By Susan BrownFew pleasures can match the discovery of that new favourite place to grab a quick and tasty bite to eat. Whether it’s a little comfort food you're craving or perhaps a meal to take home, Muskoka has seen a tremendous revival in the quality and choice of casual food offerings.To help you find your own new personal favourite, I’ve pulled together some tried and tested dining locat ...

By Susan Brown Whether you’re a full time resident of Muskoka or one of our region’s many cottagers or visitors, you’ll never run out of fun things to see and do here. One of the most popular destinations in cottage country is beautiful Lake of Bays. Tucked away in the northeast corner of Muskoka, this pristine body of water covers an area of 27 square miles and stretches all the way from t ...

Like so many other children of the 1950s, I’m planning on staying put in my own home when I enter those autumn years of my life. Aging in place has in fact become something of a mantra for us baby boomers, that massive demographic group born between 1946 and 1964. We’re not prepared to be shipped off to retirement homes by our family, nor even move into a retirement community, however luxuri ...

Fractional ownership is becoming more and more common in top vacation and cottaging locales in Canada and the US, and it’s not hard to see why. Fractional ownership can be the perfect option for a couple or family that knows they will only spend a few weeks a year at their vacation property, and who wants to avoid the extra cost and effort required to keep up the building and grounds. So wha ...

Deep, clear, surprising – Lake of Bays is the second largest lake in Muskoka with nearly 170 km of shoreline. Just two hours north of Toronto and three and a half hours west of Ottawa, Lake of Bays has been loved by generations of cottagers for its gorgeous granite shorelines, warm summer waters, and unbeatable sunsets. The lake that First Nations called the “lake of forks” is anchored by th ...

The word “cottage” means different things to different people. It could be a secluded cabin in the woods, a stylish lakehouse, or an off-the-grid island retreat. It could be rustic or luxurious, simple or lavish. It could be on a river, a small lake, a large lake, a Great Lake, in the middle of the woods or in a charming small town. If you’re considering purchasing a cottage, take some time t ...

I am often asked “What does MLS® stand for?”, or “Why should I list my property on the MLS®?” and “What is the difference between an ‘exclusive’ listing and an ‘MLS® listing’?”I advise my Sellers it is almost always to their benefit to list their property on the MLS® because of the vast exposure their listing will get in the open real estate market as opposed to an ‘exclusive’ listing. What ...

Think city homes are the only properties that benefit from staging? Think again. Staging can take your cottage from available to enticing in the eyes of a prospective buyer. Many of the same pieces of advice for staging any home apply to cottages, but there are a couple of unique considerations for cottage-sellers that might help nudge offers upward. Tip 1 Clean the place. This is probably ...

I was recently asked this question by one of my Buyers last month about  Home Inspections: Q/ My Offer is conditional on a Home Inspection:   What happens if a home inspection finds some things in the house  that are not up to today’s Ontario Building Code?  Do we renegotiate the offer price ? A/ The short answer is “probably not”.   A home inspection is really more to find out if there are ...

There are few treats more appealing than maple taffy on a plain old popsicle stick. Made by pouring hot maple syrup on half-melted snow, maple taffy is just one of the countless sweets that can be made from the sap of (arguably) our most Canadian tree: the sugar maple.     The season for “sugaring off” – the process of taking freshly running sap from maples and boiling it down into amber m ...