First, the good: This is a beautiful property that sits right on the lake. There are kayaks and a canoe provided. The lake was great to swim in, especially during a heat wave. The house has a rustic feel to it. Rooms were clean and kitchen was ready to use. ACs were running well and kept the house cool. Overall a nice place to stay.Some minor dings: The doorways were low and we had a taller guest staying with us. One of the bedrooms didn't have an AC in it, so to keep the upstairs cool, we had to all sleep with the doors open, which was odd.The main issues; The host didn't provide us with the lock code before check in, which was an issue when we pulled in at 1am from a 6 hour drive. Upon calling the number provided on VRBO, it was the number for an an old manager who didn't manage the property anymore but was able to find the code. Weird start to the stay. The second issue was NOT the host's fault but should be mentioned. I searched specifically for a pet-friendly stay as we had our dog with us, but I must have missed where the VRBO app asked about pets upon checkout. This would have affected the price, which was rightfully charged to us afterwards but was still an unpleasant surprise. Despite my mistake, this wasn't explicitly mentioned in the listing so as a heads up to anyone reading: the price increases when including pets.

We really enjoyed this property on Lake Pushaw! Fantastic stat & responsive owners.

The cottage has two kayaks, one canoe, and a small paddle boat. My kids never came inside except to sleep.

The cottage is well appointed and in a great location. Tiffany was very responsive as a property manger. There was so much to love about our stay at this lakefront cottage. I wanted to start my review on a positive but also note that a lot went wrong as well. I wish I had known a few things about the property before reserving the space 1. The house does not have a generator, we lost power on the second day of our stay which meant we did not have any running water as well as no electricity. I have never stayed in a home that the water was tied to the power so this came as a bit of a shock. The toilets did not flush and nothing came out of the taps when they were open. It was restored by the next afternoon but once it came back on the septic tank alarm went off. 2 A full septic tank can result in the contents backing up into the house. This meant that even though the water was running we could not flush toilets, wash dishes or bath. These issues began on Tuesday evening (day 2 of our 5 day stay) the septic tank was emptied on Thursday afternoon (day 4 of 5) It was very frustrating to have paid to stay in a home without being able to flush toilets, shower or even wash your hands. I have 7 & 5 year old boys and some other troubling issues with the cottage included some nails that were sticking out of the stair wall. There was also a large piece of furniture in the boys room that was not secured to the wall. It wobbled so much that we couldn't leave the boys up in the room unsupervised for fear that they would have it fall on them while trying to get to the toys and books on top. Tiffany mentioned that she passed all of the issues that we had on to Jill the owner but at no time did the she reach out to see if we were OK or to offer us anything not even an apology. I don't know if the tank was full because we chose to bath on our first day there but if showering or taking a bath is something you can't do in a rental it would probably be a good thing to know. If it weren't so cold out we may not have been so bothered by everything that happened but it was Maine in February so we did spend a lot of time indoors. The location is great, the neighbors were all very nice but the septic tank issues were awful. I probably wouldn't have written this review if the owner of the property had reached out to apologize. It made me think that the issues we had were pretty ordinary and if I had known that before I booked I would have gone elsewhere.