Comments from some Cottages purchasers
Eric, you stated you would build us a beautiful home and YOU DID. Judy and I were so impressed with you and your group all through the process. From day one dealing with Jody, then Cindy, Blair and Steve, Ruth on site and the Jacquie. Even though there were slight bumps we are so pleased, it was on time as stated, we knew you were hard pressed etc.
The finished product was A one, what else can we say. Job well done. Everyone is welcome to visit and see how we furnished it, have a glass of wine or whatever. If we missed anyone please pass this on.
Dear Van Maren Group,
We are pleased to let you all know that as of July 20th we are truly proud owners of our new home at The Cottages. We were fortunate to rent on site for several months prior to possession and had the opportunity to vicariously be part of the process. We excitedly watched every step and met excellent and equally proud tradespeople along the way. We are impressed with everyone’s keenness to be the best they can be in their chosen trades and roles on site.
We are especially grateful for your team’s help in facilitating our request to move our closing date up during a particularly challenging and stressful time in our lives. It was an accommodation that was more appreciated than can be expressed in a simple email.
As we settle into our new home and neighbourhood, we reflect on how special this community is on so many levels. We continue to marvel at the tradespeople’s conscientious work and respect for the residents, the level of oversight by on site supervisors and genuine kindness and care of sales staff.
Like us, many of our neighbours are from ‘away’ and have chosen this special place to be their home. We have had many homes before, including new builds. But this place exceeds all expectations in its attention to care, environment and quality – both human and physical. Nothing appears to have been overlooked and/or attended to if and when required.
Finally, special thanks to Ruth. Your personal kindness and support throughout as our neighbour and representative of the Van Maren Group was much appreciated.
In closing, we are looking forward to spending many years at The Cottages enjoying new friends and the amenities that surround us.
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the first annual Show & Shine! Dale and I will both be volunteering, and he couldn’t be happier to be part of this event.
Thank you again for making our dream a reality!
All the best,
Hello Eric and team.
As of yesterday, we’ve been in our beautiful home for one full month! Dale and I want to thank you and the team for the extraordinary efforts to deliver our home on time, to meet our needs. We love everything about our home and community: the views, the environment, the views, the community, the people, the views, the beautiful home, and did I mention the views? We can’t wait to go on daily walks and bike rides, explore and hike the surrounding areas, and generally drink in the beauty of the Okanagan Valley. Living here has already helped Dale be more relaxed and at peace.
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the first annual Show & Shine! Dale and I will both be volunteering, and he couldn’t be happier to be part of this event.
Thank you again for making our dream a reality!
All the best,
Dear Eric,
We happened upon The Cottages on the day you were having an Open House at the Clubhouse. We were able to spend a few minutes speaking to you that day.
Everyone of your staff that we’ve had contact with has been above helpful and so positive! This has been a great experience for us.
We are thrilled with our new home and cannot wait for our visitors to come and enjoy our little bit of paradise!
With appreciation,
Hi Jody,
Hope you are having a great day!
I meant to thank you last week for the beautiful basket!! Platinum Bench is our favourite Winery, and the bread is always fantastic! We loved the surprise!!!
We would also just like to thank everyone at the Cottages. Everyone has been so very friendly, and helpful. Any time we have called, emailed, or had any questions, we have never once felt anything other than we were your top priority. That goes for you, Ruth, Steven, Rachel, and Cindy of course, but any of the workers as well have treated us with kindness and helpfulness. One of your painters, Frankie, helped Gord move a mattress, and couch, wouldn’t let me touch it.
We were pretty sure the Cottages were going to be home for us the first time we visited, but honestly Jody, we couldn’t have asked for better people to be building it. Everything was painless, and again, we always felt we were a top priority. We cannot say thank you enough. Please pass our thanks on to Eric, and everyone involved.
Our home is so beautiful. The finishes are top notch. I cannot wait to start showing it off.
We are planning on bringing the rest of our belongings down this weekend, and start enjoying our new home and community.
Thank you again so very much, for everything!
PS – if possible, could you please find out who the electrician was that installed all the plug in and electrical covers? He had every screw lined up vertically. I am a bit OCD, and that attention to detail made me know I was home. That is how my Dad would have finished it.
