I snapped this picture right at our beach right before sunset. The waves were breaking right in front, so we didn’t have to walk all the way to the jetty. I was able to squeeze in an hour of surfing, and it was nice to get out of the house and clear my mind. It was surprising that a lot of my son’s friends showed up and used our beach to surf. We had about 6 cars parked in front of the house, and the neighbors were complaining about the cars and noise. I don’t worry about the neighbors, as they’re mostly seasonal residents and don’t really count. They’ve torn down all of the little houses on our key and replaced them with McMansions….Tacky McMansions at that. Everyone is going for that faux Florida look, with the pseudo Mediterranean look that doesn’t translate very well in this climate.
The seasonal residents are mainly rich people from the North, who won’t even give us a second glance. They must have left their manners up North or something, or their parents didn’t teach them right. From their viewpoint, we must look like aliens or something. Our tumbling beach shack sticks out like a sore thumb where the average price of a home on our key is probably around $7 million or thereabouts. This key is been relatively unscathed by the housing market slump, as most people are cash buyers and they ain’t making any more beach front property.
Here’s a youtube video of a drive down my street.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cYKc1AVV-zo
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
If that’s your back yard, that’s un-toppable. I’ve got a crap-load of snow to show for mine right now, though we’re in one of the nicer areas of Ottawa.
I live very conveniently close to downtown Ottawa in a 5 BR house that we got for a song in 1996 when the real estate market hit rock bottom here. (That was luck, certainly not real-estate savvy.) It is less than a km from the Prime Minister’s residence, the gate to the Governer General’s grounds at Rideau Hall is may 300m away, and the Governor of the Bank of Canada David Dodge (equivalent to your Ben Bernanke) lives around the corner on the cross-street just up our lane. The Governor General’s property has beautiful gardens; there are even cricket pitches where the Jamaicans and other islanders like to play in the summer. My kids trick-or-treat at the PM’s and GGs on Halloween, and my son Nick is in the same class with the Prime Minister’s son Ben at the public school to which most of the embassies around here send their kids (we just happen to be in the same catchment area.) The PM and his wife show up once in a while for school concerts with all the attendant security. It’s an interesting mix around here.
This neighbourhood, called New Edinburgh, is old and charming, without the McMansions as such. The larger houses are old Victorian. Our house was build in 1874 - with a lot of additions since. This neighbourhood features two narrow and very quaint parallel lanes, Avon and River (also running parallel to the Rideau River - which ends about 800m north of here at the Ottawa River over the Rideau Falls). We live on Avon Lane, and have run our businesses from a home office in our house - even when we had the factory in Toronto when we did our exporting.
It’s great here - parks all around, and we’re only 5 minutes from downtown by car. I could do without the freeze-thaw winters though. It messes up everything - particularly the winter sports. In my spare time these days I’m a scout leader in the troop with my 11 and 13 year olds (doing the usual outdoor scouting things), and I do some investment research, blog, and play guitar. My eldest son Ben is 19 and in university here, and lately he’s learning bass (pretty quickly I might add) and we’re starting to jam now and then, and we play some indoor soccer together with some crazy old-timer Hungarians and Brits.
Enjoy your Florida sunshine. We’re coming to steal some of it in March.
Cheers,
George
Comment by allocator — December 30, 2007 @ 8:13 am
I like Ottawa a whole lot. I haven’t been there in about 25 years, but had a good time there. I used to go up to Winnipeg all of the time, as I used to play the Winnipeg market a lot. There’s nothing colder than Winnipeg in Feb.
When you come in March, make sure to bring your sunscreen as the sun will burn your northern hide in less than an hour. Nothing makes me cringe more than seeing tourists with the lobster burns.
Jeff
Comment by masteroftheuniverse — December 30, 2007 @ 9:01 pm