This is Marty Forbes. He’s a radio aficionado (President of Radiowise Inc.), a media consultant, a columnist for the Edmonton Sun, and a home-owner at Waters Edge Estates. Get to know him as we chat about his favourite lakeside activities, what drew him to Waters Edge, and his experience with building his summer home.
What brought you out to Waters Edge?
“We had a place in Phoenix for ten years, and then had a grandchild three years ago. We started thinking, “We wanna get back and be a part of his life and watch him grow up, and not just be around for birthdays or Christmas.” I’d seen signs for this place, riding my motorcycle around town several years back, and decided that since I’m going to lose that recreation in Phoenix, I have to find a place that has recreation here. I drove out and was blown away by how far this place had come along in the last couple of years. I made an appointment with Fred, called my wife out, and it took her about a minute to say “Yep!” And we started the plans to come back here.”
Walk us through the process of designing your home.
“We’ve built two or three homes, large structures and complex structures, and I know the work that goes into building one of these places. This one was absolutely seamless. They have enough plans that are there, and the very first thing they say to you that meant everything in the world to me was,
“But if you want to make a change, just tell us.” Sometimes that can sound like sales hype; it wasn’t with these guys. Anything you want, let’s discuss and do it right now.
In the planning stage, there was a couple of things, one being Fred (who’s just spectacular to deal with) suggested a third garage door. Again, I hadn’t had a recreation place like this, and he said: “That’s for the toys.” I have a double oversized garage. Meaning there’s a snowmobile in there, my motorcycle in there, three cars in there, and you can still move around and all that. In the winter, that’s huge. Trust me.”
“I handed the interior stuff over to my wife, who made some changes, and it was not just doing it, but with their reference back of “Did you think of this?” or “What about that?” They improved upon almost everything that we asked or made a suggestion from their standpoint that ended up being of way more benefit than what our first idea had been. Including flipping the blueprints, which to me sounded kind of crazy, so that I got a better view of the lake. It was literally one phone call and one minute to say “Yes, we can do that for you!” and away it went.
It was absolutely worry-free and tremendous to work with. Still to this moment, if there’s a problem they react on it right away, get back to you right away, and let you know the whole process. It was really an easy thing to do, and they were well ahead of schedule too!”
Let’s talk about your favourite things to do out here.
“You’re looking at it. I’ll usually have my cigar, and sit out on the deck. It’s all wired with a custom sound-system connected to 7 services, all controlled through my phone. It’s the atmosphere. It’s the most relaxing place to be. Lake and water structures always make you feel relaxed. The whole demeanour of the place is built on recreation. It’s year-round too!
I’d never had a snowmobile, bought one this year, and had a riot with it. The toys out here, everyone has either got a motorcycle, a quad, a golf cart, a Seadoo, and various aqua toys. The swimming pool is heated, right on the beach, and the neatest thing is that it’s for little kids as well. In the very front shallow part, you can sit there and not have to get into the water with the kids. They can’t get into the deep end without going around this little curve where you can be sitting.”
“There’s a fire pit right on the beach, you’ll go out there and somebody will be playing their guitar while the sunset’s going down. They put on an amazing fireworks show, comparable to anything you see in town. And just the laid back feeling– everyone waves every time they come by and looks out for each other. The very first weekend it snowed when we were out here, I turned on my security system, to find my neighbour is doing my driveway for me. We’d only met once.
It’s just a really relaxing mode. I’m 50 minutes door-to-door to my other house, so it’s 45 minutes to the edge of town. It’s not like you’re 4-5 hours out of town or on an airplane to get outta here. You can be here quite quickly. “
“It always has a resort feel, but it’s never ever really busy. The other thing is that they do everything for you. If you have a boat or something like that, over here, they can store it for you. They charge a couple hundred dollars to take it from there down to the launch. It’s a phone call for somebody to get this kind of work done–instead of having to worry about it, having a truck, hauling it all over the place, and storing it. They’ve really thought of everything.”
