous website, will give you the background story:
For a few years now, my husband and I have been thinking about where we would like to live after retiring. Our three children are grown and have all married and moved to the States. When he is no longer tied to his job, we will be free to live pretty much anywhere in Canada that we want to. Because our children live so far away, we have a fifth-wheel travel trailer that we use when we visit them. We can park in their driveways and still have our own space out of their way. We've learned that we really like the RV lifestyle and hope to spend a lot more time traveling after retirement. However, we figure that we'll need a base somewhere in Ontario to call home. We'd like to downsize from our current property, so that we are freer to go away.
While my inclination was to move closer to a city and an airport, his was to move farther north into nature. He has always liked the area where he grew up for its natural beauty. It's an area that we visit often because we both have some family there. We've kept an eye on the real estate ads for the area and sometimes driven by any that catch our attention. So far, none had appealed to us.
Then early this year we found this lovely lot very close to where his father used to farm and work in a sawmill. (The Falls Inn and Spa currently sits on the former sawmill property and is still run by the same family.) It has a cozy clearing for a house surrounded by forest. He likes that it is in the area where he grew up and a very rural property. I like that it is not as far north as it might have been and has decent accessibility to cities. We also like that it is not too far away (1 ½ hours) from our friends where we live now. It will be a nice place to camp out with our trailer before we get a house built.
The property came with a driveway, the clearing, a fence with a gate along the front, and a very cute, partially finished bunkie. We need to finish the bunkie, put in a well, a septic system, and bring power in from the road before building a house.
Quick 2020 update: Charlie has built a rail fence around the perimeter of the property. We have since sold are family home and are putting in time in a rental until my husband retires and we build our new house.
Last year, we sold our trailer and upsized to a motorhome.
This year, 2020, due to my husband being off work and travel coming to a halt for us, the pandemic has given us much more time to enjoy our getaway property.
We finished the bunkie, brought in power from the road, got Internet, and had a well drilled.
Yesterday, we closed up the motorhome for the season.
2021 Update: My husband retired from his job at the beginning of this year, a year sooner than we had originally planned. So, we had our house plans professionally drawn and applied for building permits early in the year to be ready to build this summer. Then, another long lockdown hit us in Ontario. Building permits are not being issued, and building materials are in short supply and therefore incredibly expensive.
We've come to the realization that we won't be building this year. However, we've gone ahead and moved into our motorhome on our building lot and are looking forward to a nice, relaxing summer. One way or another, we'll need to head south for the winter!
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