I’m addicted to watching “Tiny House Hunting”.

And Loons.

I love the tiny houses-the ingenious way things are stored in 500 square feet or how architects turn silos into cool homes.

For most on the Tiny House show, these houses are their primary residence (first time or downsizing) but for one couple, dropping an extra $200,000 for a “getaway” place in northern Wisconsin was no big deal.

It got me thinking about the 1981 film “On Golden Pond”.

And Loons.

The idea seems so romantic.

You have a summer place you call home. Dust, clean, fight with family and listen to loons.

The movie made this seem so “Norman”, I mean normal.

The waterfront homes in New Hampshire have a market value today of around $400,000.

For a cabin.

Loons are gonna cost ya.

My husband and I discussed this a while back and ran the numbers:

Let’s say that for 20 years, you have a “getaway” place.

With loons.

Summers only.

To keep the math simple, let’s assume you bought the place with cash. (Hyenas cackling…).

Over 20 years, that’s $20,000/year.

Actually it’s $20,000 per summer.

Plus taxes on a “non-primary residence”.

States love that one.

Especially Michigan. You pay 15% of the market value of your home every year.

Let’s tack that on…
$400,000*.15=$60,000

Wholly cow!

$80,000!?

For a summer?

And you have to clean it yourself?

What kind of vacation could you have if you didn’t have the cabin?

A pretty swank one, I would say.

For $20,000 for 3 months:

$6,667/mo. You could stay at a decent hotel with meals and someone else doing the cleaning.

For 80,000/summer
You could stay at a 5 star, have massages and lobster every day.

If you really wanted loons and your own cooking, you could rent @$400/night, that will run you $36,000/summer.

Maybe you’ll get tired of
*repairs
*taxes
*dust

We decided that we would want to see different parts of the world for vacations or return to some of our favourites (Chengdu, Emerald Coast, Paris).

With itunes and $1.29 we can always bring loons with us.