Hiring Your Contractor For Your Spring Cottage Build

Well the weather has turned and the mornings are a lot colder then they were just a couple of weeks ago. The leaves have started changing on the Bruce Peninsula, this is the real sign that fall has arrived. 

This is the time that most of the real work gets done on the peninsula. Everything gets finished up in a rush before the heavy snows and wind of winter arrive.

This is also the time when anyone that wants to build a cottage in the spring needs to lock down their contractor. Even if you are thinking about adding a major addition or renovation in the spring then now is the time to contact them and start the ball rolling.

If you have spend anytime looking around for a contractor on the Bruce Peninsula you will have realized that there are not a lot of us and the ones that are around are booking 6 months in advance.

If you are having plans for your new cottage drawn now then you need to start talking to a contractor, this will allow you to get estimates for the house and help with the permits and the layout of the entire property.

Building new cottages on the water is not a simple build, there are many things that you have to consider and the layout of where everything goes on the lot is important. 

You need to start now or you risk having to wait to start your cottage build to a later date. 

If you are thinking about building a new cottage in the spring send me an email and lets see if I can help.

greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

Hire A Contractor That Will Give You A Proper Budget On Your New Cottage Build

If your looking to build a new cottage on the Bruce Peninsula and your only worry is to find a custom builder that you can afford then you are setting yourself up for trouble.

Construction costs are all pretty much the same until you get to the type of finishing's. That means that if you find a builder that is giving you a lower price then everyone else then there's probably a reason for it and none of them are good for you if you hire them;

• They budget you a lower price because they don't really understand how much it costs to build a custom home.
• They don't expect to stick to the budget they are giving you. That's how they plan to make their money.
• Since they aren't good at budgeting they are already in financial trouble from other custom builds they've completed in the past.
• There's a good chance that they will never finish your custom home, because they won't be able to afford or it or you won't.

If you hire a builder that is in financial trouble then your running the risk that they don't pay the subcontractors and they lean the house. 

So when you are looking for a builder to construct your new cottage your first question shouldn't be about the price it actually should be one of the last questions you ask.

If you budget is so tight for your cottage that you are worried about being able to finish it then you shouldn't be building a cottage or the cottage that you have in mind. The worst case scenario is that you run out or money building it and it never gets finished.

If a builder is giving you a price that is to good to be true, then IT'S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Walk away, either wait till you can afford someone with a proper budget or downgrade the cottage until you can afford it.

When people email or call me I try not to talk about price with them, I talk about everything else first, price should be the last thing we talk about.

If you want to talk about building a custom cottage on the Bruce Peninsula and you want someone that is good  at pricing your home then email me at greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes

Lots of Vacant Waterfront Lots Means Its Time To Build That Custom Cottage On The Bruce Peninsula

With the abundance of vacant water front lots that are for sale now on the Bruce Peninsula it has never been a better time to build yourself a new custom cottage.

If you are to look around the Bruce Peninsula you will find that any cottage or home that is on or near the water has risen in price every year for the past 4 years. The market is becoming expensive as the Bruce Peninsula becomes more popular with tourists and people from South Western Ontario.

The rental market for the Bruce Peninsula has exploded in the last several years, this has slowed the amount of people that were selling their cottages because now they can make money on them even when they are to busy to enjoy it themselves.

All of this is helping drive the resale housing market through the roof, it's getting to the point were it is actually better to buy a vacant waterfront lot and build a new cottage.

There are several things that help make it less expensive;

• Bruce Peninsula has extremely low building fees compared to the rest of southern ontario.
• With a lot of waterfront lots basically sitting on the rock you don' t have to spend a lot of money on landscaping.
• The building standards for the Bruce Peninsula are from the Ontario Building Code, there really isn't anything added that will cost you money like what happens in a lot of communities in Southern Ontario.

What you will have to do is find a good quality contractor that can build you the new cottage that you want and also give you a proper budget before they do it. That is probably going to be the toughest thing that you will find, finding a contractor. There are very few good quality contractors on the Bruce and more people wanting to have cottages built every year. 

