In Canada, we have been blessed with beautiful parks, gorgeous scenic views over our lakes, and outdoor living is as much a part of us as breathing.

If you didn’t have a camp or cottage, you always sought out places for camping in your tent, camper, or RV. National Parks are incredible places to spend time in Ontario, but there were plenty of times we just found a place off the beaten path and parked.

We spent our days swimming, berry picking, fishing, looking for wildlife, going on nature hikes, and it was a glorious way to unwind and still be together, playing games and having fun.

In my adult years, I often seek out a retreat that offers everything I grew up with as a child. It is out there, but we cannot even afford a house, and lately I have been thinking this is actually the way to go. A little log cabin, built on a chassis and classified as an RV, can be moved or static, and they look gorgeous.

Here’s what I think are some key lifestyle benefits of owning.

A True Four-Season Cottage Experience

Unlike an average trailer, a log-built park model home, particularly when correctly insulated and winterized, can feel like a major four-season refuge.

Winters can be bitter, spring can be wet, and summers can be blazing hot, so you would need to be certain the construction suited the environmental changes for year-round living. When I was having a look at park model homes for sale in Ontario, I was quite impressed with how solid yet beautiful these can be.

The different styles that are available and the finishing are gorgeous; I would have no objection to living in those units all year round.

Financial Freedom in a Costly Market

Second homes or cottages can be unattainable in Ontario’s real estate market.

Park model homes are a reasonable, financially healthy substitute. They carry a far less upfront cost than a typical cottage or full-sized house.

That ‘financial freedom’ means:

• Less Stress: Cut a second major mortgage payment to make or avoid it completely.
• More Spending Power: Put more money to work travelling, experiencing experiences, or heading into retirement.

It’s also a smarter way to get around the Canadian cottage lifestyle you still love that has so much sentimentality, and without the expense of money or financial hardship.

A Real World Focus on Quality and Community

Park models are often set up in destination campgrounds or resort parks, naturally building a thriving community.

This also makes you part of the local community within a local community. This community feeling is more present here than living in an apartment block and not knowing any of your neighbors.

When you are enjoying your time outside, you come across more people who tend to be friendly and like-minded, so friendships with the neighbors become your circle of people.

• Neighbourly Support: A stable unit of people who are there for a season, a week, a day, but are always looking out for one another. These people become family over time (especially year-rounders), and that creates a bond that lasts forever.
• Shared Amenities: Public pools, recreation halls, and coordinated activities that will get you involved socially, or give you something to go see or do. It seems a lot like a cruise ship when you think about it. These connections promote well-being and can be joyful interactions with so many different, interesting people. It can only enrich your life.

Life-Simplified

The benefits of less maintenance needed on your home mean more time being with people or enjoying nature, as we all should. The small size of a park model means you don’t have to spend your whole holiday repairing and cleaning.

What some say is one of life’s great luxuries is time! This is great for enjoying your scarce weekends or holidays.

• No More Endless Yard Work: Instead of having to constantly mow a massive lawn, collecting leaves and doing all the maintenance that comes with lawns, we get to enjoy the view (not talking about ‘The View’; just view). That takes precedence.
• Less Cleaning: Who REALLY enjoys cleaning? Exactly. Why not instead do some good ol’ fishing and paddling in the lake instead.

Excellent Mobility for Flexible Retirements/Season Change

Unlike traditional houses which are designed to stand tall where you’ve built them for the next couple of decades, park models are semi-permanent positions. They retain both their classification and the ability to move away from them.

This is especially suitable for people who prefer flexibility over all else:

• Seasonal Placement: Move your ‘snowbird’ nest further south, along with your family, or into nature for the height of winter.
• New Scenery: The opportunity to visit a few seasons in Muskoka and then move to a park in the Kawarthas.

Simplifying

Metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Ottawa, London, New York City, Chicago, etc., all these are big, busy cities, and the noise seems incessant. It’s part of life there.

If that same noise sometimes feels too overwhelming, then you’ll find a park model cabin as an excellent escape; you pick it up and physically move your living space when it all gets too much.

Of course, this means you’re creating a lifestyle of minimalism and intention that delivers all you need to have a fulfilling life, and tiny places encourage you to change how you are living your life and promote wellbeing in a space where you can read a book, contemplate life, or sit on the covered porch and just admire what’s outside your door.

Tranquility that is hard to get outside the yoga studio.

Conclusion

When some people picture home, they see a house. That’s it.

Others? They see property, they see the opportunity to invest in a richer and simpler lifestyle that’s so much more grounded than everyday hectic life.

In Ontario, and similar places, this opportunity presents itself as park model log cabin living. And as you can see from the article, there’s SO much more to it than just ‘a house’.