Dear Eric:
Firstly let me say how thoroughly Steve Sara and Jesse did the ‘rough-in walk-thru’ with us yesterday. They took very good notes and by afternoon folks were back in #150 busy working on a list of minor adjustments. One can tell very quickly, these are both excellent guys and a big credit to Van Maren Group!
It was good to see your quality of build from the framing perspective, and no hesitation to use a full complement of studs where needed, meaning I have lots of photographs as my ‘stud-finder’ back-up!
You must also mention Jody and Greg, so welcoming and willing to talk about anything and to come up with examples of where ideas have been done by others, including their own home. Also, Marten at Klyn kitchens, so accommodating and making ingenious suggestions, even at the last minute!
Thanks,
Dear Eric:
It was so nice to see you again up at the Cottages. We wanted to thank you for sponsoring the enjoyable Wine and Cheese meet and greet.
My wife Pat and I were there, going through our home and meeting with our friendly new neighbours and your wonderful on-site people once again.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to you, on behalf of everyone we have ever dealt with at Osoyoos Cottages/Stelkia Homes during the past three (3) years. From the very first day, all those months ago, we were so impressed with the greeting we received and the courtesy shown. We were made to feel welcome in our new community the very first day!.
You and your people deserve the highest congratulations for attending to even our smallest questions and concerns. I’m happy to report, all of them, in Oliver and Chilliwack, have been nothing but kind and considerate. We really appreciate their understanding in addressing every detail of our new home. We are so looking forward to moving in this fall and becoming ‘Cottagers’ full time!
We would happily recommend Osoyoos Cottages to anyone looking to re-locate to our beautiful B.C. Interior lake country
Yours truly,
Hi Eric,
Hubby & I have just returned to Montreal after spending 3 weeks opening our new home at Osoyoos Cottages. Just wanted to commend your amazing team on site who helped us immeasurably. All were so welcoming , the smallest detail was attended to stat! In particular, would like to praise your new site supervisor Rachel Buskie. Her position is a demanding one, but she’s clearly up for it, efficient & professional with a very caring manner. All of her worker bees seem to thrive under her direction, in particular Mitch the painter with his sidekick Carl. You have also an amazing young lady by the name of Tanya.
She seems to be able to fix anything & everything inside or out (a carpenter by trade but clearly much more) .. .
We are so very happy with our Osoyoos home. Will be going back & forth from Montreal as often as we can. Again, much thanks to your Osoyoos team….oops forgot to mention Jody who has always been very courteous & professional, over the last year. Her enthusiasm clearly helped us make our decision to become owners at Osoyoos Cottages.
Regards,
My wife and I took possession of our house at the beginning of June. The whole process from the first day that we entered into our purchase has been nothing short of fantastic. The planning and picking out the design, working with the people in the office and the crew at the cottages has been pleasurable and free of stress. This is a team of people that go out of their way to help you in any way they can. Now we are in our beautiful new house and enjoying all the cottages has to offer.
The club house, swimming pools, hot tubs, exercise room and the fantastic private beach with the fire pits and the volley ball court are there for our enjoyment. Our grandchildren can enjoy the great playground, swimming and fishing in the lake. So we would like to say a huge thankyou to the whole team at the cottages! We could not be happier!
Warm Regards,
Dear Eric,
Words cannot express the gratitude we feel knowing we have so much to look forward to in our retirement. Living in a large city, we could not envision the last chapter of our lives…until we saw the large, white, adirondack chairs! Osoyoos Cottages was now our focus. We had to see it.
Like a lot of families from the coast, we had many summers with our children camping in Osoyoos. Never, did we give it a second thought for our retirement.
What an adventure out first trip to The Cottages turned out to be. The amazing approach from the highway was so exciting… the quaint little bridge, the turtle crossing and the cattle guards! What we found at the end of the road was a beautiful entrance to what we hoped would be thee place for us. We were impressed with everything that we saw. It felt so good.
We purchased our “cottage” the day of the Grand Opening of the Community Centre! We will never forget trying to climb into that giant chair… lol!
From the beginning of all the stages of building and making lots of decisions… we are finally here. The Van Maren group of employees has been nothing but outstanding, always willing to listen and please. Frank Fairhurst has gone above and beyond. He is truly an amazing person. We are so pleased with the final touches and attention to detail that Frank provides without an ounce of disregard.
