2nd Annual Ultimate Wish List

It’s December and, in case any of you haven’t noticed, the Christmas season is quickly coming upon us.  In fact, as of writing the big day is a mere 21 sleeps away.  I started a fun little silly tradition last year which I have no plans on stopping.  So in the spirit of hyper-inflated consumer spending I present to you my second annual ultimate wish list:

2015 SeaRay L Series L650 Fly – $a lot – link

Early in 2014 SeaRay started leaking hints and images of a new line of motor yachts they would be introducing.  The L Series was touted as the pinnacle of luxury, technology and design.  They had me at luxury.  I’ve long been a fan of SeaRay but found their product line lacked the hyper luxurious motor yacht my daydreams required.  The launch of the L Series fixed that.  Taking the cake is the 65 foot long L650 Fly.  Featuring a stylish flybridge, this motor yacht is three levels of luxury and awesome.  Though I have no sensible reason to own, store and fuel such a beast, I can’t help but want one.  Taking a summer cruise up the St. Lawrence river to whale watch on the coast.  A springtime jaunt up the Welland Canal.  An early Fall/Thanksgiving cruise around Georgian Bay.  These are a few of the things I would do with this floating luxury mutli-story condo.  Your backyard is wherever your trip takes you.

Custom Cottage on 128.5 Acres – $349,000 + elaborate building costs – link

This is nearly unchanged from the list last year, with the small exception of nearly 50 times the land and twice the cost.  Since all the land around the lake where my families’ old cottage was, Diamond Lake, is sold, I’ve had to come up with the next best thing.  Here is a massive nearly 130 acres of land with immense frontage on a large but beautiful lake.  Not only does the size increase mean more untouched forest to play in, it means you can easily have multiple building sites.  As with last year, nestled not far from the lake in a large building site would be a massive custom cottage built by none other than TV’s own Bryan Baeumler.  The man continues to impress and entertain me both on the small screen and Twitter.  While our taste in pickup trucks and exotic sports cars may conflict, his attention to quality build and sense of humour allow me to trust him with my precious uber cottage.  His company has done some great work.  While I’d estimate around $800,000 for the project, I figure he’ll add a 20% Ford guy fee.

2015 Toyota Sienna XLE Limited Package – $58,368.85 – link

New for the wish list this year.  Perhaps a sign of my age, but this entry comes from a very practical need.  Our long serving family hauler, a 2005 Ford Freestar, has sprung a leak in its head gasket.  What that means is at any time our old beast may not start, leaving us without family transportation.  After doing a lot of research it became clear the 2015 Toyota Sienna would be the ideal replacement.  So, in that mindset, we find the XLE Limited configured above on our list.  Featuring the safety of AWD, tech of a spaceship and luxury of a Lexus, this van would make our annual trip to Orlando hardly a chore.  Because anything new is essentially beyond our budget, the XLE is an example of total “if dreams come true”.  My family deserves the best minivans have to offer and, right now, the XLE Limited is that.  Includes a set of winter tires on rims.

2015 F150 2.7L EcoBoost Limited 4×4 $60,000 est – link | 2015 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Longhorn 4×4 – $62,450 with options – link

“Two pickup trucks, Dan?” I hear you asking.  Yes.  And I still can’t decide which one, and I don’t think my driveway will let me have both.  I love the F150, I really do.  Now the 2015 offers aluminum body and some really, really cool features and design.  Having adaptive cruise control and 360 maneuvering cameras in a pickup truck are awesome.  Even the new 2.7L EcoBoost engine gives a great small-V8 power with V6 mileage.  For all purposes, a Limited 2015 F150 would be my dream truck.  Except Ram had to go and introduce the EcoDiesel.  It’s no secret that I’m goo goo for diesel.  In fact I’d only own diesels if I could.  After recently driving a Ram EcoDiesel I found my truck heartstrings torn even further between these two trucks.  Ram’s Longhorn edition has even won design awards for the interior and, to be honest, you can see why.  My biggest beef would be having to look people in the eye and tell them I owned a Ram.  As an outspoken Ford guy, that’s a hard pill to swallow.  Which one would I pick?  The mileage of a diesel might just be enough to make me swallow my pride.  Both trucks would have a set of winter tires on steel rims, of course.

