As a former landlubber, I did not consider the money and effort lakefront property owners put into making their frontage usable and maintaining it. So, with our first summer at the lake under our belt, I wanted to write a post for any of you lake newbs like me out there.
Lesson #1: You're going to need a dock.
In our case, although our frontage is pretty close to zero entry and shallow, we don't have any beach frontage to speak of. It goes: Grass stops. One foot drop. Lake. Knowing that we would be entertaining by the lake and also knowing we wanted a boat -- we set out to get our first dock.
We started researching the cost of buying a new dock, and depending on what material is involved and how much dock you want a new dock can run you anywhere from maybe $15,000 up. We were trying to be budget-conscious with this endeavor, so we started searching for used docks in our area. My husband happened upon a craigslist post for 4 sections of 4x8 steel framed dock manufactured by a company in Illinois called Atlas. For 32 feet of dock, the price was $400.00. Much better than $15,000!
I know what you're thinking: 32 feet on a tiny lake should be plenty of dock, right? Wrong! Let's see what 32' of dock looks like, shall we? The dock, take 1 pictured below.
A couple things about the dock at this point.
(1) Hopefully you can tell that 32' is not nearly enough, especially if you'd like to entertain.
(2) The frames came with tops that were basically deteriorating and squishy to walk on. Our next step was to replace the squishy tops with treated wood.
Lookin' better already!
Alright, next we set out to secure more dock sections. However, once you buy your first set -- you're stuck. You need to find sections that will work with your existing dock. This conundrum had us scouring Craigslist and Marketplace. Well, we eventually found 2 more sections and again we just purchased the frames.
We enjoyed having a small platform that we could sit on, entertain on, and fish or float off of. However, we still found the platform to be a bit constricting and we went after 2 more sections.
This seems to be a good amount for us...twice the amount we thought we would need! At any rate, we can now have several people out on the dock, and the pontoon boat has a side for easy-in, easy-out.
As you can see in the below picture, the pontoon boat can also offer additional outdoor seating.
Yes, that is a blue heron taking flight. Did I mention how cool it is to live here? In this picture too, notice that the Mr. made a nice ramp that you walk on so that my niece doesn't fall through when approaching the dock, this is a key safety feature people!
All-in, we spent about $200.00 on the treated lumber and about $1,600.00 on used dock frames for a total spend of $1,800.00. This was one of many infrastructure upgrades to the property we made soon after moving in. If you want more information about what we did you can find it here.
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