Now that we are living here in our beautiful new place in the Meadow… we know this is home.
Thank-you Eric, first for your vision and secondly for your passion in developing The Cottages on Osoyoos Lake.
Warm Regards,
Hi Eric! Blaine and I went to do our electrical/plumbing walk through of #284 at the Cottages last weekend and wanted to send you our thoughts
We’ve told you before about the remarkable service we have received from your team, but after we went through the house and can really see the progress, we wanted to reiterate to you personally the excellent job your team is doing for us. It hasn’t been easy “long distance building”, but Blair, Jody and Ruth have been so very accommodating. Cindy has been exceptional tweaking our selections and ensuring everything we envision is just where we want it. We had a bit of trouble nailing down the island/cupboard colors, but as promised, she had all of the samples sent to the office and they were waiting there for us when we arrived. Our “new BFF”, Frank, was absolutely awesome taking us through each and every room, marking down any changes/additions with the lighting and offering options when we were unsure. He made a special trip to meet with us again the following day to complete our sign off sheets just to be sure we were happy. And to top it all off, Jody & Greg invited us to come see their new home, and when we arrived we were greeted by about 12 other residents (some we’ve already met, some will be new neighbors) which turned into a fantastic social gathering. We felt so welcome!
I’m sure you get letters and emails in this regard all the time, we just really wanted to thank you and especially your team for the extraordinary experience we’re enjoying. We were excited to meet some of the workers as well, shaking their hands and thanking them for taking such good care while building our home. As a feather in your cap, almost all of them expressed their appreciation for being able to work in that community and being part of such a great group.
Thank you again, Eric – we are SO excited for this summer and are grateful that we made the decision to purchase when we did. Our view will be unsurpassed and we can feel the sunshine already as sip cold beverages on the deck!
Best regards,
Hi Eric, We just moved in to #275. Just wanted to tell you what a great job your team is doing. Rob and his team onsite are terrific and do excellent work. Cindy, Blair and Jody have been super patient and always helpful. We appreciate very much everyone’s efforts. Many thanks to all.
Hi Eric and Cindy; it’s been a BUSY couple of days but I’m actually starting to feel at ‘home’ down here in 172 and now catching up with some correspondence. I did want to take a moment to thank each of you individually for the rolls you played in creating this wonderful community. Firstly, Eric, for your vision and commitment to excellence that is clearly evidenced in all things that catch my eye in here on a daily basis from the geo-thermal beginnings to the beautiful landscaping that frames the finished product. The quality of the house and it’s finishings are second to none…and as you know we live in a few different examples and we KNOW what is good…and what’s not. We are very aware that you have gone the EXTRA step; that you want The Cottages to be ‘better’ than the average product out there. And that is why we wanted to be part of this community; we could see your vision of the end product as soon as we entered the site two years ago. I know the last month was pretty hectic and there were a lot of balls in the air but we were committed to calling 172 our home and we were willing to go the extra mile to be part of this beautiful community. And we know it’s the right decision.
Cindy, you and I have ‘conversed’ many MANY times by email over the past couple of years. You have really advocated for 172, you have encouraged me when I was feeling overwhelmed with ‘stuff’, you have given me clear and realistic choices and goals for the house to make it the best that it could be. And, it shows. The house is BEAUTIFUL. Everywhere I look I see conversations that you and I had and I see your input everywhere. I see a little of me too but I always appreciated your opinions and suggestions, you never steered me wrong. I would be delighted if you could come down one day and see the end product and we could sit on the deck and have a little glass of wine and tell each other what a grand job we did.
The third member of this team, who’s email I don’t have so I hope you will pass this along to him, is our Rob. What a TREASURE he is. I know there have been a few times (even in the past couple of days lol) that he has kind of ‘wondered’ about my vision but he is such a team player, such a “yes, we can” guy that he makes all things possible. He has marshalled the troops here to make sure that our house was the best it could be and his commitment to detail and quality is evident everywhere I look. And I LOOK lol.
From all the workers who’ve come through the house in the past couple of days, I am delighted to see how personally they seem to relate to each home and each situation. They strengthen the community with their work and personal ethics and I am proud to know that they were part of creating our home.
