Lakeside Family Retreat

It’s perfect for our group, a mini-retreat gathering of 8 musicians playing classical chamber music all weekend. Everybody gets a bedroom, we play in the living room upstairs, and break out room downstairs. Also there are fun activities available, like walking to the marina and renting kayaks in the morning, or taking an early morning hike.

As mentioned last year also, the living room needs shades - it gets too hot and too bright in the afternoon. There’s no way to attach manual shades (too high). Luckily this year wasn’t as hot, and we only had to deal with it for an hour or two at the peak afternoon.

Plenty of space for our family to gather or have privacy.

Not enough parking or bathrooms. Also the lakeside beach access was poor. The balcony was nice to relax on, however, chair cushions are desperately needed. Chairs way too hard. Most importantly, our property contact person was hard to get a hold of. My questions before we left were never answered, and we couldn’t get into the home. There was a realtor key box that confused entry. We sat outside for over an hour waiting for someone to return my message, email or voicemails to help us gain access. Property rep should be quickly available at the time you agree on access. Dishwasher was disgusting. We even cleaned the drain, but standing water made it impossible to use.

The property itself very big. Has lots of rooms. It has a game room for the kids. Walking distance to the lake. Heating system works perfectly. Highly recommended for big family or friends with family to stay here.

What I loved about the property was how spacious it is, walking distance from the lake, authentic location.

I booked this house for a retreat with friends to play chamber music over Labor Day weekend, and it was a great successful stay. I very much appreciated. The fact that the reservation was fully refundable until a few days before the weekend, compared to others who wanted to lock the reservation fully paid by the end of July (one months before). This made planning with friends and uncertainties with Covid and other events, very manageable . The living room accommodated the entire group playing together, and was conveniently right next to the dining room, and those who couldn’t play could sit down upstairs and listen to those who did. The convenient game room downstairs was sometimes used for a breakout for a smaller ensemble or for somebody who wanted to be quiet. We had nice dinners together right next to the very well equipped kitchen, and enjoyed the cool breeze in the late afternoon and evening on the patio outside. The point was to get together and play music, so we didn’t really use the game room downstairs, pool table and other entertainment.

Not a big deal, but it was a bit dated. The two things that stood out where the lack of shades on the big bay windows coupled with the lack of AC, made it a little hot in the afternoon with the sun heating the main living room. Even with fans, the air was hot outside, so not much relief. But it was Labor Day weekend, a little cooler in the season and quite bearable. There was also not quite enough knives and forks, for a large party of 10, so we had to wash dishes a little bit more frequently. Also, there was one bathtub for the entire house and the stopper didn’t work, so it wouldn’t empty after the first person took a bath. Combined with a total of four bathroom/showers for 8 bedrooms, made it a little difficult to schedule showers. But again, we were a group of very friendly people and we made it work easily.