The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Owning Lakefront Property

15 feet deep!

The honeymoon is over.  If my family's first year of lake property ownership is like the first year of a marriage, then my husband, two sons and I would be,  collectively, "the groom" and lot #77, the property,  would be "the bride".  We had a courtship.  Just a couple of months late last fall.   My family and I would make the trip from Charlotte to familiarize ourselves with "her" contours, walking down the rough path to the dock, gazing at her peaceful shoreline and the cove beyond.  Sure, we compared her to other lots for sale.  But none could compare to "our" lot.  So, we took the plunge.  The papers were filed in the Burke County courthouse in January 2010.  We were official.  The Clark family and lot #77 were joined in holy property ownership.

We had a glorious spring and summer together.  We lacked a house on the property but that didn't prevent us from enjoying all that our lovely bride had to offer.  We swam!  We kayaked!  We jumped off the top rail of the dock into the crystal clear, 15 foot depths of the cove!  We grilled countless meals and dined "al fresco" under the gazebo in the warm summer evenings.

We bragged to people about her natural beauty and purity,  using the amusing story about the peach pie "incident" as an entertaining example of these qualities.  The result of that incident was the knowledge that eating a lake-soaked pie would result in no ill effects.  Not even "pie-ahhrea" (as one of the more cautious members of our party dubbed the predicted gastrointestinal consequences) befell any of those brave enough to taste it.  In fact, it was suggested that a bit of lake water just might become the secret ingredient in Loralie's famous "Lake James Peach Pie".

Yes, we were inseparable all summer and into the fall. And then something happened.  Duke Energy announced that lake levels would be lowered drastically beginning in December.   Being new to the lake, we didn't take this as serious news.  But people were buzzing about pushing out docks and pulling boats out of the water for the winter.  It was clearly something we needed to become familiar with.  Lake levels were going to lowered 15 feet below full pond from January until May.  That's 5 feet lower the droughts of 2002 and 2007.  Lower than anytime in recent history, no one living on the lake had experienced this drastic of a change in water level in such a short period of time.  We needed to make arrangements, and fast!

In a marriage, you vow to love each other "in sickness and in health".  We'd experienced the healthy times and now we were about to embark on some "sick" times.  We needed to care for our beloved lake property.  We took our boat out of the water in October and stored it on a trailer in a nearby marina.  We called the overburdened dock specialist, Craig McGee, to have him push our dock out into deeper water, which he did in late November.   We'd done what we could to ride out the big drop.  We'd done the equivalent of making chicken soup and wrapping a warm blanket around our bride when she suffered a cold.

The lake levels started dropping.  Our lovely lot #77 wasn't as lovely when the water dropped 10 feet.   This was the "sitting on the couch in an ugly sweatsuit eating ice cream from the carton" side of our bride.  Harsh reality.  It wasn't pretty.  The once 15-foot deep, crystal clear cove was now a murky, 3 feet with (gasp!) an old tire and cinder block visible on the muddy bottom.  It was like seeing a beautiful woman without her makeup for the first time, wearing thick eyeglasses and a retainer too!  The honeymoon was definitely over.

We decided that we loved her anyway and got to work clearing away some of the branches that were dangerously close to the end of the dock in the summer.  We donned knee high rubber boots and armed with a chainsaw, hand saw and pruner,  got to work trimming.  A few hours later, our boots filled with icy lake water and  rear ends filthy from perching on the logs while sawing branches, we had  fulfilled our mission to beautify our lady.

And so it has gone, this first year.  Much like a marriage, our relationship has deepened.  A solid partnership has to be able to endure more than just the good times.  And this year, our family has discovered that we are lakefront property owners now ...for better or for worse....

Low lake level--10 feet low, 5 more to go...dock is pushed out into the cove

Waiting to begin

It's the end of another year and I'm particularly aware of the passing of time right now.  Some noteable segments of time:

1 year:  My husband, David, and I decided one year ago to uproot our two teenage sons, move from Charlotte, NC to tiny Morganton, NC in search of a more balanced lifestyle and to fulfill a lifelong dream of building our dream house on a lake.

6 months:  The big move (actually only one of a series of big moves) from our large sprawling McMansion in Charlotte to a jumbled confusion of boxes and furniture strewn between a compact rental house and and storage unit outside of town.

3 months: Since we sold our house in Charlotte.  A mixed blessing.  Selling a house in these trying times was a stroke of luck.  The proceeds from the sale, or lack thereof, were less than impressive.  It's downright depressing to sell your house for less than you paid for it, six years later.

2 weeks: Until our construction loan closing.  This is the latest in a slew of scheduled closing dates.   It's been a complicated and frustrating process trying to secure financing in this shaky economy.  Banks are shying away from construction loans in general.

....and so...we cross our fingers and wait to begin...and waiting is the hardest part...