We look forward to many years of enjoying our beautiful home, the incredible view of the lake and the ‘flavour’ of the community and we just wanted take a moment to sincerely thank each of you for your part in the creation of it.
Hello, Eric! We apologize for taking this long to write, it’s been quite hectic since we returned from our trip. Just a quick note to say it was a pleasure meeting you in person and to let you know your team is doing a great job working with us. It was wonderful spending face time with Blair – we’ve been going back and forth via email and phone calls, sitting with him was a real treat. He has been very good to us and we truly appreciate the personal attention he, Jody and Ruth have provided us. We took a couple of trips to Penticton to spend time at BA Robinson as well as NuFloors and feel the relationship the Van Maren Group has established with them is very good. They were very welcoming during our appointments giving us good advice and getting our questions/selections to Blair and Cindy very quickly. We still have a few things to work through, but we wanted to let you know we’re pleased with how things are going so far and that your team is taking good care of us.
On a side note, it was really nice that Ruth took us to look through a few of the homes and Jody spent time filling us in on things like the strata fees, etc. Getting the “low down” from people who actually live in the community really helped to give us more warm and fuzzy feelings. We met some of our new neighbors as well as got reacquainted with some of the current people living there (Mo & Tina are so fun and we can’t wait to drive Bill’s new golf cart!) which was such a nice bonus to the trip.
Darcy also gave us the information for the home-owners website which is fantastic – those videos are excellent, we only wish the webcam went as far as #284 so we could watch our home being built! It’s a great marketing tool as well as perfect for us to watch our beautiful community develop. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to make it for the October AGM (I understand we can’t vote on anything until we have an actual home), but, as mentioned, we are serious about putting an experienced person on the board. In any case, thank you again for meeting with us – we are looking forward to being a part of The Cottages!
GOOD MORNING JODY…IN KEEPING WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE AUGUST 1 CELEBRATIONS AT THE COTTAGES, SHARON AND I ARE SENDING GREETINGS TO YOU AND GREG…WE HOPE TO SEE YOU IN OCTOBER. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT OCCASION, DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE THOUGHTFUL COHESION IN THE PARADISE OF THE COTTAGES. WE WANT YOU AND ALL YOUR DEVOTEES AND FOLLOWERS TO KNOW THAT WE APPRECIATE THE WORK YOU DO ON OUR BEHALF. PASS THAT ON TO ROB AND STEVE…THOSE TWO RASCALS DESERVE MEDALS FOR GREAT SERVICE AS FRONT LINE MANAGERS. THE COTTAGES IS A SPECIAL COMMUNITY, BLESSED WITH GEM LIKE QUALITIES RARELY FOUND ANYWHERE ELSE IN CANADA…FULL APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THAT STATEMENT MAY TAKE SEVERAL YEARS….I HAVE TRAVELED EXTENSIVELY AND LIVED EXTENSIVELY, INCLUDING FIVE YEARS IN FLORIDA…I KNOW WHEREOF I SPEAK…I HAVE FULL UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION NOW. ENJOY THE DAY AND REMEMBER US TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND COWORKERS.
Well I want to give you some positive feedback and a congratulations on creating such a wonderful community. Last week was our first real summer vacation at the Cottages and it was awesome. We took full advantage of the fabulous clubhouse, the beach and new floating dock and the boat slips. As well, we spent time indoors when it got too hot and the cooling system in our home worked like a charm. We are getting great feedback from our summer renters as well.
Thank you – we are very satisfied owners!
Eric! Words can not express how wonderfully you did presenting to the home owners yesterday! You did it with grace, dignity, honesty, and compassion! How blessed are we here at the cottages to have you as our developer, advocate, where all of us can respect this beautiful community that we have chosen to live in and to enjoy this pastoral place we call home and the Stelkia Community Centre! Thank you for your words of wisdom know that they touched many and for giving us A Wonderful World! As coming together is a beginning, together is progress working, together is success! Thank you and take care!
All developers are not equal. We really felt we had to share our experience of purchasing our home at the Cottages. It has been so positive and very different than our purchase of our new townhome we live in, in Coquitlam. I had some trepidation about purchasing a home we would not be living in full time and also one we would not be on site or close by to monitor during the building process. All these fears were baseless in dealing with the Van Maren group.
