In the mid-2000s, Ellie Thiessen’s friends bought a cottage on Kushog Lake, Ont. As a regular visitor, Ellie, the general manager of a bookstore in Newmarket, Ont., quickly fell in love with cottage life. “The water was clean and great for swimming,” says Ellie. “And it’s a reasonable distance from the city.” From 2017 to 2019, Ellie rented a cottage on the lake with her family, including her two sisters, Tena, the director of operations for a staffing company in Toronto, and Linda, a dog walker, also in Toronto.
By mid-2019, Ellie proposed to her sisters that the three of them go in on buying a cottage. “I thought she was nuts,” says Linda. The trio of sisters already owned condos or homes and didn’t think they could afford a vacation property. But the thought still appealed to them—they were all single, in their 50s, and liked the idea of a place where they could spend downtime together. So, Tena put a spreadsheet together, organizing their funds, and determining a budget. All totalled, they could afford to carry a mortgage on a cottage priced up to $700,000.
Aside from a location on Kushog Lake to be close to Ellie’s friends, the Thiessens’ only other requirement was that the property sit on fairly level ground, so that their elderly parents and Linda’s senior dog, Scout, could easily navigate.
Over the next two years, the sisters put in eight unsuccessful bids. So, in June 2021, they decided to put their cottage search on hold. “We told our realtor, ‘We’re done,’ ” says Ellie. “Then she said: ‘There’s one more you have to see,’ ” It was a three-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage, plus a bunkie with twin bunk beds. Ellie was staying at her friends’ cottage nearby when she saw the listing, so she jet-skiied over to see it. The bedrooms were all a good size, and there was a big deck with easy access to the water.
There were some drawbacks. The dock, while spacious, was wonky—it had a difference of three feet from the highest to the lowest point, which would require significant repairs. And the property was listed at $800,000, well above budget. But Ellie thought it was worth a try.
The sisters went in with a low-ball offer of $700,000. “We were the only offer,” says Ellie. “We think the dock scared people away.” The sellers came back with a counteroffer of $750,000, which was still higher than the sisters originally budgeted. But, by this point, two years into their search, Ellie had paid off the mortgage on her condo and relocated to Keswick, Ont., allowing her to contribute more to the down payment. So, the Thiessens accepted the counteroffer. They took possession at the end of July. “We were very excited,” says Ellie. “We all booked the last week of August off together.” The sisters head up whenever they can—sometimes all together and sometimes on their own or with guests. They’ll also rent the cottage out to friends and family when not in use—about four or five weeks a year, which helps with repairs and maintenance.
In 2022, they winterized the cottage so that they could use it year-round, and they’ve now got a level floating dock. The Thiessens are now thinking about their retirement plans and are considering selling their properties in the future and living together in one place to consolidate their costs. Their Kushog Lake cottage is now in the running as a potential retirement spot for the sisters. “As we get older, we see how rare it is for family to also be friends,” says Ellie. “We cherish the time we get to spend together at the cottage.”
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