Sensational location; rustic house

Guest: John25 (Chicago, IL)
Date of Stay: 08/14/11 Review Submitted: 09/06/11

We really enjoyed our stay at the cottage. The property and location are spectacular (the photos on vrbo don't do it justice). A georgous sandy beach, with a gradual slope and a nice dock. Literally, one of the nicest spots on the lake. Also, the house sits on a little hill about 10 feet high and is ~40-50 feet from the water, so the view is amazing (180 degree water view facing the sunset directly). Lots of nice touches like stacked firewood on the beach for bonfire/smores at night. Great porches for sitting and enjoying the view (both screened and open). We rented a boat all week and made good use of the dock and mooring. The very short walk to Alden was a big plus (sandwiches, market, coffee/baked goods etc). There are nice large windows at the front of the house, so you can enjoy the view from both the main room and master bedroom. We brought our dog and she made good use of the fenced front yard. The house has an old summer cabin feel. If you are ok with a much older house that hasn't had a major update in a long time, you'll be comfortable. If you are finnicky about housing and like everything in a house to be modern/new/spotless, then you might want to consider other locations. I personally liked the house and thought it had a lot of character and history. My wife was not as big a fan of the house and thought it was crying out for some basic updates (like a new kitchen). Note that although the house was rustic, all appliances, etc. worked. The house has plenty of room, and all of the beds/bedrooms were comfortable. One the whole, I give the property/location 5 stars, and the house 3 stars, for a blended four stars.

Recommended for:Adventure seekers, romantic getaway, sightseeing, pet owners, age 55+, families with teenagers, girls getaway, families with young children.

Not Good....(but great location)

Guest: dtgmichigan (Grand Rapids, MI)
Date of Stay: 08/14/10 Review Submitted: 08/23/10

The good: 1) location, both to Torch Lake & downtown Alden; 2) in email correspondence & phone conversations, the owner seems like a genuinely nice guy. The bad: 1) the place is really, really, really dirty -- carpets are terribly soiled (the women wouldn't walk around in bare feet); the kitchen floor was filthy (I wiped up a water spill on the first day with a paper towel and was disgusted by the dirt coming off of the linoleum floor); etc.; 2) the place is poorly maintained -- when we arrived one of the two toilets wasn't working, & wasn't fixed until two days later; the light switch in the master bedroom stopped working & we had to unscrew the bulbs on the first night to go to sleep; the sinks into which the washing machine drains were clogged such that you couldn't do two loads of laundry within two hours of each other; when it rained on one of our last days there, water was dripping from the ceiling into the living room area; &, finally, the mooring anchor buoy was missing, having been replaced with a little yellow innertub that was destroyed by the waves on our first day there; 3) the kitchen is stocked with antiquated, rusted equipment/accessories -- the decription refers to "fully stocked kitchen". Maybe technically correct, but who wants to use kitchen knives that are totally rusted and disgusting-looking? No one in our group would use *anything* in the kitchen that we didn't wash ourselves ahead of time. Pots, pans & skillets looked like something from 100 years ago that you would use around a campfire. I really thought long and hard before posting this review. However, forums that allow customers to post reviews exist for a reason -- to help inform prospective renters. I think the owner is a decent guy, but, unfortunately, he lives in Montana & doesn't get back to Michigan very often (he and/or his family also own the cottage next door). In my opinion, the carpet needs to go NOW & be replaced with tile. It's in horrible shape & new carpet will look almost as bad after a couple of seasons. The owner needs to go to Target or WalMart & spend $500 or $1000 on new kitchen equipment/utensils. And the place needs to be cleaned/scrubbed from top to bottom, with maybe a fresh coat of paint. I don't know whether the price we paid is "current market" for a cottage in this condition on Torch Lake, but I do know that this rental experience fell far, far short of expectations and, as a result, I just can't recommend this place.

Owner response:I would honestly like to thank you for posting this review, As you said I live in Montana and I am not aware of things that go wrong with our cottage unless someone tells me of the problems. I would like to let you and anyone else know my wife and I removed all of the carpet while we at the cottage over Labor Day weekend and that we were extremely lucky to find beautiful hardwood floors underneath. Please look at the updated pictures of the living room. We have also found a new cleaning lady for switching over the cottage between renters as it is now apparent that the old one was not doing her job to the proper extent. We also removed much of the older kitchen utensils and have replaced them with new ones, we did leave a few of the old "camp fire" ones in case anyone wants to use them for that reason. As far as the maintenance issues go we have had all of them fixed and taken care of. The roof leak is fixed, of which I am very thankful to have found out about. We have had a new well pump put in this year and new toilets in each of the bathrooms, and we have also purchased a new buoy for our boat anchor as well. I would like to say that the cottage has had a pretty significant face lift from this past summer and is in significantly better condition than it has previously been. The kitchen still looks as did but we are hoping that it will get a major face lift like the rest of the cottage in the next few years. I hope that any prospective and future renters will find this review and response useful in deciding whether or not to stay at our cottage, to which I hope that you will consider staying with us and enjoying our cottage for your summer vacation. Chris Stearns

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