How To Keep Your Cottage Secure

While monitoring your cottage by a security company can get expensive, there are other ways that you can monitor it without breaking the bank.

New technology has arisen in the last couple of years that allows you to install camera's inside or outside the home, these camera's can be placed on remote or motion activated. A lot of these camera's can be installed by you or your contractor.

The camera's can be wired two ways, they can run to a DVR in your cottage where all the data can be stored, or they can be uploaded to a cloud network on the internet that you can access anywhere you have an internet connection.

Most of these systems will work with an app to your cell phone and will inform you when there is movement inside the home or outside depending on where you have placed your camera's.

A couple of things that you will need though;

• You will need constant power supply to the camera's. This means that turning off the power to the cottage for the off season when you are not there is not an option.
• You will need a reliable wi-fi source for the camera to be able to stream or upload video to the internet, especially in real time.
• You might also require a reliable cellular signal as well to operate the camera system the way you want.
• These camera's cannot force intruders to leave your cottage's, some of these systems come with microphones so that you can talk to the people but that doesn't mean that they will take you seriously.
• Screen shots can be taken of video to give to police after a break-in.
• Camera's placed outside on motion could go off often depending on the amount of animal movement and or tree sway in high winds or during snow storms depending on the size of the flakes.
• It's a good way to know what kind of weather is at the cottage before you get there. 
• It's also a good way to check to see if you forgot to shut a door or lock a window.

Even with these types of systems relying on the police after you have discovered a problem is probably not your best bet as in cottage country the police in the off season could be a long way away. Your best bet is to either make friends with a permanent residence near your cottage or hire someone that can stop by and take a look at your place for you. Usually maintenance companies will do this for you as they can stop by when they are clearing snow or checking that your cottage doesn't have a lot of storm damage.

In a changing world this technology is another tool to help keep your property safe. Use it wisely.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Just Bought That Piece Of Waterfront Property, Now What Do You Do?

You have just found that perfect piece of heaven in the Bruce Peninsula, a wonderful waterfront lot that you can see yourself enjoying with your family for years to come. It's a vacant piece of land without a cottage on it, now what do you do?

Well you need a cottage don't you. First things first, you will need a set of plans.

There are many different places to get a set of plans;

1. You can go to an architect or an architectural technologist or a draftsmen to have your plans created. The costs vary depending on the level of service that you require. These plans will have a BCIN number on them that the municipal building department requires for the plans to be valid. 
2. You can buy your plans from a place like Beaver Homes and Cottages which are sold through most Home Hardwares. The plans are not free but are pre-drawn and so the cost is relatively inexpensive. They are not a true custom home but you are able to change them a little to get what you want.
3. You can buy your plans from the internet. Some websites are good for this and other websites are not as a lot of the homes you will find on the internet are drawn for the US only and will not work in Canada.

Once you have found your plans you need to find a builder. This will be probably the hardest thing  you will have to do. 

There are not a lot of good quality custom home builders on the Bruce Peninsula and the ones that do work there are extremely busy. You will have to make your mind up on the builder that you want early in the fall as most builders are booking up the entire spring by late fall. 

The only way for you to get proper pricing for your cottage build is to have your full set of drawings to send to the builders. That is the only way they will be able to price it for you.

If you find a builder that you trust then you shouldn't worry about the cost so much as most custom home builders build the same way which is time and material with a management fee. This means that most of the builders will end up being the same price. It is more important that you find a builder that you can work with then one that is really cheap.

If you are planning to build in the Bruce Peninsula in the spring find your builder this fall or it could be too late.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.