The NYT had an article this weekend about how cheap homes are up in the Catskills, and it sounded attractive as an investment opportunity.

You can find really great deals on houses and land. And my sisters made a nice chunk of change selling some land they had to the guy who owns Orange County Choppers.

OK, I vote ita gets a place in Jamaica and bon gets a place in the Catskills, and I am ALL SET.

Yeah, or a summer place. Most cottages I've known have not been insulated, so you really can't go in the winter.

I lived in a summer cottage one winter when I was in grad school. No insulation, and electric heat. I was appalled by my electric bills, even keeping the place at 55 when I was out.

My great grandparents (and my grand parents when they were young parents) would take everyone out to the beach and they'd spend as much time there becuase it was so much cooler.

The way he built the houses you didn't need A/C because they were built to take advantage of the cross breezes. Also, they'd load everyone up at night, when it was cooler, and drive down then. It takes about an hour to get there now, but it took them several hours.

When we were little, before we got to elementary school, Mom would take us down and we'd spend the summer there, or almost all of it. Dad would come down on the weekends, or when we could. Then when we were older we spent as much time down there as possible. It was time to spend with our cousins.

I think Dad has hopes of retiring down there at some point.

The people I know who have or have had cabins - don't have bags of money but the cabins aren't heated or insulated and therefore only useful in summer.

At this point, I just want a real house. I'm not sure if I could cope with the whole weekend/summer cottage concept.

Actually, I'd just like reliable a/c. Or the power to make it such, and preferably, if I'm gonna pay $226/month, have at least 2 rooms below 75 when I want them to be.

Need to get back to the mortgage/homebuying counselor dude. Seriously.

I have a friend who lived two years on a "summer job" on the Vineyard -- she gutted it out until October or so when she got laid off, and then collected unemployment. Living in (AFAIK) an unheated house. October in MA gets COLD.

I have a summer house, because my aunt left it to my sister and I (and did I mention that I found out recently that my parents saw this as a major fuck you to them?), but it is on the east coast.

Oh yeah, I had something else. Weather geeks, please explain:

HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM NOON TUESDAY TO 7 PM EDT TUESDAY UNTIL 5:00AM EDT

So there's an advisory for tomorrow, but only until 5am? Or is that 5am Wednesday? Or what? Am confused.

and did I mention that I found out recently that my parents saw this as a major fuck you to them?

I have to admit, I wondered about that when you told me the story.