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My Friends and I Bought an Island

tynan.com

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Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#81

Post by jacquesm »

tlrobinson wrote: post #77
jacquesm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In lakes the rules are extremely strict, for an island in the ocean the rules are much more permissive. No matter what the rules you typically want to keep your impact as low as possible or your island feeling will soon be replaced by something more akin to living in a small polluted town. Legally all your island really is is a bit of land surrounded by shoreline and that shoreline is the interesting bit. It may auto…

Presumably the island is still part of Canada, right? I doubt you could get away with trying to start your own little sovereign country on it.

It's been tried with England (Sealand). And I did advice against it :)

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#82

Post by untog »

MartinCron wrote: post #56
tynan wrote: post #8

Hey guys-- this is my post. I'm flattered this made it to HN! Will be answering questions in comments for a couple hours if any come up.

No question... just want to say that this is really cool. I recently took a Seaplane from Vancouver BC to Victoria BC and shocked by how many beautiful tiny islands there were out there and wondered what it would be like to try to get one. Now I know.

Something tells me those islands would not be cheap. But agreed, it's an absolutely stunning part of the world that I miss a lot.

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#83

Post by jacquesm »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #67

Congratulations! This is something I've always thought would be cool too. 5 acres is a good size, large enough that you can feel "away" when you are in the middle of it, but not so big that you can actually get lost. Some suggested next steps. Get a good aerial survey done, with pictures. This will help in planning, in disputes, and later in figuring out what it looked like before that thing that just happened, happe…

Posting private property is a good idea, not only because of telling people off but because you could be liable for claims if you don't and someone you did not invite gets injured. (crazy, I know, but that's the law in some places).

Jealous as well :)

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#84

Post by JoeAltmaier »

lutusp wrote: post #64

Quote: "Over the years we'll build up the island, doing most of the work ourselves. We'll build a communal building with a shower, kitchen, lounge, and bathrooms. Each owner of the island gets to pick a spot on which to build their own little structure to sleep in. Together we'll build infrastructure, gardens, a fire pit, and whatever else we can come up with." So, not counting significant others, ten people sharing…

But it was beautiful while it lasted, no?

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#85

Post by tynan »

scrumper wrote: post #33

Congratulations! That's a fantastic project and a very cool retreat. I'm curious about: - Ownership structure. With 10 of you, how have you prepared for people falling out or wanting out? - What are you allowed to build on it? - How do you access it? Do you have to pay a boatman to take you out there?

It's an LLC. We have bylaws to deal with people wanting out, but we intentionally make it very difficult (island llc gets 1st right of refusal, every member gets a right of refusal after that, and we must approve of any buyer). The idea is that it's an investment in utility, not in dollars. One bad person on the island could ruin everyone's experience, so we guard against that.

We're going to be building next year, so we still have lots of research to do. It appears that anything permanent like a cabin would require a permit, but that yurts / heavy duty tents / sheds / etc wouldn't.

A neighbor on the mainland has offered us dock space and gave us a couple rides this trip. We also bought an Intex Excursion 5 off Amazon which was serviceable but really difficult to navigate in wind. We'll buy a real boat next year.

HN is throttling my posts, so it may take a while to answer everything. I appreciate all the comments and questions.

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#86

Post by jacquesm »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #74

I was struck by the "climate does not matter" part - I have always assumed Canada will be one of the 22nd century's big winners in climate change terms (lots of nice melted permafrost agricultural land and an extra 6 degrees would be balmy) the upshot of this is I assumed land north of Toronto is always going to be a good buy for grand children. am I thinking too small?

I still have 100 acres for sale there if you're interested ;)

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#87

Post by SwellJoe »

lutusp wrote: post #64

Quote: "Over the years we'll build up the island, doing most of the work ourselves. We'll build a communal building with a shower, kitchen, lounge, and bathrooms. Each owner of the island gets to pick a spot on which to build their own little structure to sleep in. Together we'll build infrastructure, gardens, a fire pit, and whatever else we can come up with." So, not counting significant others, ten people sharing…

Tynan is already over 30.

He doesn't seem to be indicating anyone plans to live there permanently...it sounds like it is intended as a getaway, rather than a home. No mention of building gardens, major construction, or dealing with longterm freshwater, garbage and sewer, etc. In other words, he's building a private campground, not a commune.

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#89

Post by scrumper »

tynan wrote: post #85
scrumper wrote: post #33

Congratulations! That's a fantastic project and a very cool retreat. I'm curious about: - Ownership structure. With 10 of you, how have you prepared for people falling out or wanting out? - What are you allowed to build on it? - How do you access it? Do you have to pay a boatman to take you out there?

It's an LLC. We have bylaws to deal with people wanting out, but we intentionally make it very difficult (island llc gets 1st right of refusal, every member gets a right of refusal after that, and we must approve of any buyer). The idea is that it's an investment in utility, not in dollars. One bad person on the island could ruin everyone's experience, so we guard against that. We're going to be building next year, s…

Thanks for the info. Good luck with it!

Re: My Friends and I Bought an Island

#90

Post by tynan »

jacquesm wrote: post #29
tynan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're actually pretty close to a hospital. Five minutes to shore by boat and maybe 20 minutes to a hospital. Didn't see any scary spiders, but will keep an eye out next time I'm up there!

Widowmaker, not widow spider. See, what you don't know could kill you ;) Spend some time in an unmaintained bit of forest and you'll get to know plenty of these things. Five minutes to shore when the weather is good and your engine starts. Really, please heed my advice and make sure each and every one of you knows how to do basic first aid, I hope you're never going to be in a position to use it but when you do you'l…

Ahh, I misunderstood.

We're actually pretty close to the shore on one side, in cell phone coverage, and have the phone number of our closest neighbor. There's definitely danger there, and we're big on safety, but it's not as remote as it probably seems.

Thanks for the advice and thoughts!

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