When we did our deficiency walk through any item we brought to the attention of the site superintendent, Rob, was respectfully acknowledged and we never felt that our concerns were not important. All items have been addressed as quickly as solutions and/or product can be found. There were a couple items that we wanted changed after we took possession that we did not have the foresight to know we wanted and Van Maren’s team have stepped up again to guide us in the right direction to make our home everything we dreamed it would be. This has been such a refreshing experience compared to purchasing our new townhome.
Van Maren’s team goes above and beyond expectation. You can see that all the people on the team take pride in their work and have an old school work ethic that shines through in all they do. The feeling onsite further reflects this in the joyful atmosphere and satisfied neighbours we now have at the Cottages.
The following message is from one of the Homeowner Protection Inspectors.
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to show me around “The Cottages” and for providing me the opportunity to complete a final inspection at the above unit. I was elated to see the commitment to quality and detail throughout this home.
The level of workmanship goes above and beyond the standards set by the Homeowner Protection Office Residential Construction Performance Guide (www.hpo.bc.ca) and I am pleased to award a WBI Home Warranty Level 1 rating on this home. This rating is of top quality as the builder uses appropriate materials and displays excellent workmanship.
My husband and I bought at the Cottages in September of 2012, we moved in, in July of 2014. Working with Eric and Cindy through all the phases of building was most assuring. From picking out our upgrades, flooring and paint any questions we had where answered in a timely and professional manner.
After moving in the experience of living in such a well thought out community has been a pleasure. The social committee organizes pot luck suppers and special event get togethers and the all-around friendliness of the people has been very welcoming. The Cottages is not just for retired people but for everyone young and old. There is something for everyone in our great little community whether it is swimming, boating, hiking or just a quiet place to relax.
Come out and see for yourself, life is good at the Cottages.
I am sending you this note to tell you how much we look forward to Fridays and checking out the new pictures online. We’ve been following them closely since we put our deposit down, and watching things being developed closer and closer to our road.
Yesterday we were so excited to open the gallery and find our foundation pictures – it was very special and inspirational! Thank you so much for taking the time to document the progress, it means so much to us.
Working with your team has been an exceptional experience, and I know that we’ve made a lot of changes so it has caused some extra work.
We can’t wait for September!
Today Ana Maria and I saw the assorted classy new clubhouse furnishings in the great room and have four words for it all. Love, love, love, love. Can hardly wait until our family has a reason to celebrate something there.
The Osoyoos Cottages area and location are outstanding. The facilities here are first class, from the clubhouse amenities, to the marina and the beautifully groomed landscaping, great walk-ways in the complex, right down to the sandy private beach area. The construction process here was very seamless, with direct access to the whole team as needed and the results of the finished product, is well worth it! Life is truly beautiful here.
Just wound up our one week stay at the Cottages on Osoyoos Lake. My wife Diana won a full weeks accommodation in a fully furnished cottage by entering a contest – we were sooo excited ! We are very thankful for the opportunity given us to spend time with our four year old daughter and enjoy the incredible attractions on the property and the surrounding area. You can read about the many attractions… and activities available on and around Osoyoos Lake anywhere on line. I want to say something about our holiday experience and the people we met. This is a fabulous location on the North end of Osoyoos lake.
Views of the lake and the surrounding mountains and country side are incredible. Because the project is located on the East corner of the lake and several kilometers from the main highway, we were amazed at how quiet it was. At night the crickets provide a delightful background chorus that reminds you that you are truly away from the city and in the middle of an area abounding in wildlife and natural beauty. The weather was perfect for our stay with warm sunny days and incredible starlit nights. We enjoyed fishing for perch, sunfish and bass off the dock which were plentiful and easy to catch – perfect for fishing with kids. A simple worm and a bobber was all the gear we needed. Every day we swam in the lake and lazed around on the sand beach. In the afternoon we often spent time poolside where our four year old daughter had her own 2.5 foot deep pool and of course the hot tubs. If the wind came up we would fly a kite on the football field sized lawn in front of the club house. Of course I slipped away several afternoons to visit one of the close to 40 world class wineries virtually bordering the property. You can see Burrowing Owl winery from the beach but I wasn’t going to talk about that was I 😉
The cabin we stayed in was clean, well-furnished and we especially enjoyed spending lots of time in the large covered and screened outdoor patio. Love the craftsman style architecture and accents. We BBQ’d almost every evening and finished off the day lying on our backs in the grass out front staring at the maze of stars and looking for satellites. Our daughter had never seen so many stars and was truly starstruck. I could go on and on but suffice it to say this holiday was the highlight of our summer and probably the most relaxing holiday I have had in years. We met and chatted with many of the full time residents now living on the property and felt completely welcomed. There is a great sense of community here and we were invited to a community BBQ on the Sunday but regrettably had to return to Vancouver a day too early. I want to thank the sales staff for making our stay very comfortable and providing information when requested and allowing us to enjoy our stay feeling like guests and not clients. No time share like promotions or pressure here – very professional and helpful.
