Yes the posts are getting further are farther between. But LIFE is happening, we are doing this! Not only are the kids growing up so fast, but the rumor is true, we are blinking and literally years are passing by. It hit me last year when Piper turned eight and I was like, "OMG, we have 10 more years and she is off to college." I also had the thought, that we had less time than that because at some point sooner than that, they might want to be spending all their time with friends instead of us..."Gasp?!"
Really, the story starts over ten years ago when the goal for lakefront home ownership got real...David wrote the goal down. Just like we learned during all our sales training while selling books in college. You are more likely to achieve a goal if you write it down! Before the goal was written, we had visited several lakes during our road trips. Eventually we made it up to Lake Chelan, a lake I had been to several times as a kid. Lake Chelan made an immediate impression and kept calling us back to visit. We even looked at a few places to buy, while we stayed at the cheapest motel in town. Back then we had no business actually buying a house on a lake. We didn't have jobs that were ready to support a decision like this and we didn't know how we were going to achieve this goal. But the goal was written...David wrote "When I am 40, I will do a backflip off the dock of the lake house that we own."
This was written down and tucked away in a desk drawer, as we went on with our life. Trying and failing at a few different ideas for businesses. Buying and selling properties. Sharing one car. Not buying fancy things. Making babies. Living simply. Finally creating a business that worked and actually made a monthly income. But still saved and paid off debts and continued to iterate and improve The Lot, our 4th child.
Over the years, David kept an eye on lake front properties that came up. He was on an email list and would periodically get emails of what was available. Honestly, I was never that serious about actually owning a property up there. I loved Lake Chelan, but what if we wanted to vacation elsewhere? Would we really use it? What wouldn't we do, because we now own a house there? Can't we just rent a house during the summer and call that good? I knew this goal came from deep inside David, so I didn't want to be too discouraging. I would look at the photos of properties he would find on the MLS, I would try to imagine actually buying a place. I just didn't know how we would swing it. In reality, he didn't know either. Rationally, there was always some other way we should be spending money other than on a lake house. It seemed so frivolous. Even if we could come up with a down payment, seems like we should use that on a different property that would have a better return on investment? We would go round and round talking about why we should or shouldn't actually buy a place on Lake Chelan. Ultimately we would alway end up tabling the topic...until it came up again.
The years would go by and then David's mind would start scheming and dreaming again about how to make the dream of a lake house happen. We could get a shack way up lake where it was really inexpensive but there was no power and you had to boat in because there were no roads. Or we could get a big property and subdivide to get our money back out of it, yet still end up with a piece for ourselves to build on. Or get a big fancy house that could be rented out to pay the mortgage. All the plans had a catch or something wrong them, so we never followed through. We did get pretty close on one unique property that had 1000 feet of lake front, but "the catch" was, that the whole lot was a steep hill below the highway. So getting utilities to the property was going to be a challenge. Not to mention the trail we would have to build to the bottom and that there wasn't a flat spot to build a house anyway. Ultimately we walked away from the deal when road block after road block kept telling us "No."
We got to try out the lake living life for a few summers when we switched the annual Droullard family vacations from the Oregon coast to Lake Chelan. These week long stays at houses right on the lake where the kids swam all day and we barely left the house the whole trip, were pretty confirming that lake living fit us well.
Then we came to a point where we sold our apartments in Arizona and we were ready to make the next real estate move. We looked at commercial properties in Bend and other multi-family units. We could try to start another business or another food cart lot...but ultimately all those endeavors would put us back in building mode. Back in the spot of not able to do the things we wanted to do because another project would need money, time and lots of attention. Yes, a new project has the potential of a big return on investment, but of course there was risk too.
Ultimately we came to the realization that though there was probably a better financial real estate move we could make, we didn't want to. We decided that more important than money, what we wanted was the time and the place to spend our days with our kids at the lake. What would it matter if a commercial building or another triplex we owned went up in value over the next ten years. We wouldn't enjoy that or get to use it or benefit from that purchase in real life. The lake house WAS the goal, not piles and piles of money. If we started another business, it would most certainly take our time and attention to build and run. We already have a business that takes lots of time and attention. We don't need another one! The next 10 years is what we have to be a family of 5, so we took this opportunity to make a statement in priorities. We chose to buy this lake house, because we imagine it to be an amazing place to simply be and play with our kids. This is the time that we will look back on, the time we have is right now to be with our kids. I hope we never sell this house and it gets passed on to our kids and their kids. So they too have the opportunity to watch their kids love this lake house. We envision summer memories at The Lake to be part of our story. It is so amazing to me that the goal David wrote down over 10 years ago was so specific to say "When I am 40..." Literally he turned 40 this past year. And you better believe that he did that backflip!
We were lucky to be able to stay at our new cabin for 2 weeks, while we were in escrow. We swam and swam and did cannon balls and went paddle boarding and took breaks to clean up the yard, pull weeds, get rid of junk and had the chance to meet the neighbors. We woke up to the most beautiful sunrises and at night had the most amazing shooting star watching experiences.
The living space is set up so perfect that we can watch and hear the kids play outside while cooking meals. The house came furnished, with MORE than we needed. Getting rid of the TV was one of the first priorities! Why block the view?! We did appreciate all the high end pottery barn linens and fully stocked kitchen. There are plenty of improvements that need to be made, but the best part is how simply livable Chateau Marmot is with no changes at all.
All three bedrooms upstairs have a shared balcony with panorama views of the lake and hills across the lake.
Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the country. Following Crater Lake and Lake Tahoe. It is amazingly clear and clean, you can see the boulders on the bottom 25 feet deep. The lake is 50 miles long, though most of the population is at one end near the town of Chelan. The rest of the lake is surrounded by National Forest. Lake Chelan formed gradually over millions of years with the rise of the Cascade Mountains. Today about 100 glaciers are liberally sprinkled on the peaks which drain into Lake Chelan. These glaciers store water through the summer, which helps irrigate the fruit orchards in the lowlands. This was another bonus of the area...all the fruit stands! Apples, peaches, blueberries and plenty of vineyards too.
If you can't tell...I too fell in love with this lake. It was David's dream, but I have bought in with my whole soul! We love living in Bend, we have an amazing community, school, friends...but there is just something special about this cabin on the lake. I feel so lucky.
We mostly spent all our time at the house, but I am looking forward to exploring the area around. I hear there are amazing xc skiing trails nearby and at some point we will have to get a boat!
Another special point to the location of this house is that it is about 8 or 9 houses away from a certain cliff jumping rock that has graffiti all over it. This very rock I remember as a kid when I visited our family friends, the Olsen's condo with my parents. I have a specific memory of jumping out of the boat and looking back at my Dad smiling at me as I swam over to take my turn jumping off the cliff.
PROOF! Old photos of Tracey, her brother KJ and I jumping! Probably 1992, I was in 9th grade!
Here is a current picture of Piper standing near this same crack in the wall. I kind of fear how high my own kids will climb and jump off this wall! Some people shimmy on their bellies to crawl through that big crack to get even higher on this wall. I'm not going to tell my kids that though.
This panorama picture I took in November from the paddle board. You can see the big blank space to the left is the graffiti wall and our house is the whitish/grey house closest to the water.
It is exciting to think of spending lots of time here. Though at first I had reservations of committing to one place to go over and over again. It is true there are many beautiful places in the world to see, but if I had to go to one of them over and over again...our own cabin on the lake, I would choose it every time.
Plus there is just something so special about having a certain place that we can go to create memories and traditions that will be just ours.
Thank you David for writing down that goal. You're welcome future grand children and great grand children for this legacy to be handed down!