When you do find that contractor you should hire them, because there aren't that many to choose from. 

Great Lakes Custom Homes is one of those contractors that can take care of your cottage building needs.

Send me an email and let's see if we can help you; greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Rob Abbott

Great Lakes Custom Homes Inc.

This Is The Time To Build That Cottage On The Bruce Peninsula

The Bruce Peninsula is a beautiful and wonderful place, it has some of the most unique natural features in all of Ontario.

More and more people are visiting the area and deciding that owning a cottage or retreat would be worth it. One problem, there is actually less waterfront cottages for sale then you would expect. Because of the limited amount of cottages that are for sale the price for waterfront cottages has dramatically risen in the last half decade.

What the Bruce Peninsula does have is an abundance of land, waterfront properties and non waterfront properties. The actual price of vacant land on the Bruce Peninsula is surprisingly low compared to anything that already has a building on it.

What this does is create a scenario where its actually smarter to build a new custom cottage instead of buying an older used cottage that requires a lot of renovations.

Building on the Bruce Peninsula is actually not that expensive, the building permit fees are some of the lowest that you will find in Southern Ontario. Add that to the low price of land and you have the bases for building a custom home that wouldn't break the bank.

Building a custom home or cottage on the water in the Bruce Peninsula is also a great investment, once you have built your waterfront custom home or cottage it is basically worth more then the cost you paid to have it built.

If you are thinking about having a custom home built then send me an email, I would love to help your dreams of cottage ownership come true.

I can be reached at greatlakescustomhomes@gmail.com

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes

How Far From The Water Can I Build My Cottage?

This is one of the most important questions that you should be asking when you are looking to buy property to build a new waterfront cottage.

Every municipality has a different setback from the water for new construction.

Every municipality in Ontario works off the same location no matter how far back they are restricting the building of new cottages. That location is the historic high-water mark. The high-water mark is determined by what the historical level of high water is in your area. Every area can be different. If you are building on the great lakes you would have noticed that they tend to rise and fall up to 4 to 5 feet in less then a 5 year period. That means that sometimes your new cottage will be close to the water where other times (if your waterfront is shallow) the water could be a fair ways away. Every municipality has a different distance from that high water mark.

Finding the historic high-water mark can be done in two different ways depending on the municipality;

1. Hire a surveyor to come in and survey the property. They will be able to determine the high-water mark with the actual elevations and also be able to mark for you the location of the high-water mark and the point that is closest (to the water) that you can build a new cottage on paper or PDF to submit to the township.
2. Some municipalities do not require a survey as surveys can become costly to people, especially in certain remote cottage areas. If you can identify trees that are large enough to be older then the last time the water hit the high-water mark then you can use the ones that are closest to the water as your mark. You do all your measuring from those trees and the local building department will approve it once they either seen the drawing you have done or visited the site to see the stakes and take some measurements. 

There are municipalities in Northern Ontario that still allow you to build cottages within 50 feet of the high-water mark. Where other municipalities in southern Ontario require you to be 100 or even 150 ft from the high water mark.

These setbacks can greatly affect the amount of enjoyable space that you end up with around your cottage. If you cottage is pushed back 150 ft on your lot and you end up near the road then you are kind of defeating the purpose of having a waterfront cottage.

It is easy to find out this distance, either your real estate agent can find out for you or you can make the calls to the local municipalities yourself. The building and planning department will not only be able to tell you the setbacks on the piece of property, they will be able to tell you also what the restrictions are for the size, height and shape of the cottage you are allowed to build on are. That goes for any accessory buildings that you want to construct like garage's, bunkies or storage sheds.

The only way that you can build closer to the water then the municipal setbacks is to buy a piece of property that already has a cottage on it. Most municipalities will allow you to replace an older cottage with a new one and place it in the same place as the existing cottage even if it violates the setbacks from the high-water mark.

Before you make that offer make sure you do your due diligence.

Rob Abbott
Great Lakes Custom Homes