Finally I just want to say thank you to the Van Maren Group for creating the contest that allowed us to enjoy a perfect holiday in a perfect location. We are already planning on how we can return for another vacation and who knows – maybe even as a cottage owner !.
I just took a little cart drive around the cottages and checked out the new clubhouse. It was my first look as I’ve been laid up for the past 7 weeks. Wow. I’m really impressed and pleased that we have access to such a nice facility. I must congratulate and thank you for the consistent effort I see to make this project the best. I know you’ve gone beyond your contractual requirement with the infrastructure and it is appreciated. We are extremely happy and proud owners.
Hi Eric,
Just wanted to pass on a word about my site visit that occurred in the second week of April. It was a beautiful day and I met up with Rob who was on time, very approachable and friendly. He took me through my cottage inside and out and was very thorough, writing down things that needed to be looked at and genuinely interested in making sure everything was good with my place. I spent about an hour and a half with him and he didn’t rush any of it. My place is being done on time and I am very happy with the construction process. I look forward to moving in.
PS. I was very impressed with the quality of finishing, especially the full finishing of the garage inside, fully painted of my colour scheme and baseboards, I couldn’t believe it. You never get an inside of a garage fully finished like that in Vancouver, unless you pay for it extra.
Thank you,
We love our new home. Leith and I are both glad we moved in during the winter season, so that we could make the weather adjustment to winter in Osoyoos. I don’t miss the rain of the lower mainland. Of course, we are looking forward to Spring and Summer.
We have met many of our neighbors and look forward to meeting the ones who will be enjoying their vacation homes for holidays. Leith and I both know and understand the challenges of construction, the suppliers, contractors, trades and the dynamics of trying to coordinate it into a smooth flow that results in finished homes and happy homeowners. We want you to know, we have had a very positive experience! The deficiencies were few and were handled efficiently. We have found Blair, Rob and Cindy to be very knowledgeable and helpful. Ken and Vic and a few of the sub-contractors did an awesome job of ironing out any of the problems.
Just wanted to touch base with you regarding our time at the Cottages since we took possession of our home on June 28, 2013.
Let’s start off by saying that we love it. It is evident after a few months of being there that the construction of our home was well planned and constructed.On the possession day Blair met us for a complete walk-thru and deficiency listing. It amazed us that he would point things out that we hadn’t yet noticed. We very quickly became confident in his abilities to only accept the best on our behalf. We appreciate that the deficiency list is coming to a close with the majority of the work being completed in our absence.We are very much enjoying the continuing landscape of the property. It is absolutely beautiful; once again being completed to near perfection. It is exciting to see the clubhouse going up so quickly. We are looking forward to spending time at the pool, when we aren’t at the beach. We also have very good intentions about hitting the gym. That information will follow.We also want to note that we are very happy with the dock and the detail that was put into the construction to ensure safety of our boat.We wanted to share with you that the overall project has been everything that we thought it would be and a whole lot more. We have spent the past year traveling back and forth from the Lower Mainland almost every weekend. We have witnessed the growth of the community; have met almost every homeowner, and their dogs. We are thrilled!!! Florence always speaks of beautiful people and we think she is correct. The homeowners are absolutely wonderful and we are very happy to be sharing this experience with them.Lastly, we would like to thank you, on behalf of our daughter and Fiancé for allowing them to hold their wedding ceremonies there next Summer. They are very excited. This will be a memory of the Cottages on Osoyoos Lake for the rest of our lives.
