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Cottage Season Is Here: Simple Tips for a Safe and Speedy Opening!

cottage by a lake with a boat

The arrival of warming temperatures also heralds one of our favorite times of year here at Gravenhurst—cottage opening season.

Everyone is keen to get outdoors again to enjoy nature: to go swimming, boating, and off-roading, hiking, biking, bird watching, hunting, and other fun things we can do only during the all-too-brief spring and summer season.

There is just one “tiny” issue standing in between us and total springtime cottage bliss. That is the cottage opening process.

In this article, learn simple tips to get your seasonal cottage up and running quickly and safely this year!

Your Spring Cottage Opening Checklist

The Victoria Day holiday is one of the most popular times for cottage openings. This long weekend typically delivers lovely weather and a whole extra day to work through your cottage opening to-do list and also enjoy some leisure time outdoors.

But you still have a lot of work and preparation to do just to get ready to re-open your cottage! You need to bring the right tools and supplies and complete the right tasks in the right order before you can even move into your cottage and sleep there the first night.

We offer a full spring cottage opening checklist to help you remember everything that needs to be done and the order in which to do it for safety.

The list includes every major safety and operational check, from returning power to the property, priming, and restarting water and septic service to testing each major appliance and safety alarm (fire alarm, carbon monoxide alarm, etc.) and replacing major filters.

It is a lengthy list!

After we first offered this list on our website, we started getting calls inquiring about whether we offer a cottage reopening service. One of the primary reasons clients wanted us to do these tasks is so they could just drive up to their cottage and start enjoying it right away!

How a Professional Cottage Opening Service Works

When you schedule a professional cottage opening service with us, we will ensure your cottage is fully operational and ready to welcome you upon your arrival.

In other words, instead of spending your entire first few days of time at your cottage working and sweating to get your cottage’s major services up and running, you will walk into a cottage with clean and potable hot and cold water, a working sewer and septic system, heat and air conditioning, and designated other major appliances ready to serve you.

We do appreciate as much lead time as you can give us to ensure we will have your cottage fully ready by your arrival date.

We provide spring cottage opening services for the following areas: Gravenhurst, Muskoka, Huntsville, Kawartha, Orillia, and nearby surrounding regions.

For our clients who are remote, we also recommend that you ask a local friend to stop by and take a look at your cottage just to see if there has been any major visible damage that needs extra attention. This can streamline the process of reopening your spring cottage, including facilitating any insurance claims you may need to file.

Don’t Forget About These Other Essential Cottage Opening To-Dos

Our professional cottage opening service is comprehensive in terms of attending to the major services and appliances at your cottage to make sure they are running perfectly when you arrive.

However, there will still be other items on your cottage opening to-do list that will need your personal attention:

  • Cottage spring cleaning. From cobwebs to dust bunnies, even the most airtight cottage can benefit from a thorough cleaning when spring arrives!

  • Lawn and landscaping. Winter storms may have left their mark on your lawn and garden areas, as well as your dock and pond, leaving behind leaves, branches, and debris that need to be removed and disposed of.

  • Get your seasonal items out of storage and powered up. Boats, kayaks, jet skis, ATVs, and other seasonal items may need tune-ups and cleaning before they are operational again.

While we don’t typically include these extra services in our professional cottage opening package, we are happy to discuss extra needs as they arise. If we cannot perform the needed services in house, we will be happy to refer you to other professionals who can take care of these cottage reopening needs.

Final Cottage Opening Items

We always like to take this opportunity to remind our wonderful clients about some easy-to-overlook essentials when reopening a cottage in the springtime:

  • Be sure to call and reactivate your utilities well ahead of time. This may include internet, phone, electricity, water, gas, and cable television, plus other services.

  • Alert your insurer that you are reopening your seasonal residence. This applies if you have seasonal cottage insurance.

  • Reactivate seasonal vehicle insurance and tags as well. If you have autos, boats, ATVs or other seasonal vehicles, be sure to update your tags and reactivate your insurance before using these items for the first time.

Get in Touch

Will this be your first year opening up a seasonal cottage of your own? Or do you have special concerns about the power, plumbing, or HVAC at your cottage that you think could benefit from a pro’s touch?

We’d be happy to talk with you about your standard and unique cottage opening needs. Give us a call at 877-885-3403 or complete this easy online form to schedule your cottage opening service date.

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