Previous Post About Bois Blanc Island: The Island Ferry
My family owns three cottages on Bois Blanc Island.
The oldest is in the Pointe Aux Pins or Pines neighborhood near the ferry dock. That cottages is called the Pines Cottage by my family.
The Pines Cottage was built when the Island first started being a vacation spot in the late 1800s.
Originally it only had a living room and a porch.
Later on a bedroom was added, then a bathroom and kitchen, and after that a second story with two more bedrooms.
The house is old and a little janky from all the additions. One of the walls in the downstairs bedroom was clearly an exterior wall at one time.
Nearly every board in the house creaks and a few of the walls have knotholes in them that you can peer through.
We suspect that rats, mice, owls, and bats live in the closets of the house. Racoons have gotten in a few times for sure.
My aunts and uncles avoid staying in the Pines Cottage because of all these problems.
My family has a rotating pick order for spots in the cottages between my dad and his five siblings. This year my dad (I used his pick) was fifth in the order and we got stuck with the Pines Cottage.
The other two cottages are the Brown Cottage and the New Cottage, both located on the same plot of land.
These two cottages are located in a “creatively named” neighborhood, the West End.
The Brown and New Cottages feel more like modern houses.
No critters get into them. You can hear, but not understand people’s conversations in the next room. There’s a dishwasher in both cottages! The damp of the lakeshore doesn’t invade the house.
The New Cottage has two bedrooms. One is a master bedroom for my grandparents and the other has two twin beds.
The second bedroom is often avoided to give my grandparents some privacy.
Most of my relatives end up staying in the Brown Cottage which has three bedrooms.
One bedroom is a master bedroom, one has two twin beds, and the third has a bunk bed and a full bed for two people.
The pick order dictates who chooses first for what rooms and when they get them.
My aunts and uncles got all the rooms in the Brown Cottage, but I still wanted to come when they were there. My wife and I stayed in the Pines Cottage and endured the old house so we could see my relatives.
It was a little cold, but blankets and a space heater fixed that.
-Mister Ed
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