“We’d been looking for about two years at purchasing property somewhere in the Okangan, for our lifestyle needs. When we came across the Cottages on Osoyoos lake, we had gone back and forth over the course of a year to review the property, we researched community information and did our due diligence researching about the development before making a major decision. We can honestly say that we have been impressed from the start with the on site sales staff, and even more importantly with the developer, Eric Van Maren and his team, designer Cindy Penner and Blair Neels – Construction site Manager. Upon our purchase the developer even went to the efforts to make a personal phone call of thanks and offering his assistance along our journey with our construction process. The entire team have been fabulous to work with, very professional and have been helpful in assisting us with our design and construction decisions along the way. We look forward to enjoying this gorgeous development for a fantastic quality of life and lifestyle.”
Tania and I are very happy with our new home. Bravo to you and the team for creating such a fantastic place for us to enjoy time with our family. We are pleased by the quality of the interior finishes, landscaping, and breathtaking views!
Thanks to Cindy, your project coordinator, for all her hard work and making our dreams come true. It is truly spectacular to see the end result based on just phone conversations and e-mail!
We look forward to spending time with our family, meeting our neighbours, and enjoying lazy days with a glass of wine under the hot Osoyoos sun!
We are pleased to give you a positive testimonial.
• We have been “nomads” for many years, living all over Asia and North America. Everywhere we’ve been, we ask ourselves, “Would we like to settle here?” Invariably, the answer was, “Nice place to visit, but we wouldn’t like to live here.” The South Okanagan was the first place where we said, “Hmm…maybe this is the place”. It is primarily because of the weather. The winters are short and not very cold, with very little snow. The summers are warm and dry. The transitional seasons, our favorites, are long and temperate. The scenery is terrific too.
• We chose The Cottages primarily because of the location. We get rural “cottage” living, in a proper house, with some of the amenities of a resort. Yet, we are only a fifteen minute drive to Oliver and Osoyoos, which collectively have everything we need for daily living, including a hospital. For those few items that we can’t find here, we are only about twenty minutes away from Oroville, WA, which has an interesting shopping centre and a mail shipping/receiving company.
• As a prospective buyer at The Cottages, we were impressed with the number and variety of home plans. Moreover, despite having built four new homes over the years, this is the first builder we’ve encountered who is willing to make significant changes to the house to suit our needs and desires.
• As a home owner, we are very pleased with our house. It is well-built and the Van Maren crew work very hard to fix any deficiencies. Moreover, they are very friendly; we know most of them by name.
• As a resident, The peace and tranquility whilst having Sunday morning coffee on our deck, overlooking the lake, is magical. Also, we are pleased to see that a sense of community is already developing. We already know all our neighbors, and we watch over each other’s houses while away. It’s a very nice place to live.
Fred and I want to thank each of you for sharing with us the love of The Cottages on Osoyoos Lake! We love them and look forward to the day that we can move in. What you are willing to do for us, and all of your ideas are so heartfelt! Eric it was nice to sit down with you, and to “feel” and “see”, and share the love of The Cottages and this beautiful place we are going to call home! As we walk down the highway of life we are so happy to have met all of you! We look forward to becoming happy homeowners at the cottages! Live, love, laugh.”
“My wife and I have lived in the Lower Mainland for a number of years and to be honest we were looking for a drier climate. So we set out on a quest to find an area that we can use as a vacation home and eventually retire to. We have traveled through Osoyoos many times over the years and we have always found the town to be charming and quaint. Since we were vaguely familiar with Osoyoos I did some research and found out that it is a desert area with minimal precipitation. For us that was a major factor. We also noticed the large Adirondack chairs advertising the “The Cottages” and we thought we would check it out.
During the first week of August we spent a few days in Osoyoos, and as we expected, the weather was great. We visited a real estate office to see what prices were for homes near the lake. Then we went to “The Cottages” and we were both impressed with the quality of the show homes, but more impressive were the staff. We both felt comfortable right away. After the first visit, we did a basic comparison between what was on the market and what “The Cottages” had to offer and it was an easy decision. We did come up with a list of questions and I emailed them to the sales staff. I received a quick response but to my surprise, it was the developer, Eric Van Maren, who replied and followed up with a telephone call. We visited the show homes again and that is when we made the commitment to the wonderful community and a peaceful life style. I am glad we stopped in and had a look. If you are interested in a vacation/retirement home, I urge you to stop in and say hello, you won’t regret it.”
