Cottage Pros and Cons

Soon the holiday season will begin and many city dwellers are already itching for a country cottage, where birds sing and the grass becomes greener every day. For some people, spending time at a cottage is an important part of life – they move there already in May and only return to the city in late autumn. Others, however, find cottage ownership a tedious burden, where they have to mow the lawn every weekend and entertain friends.

People are indeed very different and not everyone can manage to divide themselves between two homes. If you are currently weighing whether to buy a cottage or not, you will certainly benefit from this article here, where we have listed the pros and cons of cottage ownership.

A cottage is a place to go when you want to escape the city

One of the biggest advantages of owning a cottage is that you can escape the city there for the summer. Whether staying at a cottage also means peace and quiet is largely dependent on the cottage's location. If your summer house is located in a cottage community near the city, there is probably no talk of peace and quiet, because when one neighbor's barbecue party ends, another one starts, and just when you've finished mowing your lawn, your neighbor over the fence decides to fire up the lawnmower.

Of course, it all depends on the person again – some people actually enjoy organizing garden parties with their cottage neighbors. If that is not something that would drive you from the city to the countryside, then you should consider an old farmhouse as a cottage. These are available both on islands and elsewhere in Estonia, each one nicer than the last.

Being in nature

Even if the cottage is located in a cottage community, the house is likely surrounded by at least a lawn and thus contact with nature is still greater than in the living room of a fifth-floor apartment building in Mustamäe.

If your country home is in a quiet village in the middle of forests, you can enjoy being in nature to the fullest. In terms of recharging your batteries, this is very important, so the fact of being in nature is a strong plus point for cottage ownership.

Small-scale farming

Many people have increasingly begun eating organic food and abandoned unnecessary chemicals and processed food. The surest way to get jam-free root vegetables is to grow them yourself. A few small garden beds at the cottage will supply you with fresh greens for the entire summer and fall as well.

Garden work is good for both body and mind

Owning a summer house is beneficial to health for another reason as well. You can't get by there without moving around, so calories are burned practically on their own. Spending time in fresh air and taking care of your garden can only be beneficial to your health and for this reason you should definitely consider buying a cottage.

Garden work is also good for mental health – weeding a bed is a very pleasant meditative activity where the mind rests and tedious meetings don't even come to mind.

A more active social life

This can be both a plus and a minus, depending on how many guests visit your summer home and how social you want to be. We know cottage owners who complain about hordes of friends who invite themselves to every summer weekend, but that is something a cottage owner can regulate themselves if they want to. Yes, sometimes it costs a friendship (which perhaps wasn't worth much anyway). On the other hand, you do want to spend time with good friends and for this reason good people are always welcome to visit.

Greater expenses

On the downside of cottage ownership are certainly greater expenses, because you have to maintain two households. You also need to consider the time it takes to drive to the cottage, so if you can only go to the summer house for a few days at a time, you should buy a cottage closer to the city. Otherwise, you'll just get the lawn mowed when you have to start driving back to town.

If you have the opportunity to stay in the countryside for longer, you can look at offers from more distant villages when buying a cottage. There is actually one plus to driving to more distant villages that you wouldn't think of at first glance. We know one couple who sometimes analyzes their relationship while driving from Tallinn to Võrumaa to their summer home, discussing openly what each of them could do to make being together even nicer for the other.

The temptation risk

Finally, we must warn you – and we don't even know if this falls into the pros or cons: you must be aware that once you have bought a cottage or a country home, you may face the temptation to stay there permanently. Because it's just so nice there. Really!

As you can see, there are far more pros than cons and that is why we invite you to browse our summer house offerings here.