Cottage Watch on St. Joe’s
You’re in Toronto, or Sudbury, or just across the bridge for the winter. The camp is sitting there in the dark. We go and look, and then you see exactly what we saw.
$95–$135/month + HST1 or 2 visits per month
What a check covers
- Security
- Doors and windows, locks, the outbuildings, and any sign somebody has been where they shouldn’t. We walk the whole place, not just the front door.
- Heat
- Thermostat photographed at the reading, furnace or heat source running, and the temperature it’s actually holding. A frozen line is the expensive one.
- Sump and water
- Sump pump tested, pit checked, water off and drained where it should be. We know what a cottage looks like when a line lets go, and we’d rather it never happened to yours.
- Leak scan
- Ceilings, corners, under sinks, around the tank. A stain that’s new gets photographed and you hear from us that day, not next month.
- After the storm
- Roofline, shingles, trees and branches over the building, and a look at what the storm left in the driveway. Extra visit after a serious blow, no charge.
Spring opening, fall closing
In the fall: water off and lines drained, tank handled, furniture and cushions in, everything perishable out, storm doors on, and the place buttoned up properly. You get the photo set when it’s finished so you can see it’s done right — and so you know where you left things.
In the spring we reverse it: water back on and lines checked, storm doors off, the winter’s branches picked up, and the place ready before your first long weekend — with the photos to prove it.
The photo report is the whole product
Anyone can promise to drive by. What you’re actually buying is the evidence: a set of photos to your phone after every single visit, kept in your portal so you can scroll back through the winter and see the place was fine in December, and fine in January, and fine in February.
Our own cottage is on St. Joe’s. We check it the same way we check yours.
Add-ons for cottage members
- Grass through the summer, so the place doesn’t look empty.
- Winter driveway clearing, timed to your visits: tell us when you’re coming up, and the driveway is clear when you get there. Quoted per property.
- Handyman jobs while we’re there — a hinge, a filter, a smoke alarm battery.
- Junk and downsizing runs when you’re clearing the place out.
A plain word about winter driveways: in town we clear automatically at 5 cm; on the island we clear for your arrival. St. Joe’s is a 45-minute drive, and we’d rather make you a promise we can keep every single time than one that fails in the worst storm of the year. Coming up Friday? It’s clear Thursday. Need it opened for an oil delivery or an emergency? Call us. That’s the deal, and it’s an honest one.
Rather just talk it through?
Tell us where the place is and what worries you about it. Five minutes on the phone and we’ll both know if this is a fit.
(249) 493-4131 · 7am–9pm, seven days