“We have been coming to Osoyoos for the past 30 years, first when our four children were very small and now with our grand children. We have always enjoyed the area and had dreamed that one day we would find a house on the lake to retire to. We have over the years looked at different properties and have never found one we both liked. We were in the area on the Canada day weekend with some friends and were not even thinking of new homes. Gordon saw your advertisement in the Vancouver Sun and we decided to have a look.
We were most impressed with our reception and the quality of the show homes, then we went to look at the sites and as soon as we stood on site 225 and looked over the lake and surrounding hills it was love at first sight for us both, we decided there and then to buy!!! And we couldn’t be happier. We will retire next year and plan on making it our permanent home. Our children are so excited and we are looking forward to the move.”
“We were going to Penticton in search of sunshine, warm weather and very little rain, a retirement community, somewhere where we could just lay back, sit on the deck, sip a glass of wine and enjoy a view. We had a couple of hours to spare before we could check in to our room so we thought we would stop in Osoyoos and take a look at “The Cottages”. We were very impressed.
When we got to Penticton, we went to see other communities but there was no comparison. We jumped into the car the next morning and went back to Osoyoos to take another look, and nope, nothing changed, it was still the most wonderful location, the lake, the view, the warm sunshine, everything was there that we were looking for. We can’t wait to move into our new home and spend the rest of our “Golden Years” sitting on the deck, sipping a glass of wine and enjoying our “Golden Pond” at the Cottages.”
“The minute we arrived at The Cottages, I could see in my husband’s face that he was hooked – and so was I. We were not planning to purchase a summer/retirement home when we went to Osoyoos for the weekend, but we couldn’t be more thrilled that we did. We love the location, quality, layouts and affordability of the homes. We can hardly wait and are very much looking forward to move-in day!”
“We have been coming to Osoyoos regularly for past 22 years, so when the opportunity arose to buy a cottage, we thought it was the perfect fit for our family. We love the Osoyoos area – the lake, the weather and the people. We think living in a Malbec home overlooking one of Canada’s warmest lakes will mark the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for us. We are looking forward to having our whole family gather there each and every summer – and eventually moving in once we retire. We hope our new cottage will help create a family tradition for us, our children and our future grandchildren. We are excitedly waiting for next May when we can move in and we thank The Van Maren Group for this wonderful opportunity.”
“This project strongly pulled me from the start, and it just keeps getting better. We both can’t wait to start a fresh new life, in our brand new home and proud members of this incredible development project. We tip our hats and raise our glasses to you.”
“For us, owing a cottage on Osoyoos Lake is the realization of a 25 year dream. It was that long ago that we visited Osoyoos for the first time. We still talk about our motorhome stay in 1986 at Willow Beach, just around the corner from the Cottages. The kids couldn’t get enough of playing in and on the water. Our lives have changed a lot since then. The kids are grown and now we have four grandchildren. We like wine and vineyards more than ever. Cycling serene backroads has become somewhat of a passion. And we want more security and less of the work that normally come with home ownership. So when we heard the Van Maren Group were developing a cottage community on Osoyoos Lake with resort like amenities we knew immediately we wanted to be part of it. Now the entire family can hardly wait for construction to be finished. We couldn’t be happier with the way this dream came true.”
“I have had extensive business dealings with Eric Van Maren over the past 4 years, and I’ve gotten to know him as an honest, forthright individual. As our family has operated a ranch on The Cottages property for over 100 years, I loved the idea of continuing to live at the site. I have purchased one of the Lakefront homes and can’t wait to move in. There just isn’t a better place to call home – I know because I’ve lived there for most of my life!”
“This project strongly pulled me from the start, and it just keeps getting better. We both can’t wait to start a fresh new life, in our brand new home and proud members of this incredible development project. We tip our hats and raise our glasses to you.”
“While passing through the area last summer we noticed the beach-chair signs and decided to see what The Cottages was all about. When we got to the site we just fell in love with the location. It’s on a lake, there are mountains, wineries, and Osoyoos/Oliver has a small town atmosphere. We love to hike, Jet Ski and snow-ski – everything is near at hand at The Cottages. We just can’t wait to start spending our vacations there.”