My home is actually in the northern tip of Michigan, not quite a yuper but if I can get my health issues figured out & retire soon Ontario would be a nice summer home, for me anyway. The wife says she will stay there when there is running water, electricity & a "real bathroom". That one is usually a deal breaker for a lot of the girls, Personally, it's a small cabin, don;t really want that on the inside.
Do you have gas lights inside ? They are fairly easy to install and connect directly to your LP tank(s). I have 3 in the main part of the cabin, use a headlamp or led lantern in the loft and bedroom. No gas lanterns to worry about although the newer lanterns with screw on LP tanks are WAY better than the old Coleman style. Am I aging myself here?
Have you ever had any ambitions to build a log cabin? My neighbor in Ontario built an awesome log sauna on a concrete slab. He is an exceptional carpenter and put a lot of work into it but it is still rustic. Might be a fun project if you ever had the time. His sauna makes mine look like a shack.
As far as electricity or running a generator. Every time one of my neighbors runs the generator for more than an hour I find myself wanting to move to a more remote lake. I love to sit there and listen to the quiet. I do use a generator to run tools and my water pump when needed.
Did you ever put in a well? My well is about 20-25 feet and was hand driven, not a ton of work but better to have a friend or two. There is a hand pump and a shallow well pump also for filling a water barrel in the loft so we have gravity feed water to the sink & a shower. Be happy to go into more detail if you are interested? I am still not done reading all of this so maybe sorry if I am behind on details.
