Gonna Make You Sweat

Buying a cottage with a buddy

By Suzanne Wintrob

When Mike Kinsey of Barrie and his good friend Dan decided to buy a 2,000-square-foot cottage together on Lake Cecebe near Huntsville, they had one rule: no smoking indoors. Unfortunately for Mr. Kinsey and his family, Dan’s wife didn’t buy into the rule and purposely left cigarette butts on the counter “so we’d know she smoked there.”

Though the families vacationed separately, they sometimes overlapped weeks. Sleeping arrangements were clear-cut, with Mr. Kinsey, his wife and two children settling in the two main-floor bedrooms and Dan, his wife and two kids sleeping in the 400-sq.-ft. open space upstairs. Yet what Mr. Kinsey hadn’t realized was that they were early risers while Dan’s family liked to sleep in. That meant that if Dan had visitors staying overnight, Mr. Kinsey and his wife were often left feeding and entertaining those guests the next morning.

The experience provided uncomfortable moments for Mr. Kinsey, but he liked his friend and loved their cottage so he quickly learned to choose his battles. The two men got along so well that they never formalized their three-year arrangement with a written agreement or exit strategy. In hindsight Mr. Kinsey realizes that wasn’t wise and now he’s quick to share some sage advice whenever he hears of people who are thinking of sharing a vacation property.

“I would highly recommend having an agreement in place,” says Mr. Kinsey, 47. “And you cannot sweat the small stuff. From there you can work it out. If you say, ‘Oh my, I’m pretty sure I’m buying more beer than Fred,’ you’ll never make it. If you say, ‘Well, geez, we’re out of butter again but they never seem to buy groceries,’ you’re not going to make it. The little things like that will eat you.”

As summer approaches and sun-starved Canadians start dreaming of owning a cottage, many quickly realize that property prices and the myriad expenses associated with lakeside living could make that dream impossible to achieve. Joint ownership might be the most logical solution, with owners sharing the premises as well as the mortgage, utilities, taxes and repairs. But as the old saying goes: Be careful when mixing business and pleasure.

Della Dwyer, a Barrie-based mortgage broker at Invis, says many people seek real estate partners because they can’t afford to buy a cottage themselves. Some joint owners plan to use the dwelling as a family retreat, while others look at it as income potential and either use it occasionally or rent it out.

CC Sabathia Factory: Gonna Make You Sweat | WasWatching.com

I couldn’t tell if Aceves was sweating or if he had just poured a cup of water over his head to cool off. The liquid seemed to be pouring off the cap and not the forehead which would seem to me like he just ran his head under a cold sprinkler/shower nozzle to cool off.

Either way, it’ll be a challenge for Sabathia today. Hopefully he’s up to the task and stops the bleeding. Also, while he’s at it, the Red Sox are owed at least one nasty HBP in this series for Teixeira/Martin/Cano and Ortiz’s showboating antics.

The Yanks should’ve had #62 fire one at Youkilis’s head before they put him on the DL.

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