2015 Porsche Cayenne Diesel – $139,980 – link

Why pick between those two trucks when I can have one high performance, long range luxury cruiser for the same price?

There’s a long story behind me and the Porsche Cayenne.  I grew up a Porsche fan.  No matter my other car fancies, the Porsche fanaticism has persisted throughout.  As, with every high school and college aged boy before me, I longed to someday own one.  When Porsche launched the Cayenne in 2003 I was over the moon.  Finally the car company I loved had a product on offering that gave you the performance of the cars with the space and size of a truck.  You could actually take your friends and family around with this one!  For years I believed someday I would own one.  Not just a fanciful belief, but a genuine knowledge that a day would come where I owned one.  I still believe that.

In 2004 I left college to join a gap year missions team with the Salvation Army.  During this year it was announced to us that we would be spending 5 weeks overseas to help young churches.  Later it was announced that it would be former east Germany.  Then it was announced we would be spending the beginning and end of our time in Leipzig.  Those who know anything about the Porsche Cayenne know how significant Leipzig is.  Porsche’s Cayenne factory (as seen in the image) and testing grounds are located just outside Leipzig.  I was over Pluto by this point.  For the paltry fee of 10.35 Euros I could have spent half a day touring the factory, and the members of my team encouraged me to do so.  They knew the factory was a kind of Mecca for me, a dream come true.  I chose instead to throw myself at the ministry and never got to visit Porsche Leipzig.  I maintain I made the right choice and someday, somehow, that factory tour will happen.  It was during this trip that somebody spoke over me; you will indeed someday own a Porsche Cayenne.

One thing that always plagued me about Cayenne ownership was the cost of fuel.  Cayennes are notoriously thirsty, particularly the high performance turbo ones.  Wouldn’t you know it in 2009 Porsche announced a diesel Cayenne was on its way.  The solar system was starting to look small from my vantage point.  So enamored with this diesel Cayenne, its amazing 1400km of highway fuel range, luxury and space for a family and outstanding fuel mileage, the Cayenne diesel has been the center point of my Porsche world.  Even my twitter header was changed in late 2012 to a Cayenne Diesel, and hasn’t changed since.  Given the thread a Porsche Cayenne has been weaving through the last 12 years of my life, it’s a surprise this didn’t make the list last year.  My Cayenne would, as the other vehicles here have, also include winter tires on steel rims.

Samsung 65″ Curved 4K TV with Bose Lifestyle 535 surround system and an XBox One + Kinect – $8,699.85 – link | link | link

Okay, okay.  We got really serious and somber with the last one.  Let’s get ridiculous again.

Introduced this year, Samsung has decided that our 4k viewing experience was lost on old fashioned flat screen TVs.  You know what the problem with those TVs is?  They’re flat!  Flat is so 2010.  Samsung’s latest and greatest UDH (Ultra High Definition) TVs are rounded to better suit the curved shape of our eyes.  Science makes TV better!  I’m not sold on this logic, but I’m always sold on the latest and craziest of TV technology.  If anything the curved TV is a great conversation starter.  What do you do with all that TV size and curves?  Play top tier video games of course.  Microsoft launched its latest XBox console this time last year.  With a massively improved Kinect system, three processors and clever multi-media integration, this system is for all the daddy gamers out there.  You have the casual gamer base covered AND can still enjoy your big person games.

High Definition gaming and movies isn’t really high definition unless you have real surround sound.  The Bose Lifestyle series of home theaters has been the gold standard for years.  A recent re-design of their trademarked cube speakers brings improved reproductive quality.  I didn’t think you could improve on perfect, but Bose found a way.

Mortgage Free – $260,000

I consider myself extremely fortunate to be in my early thirties and own a home.  The flip side of that, of course, is realizing how long you’ll be paying for said house.  One of the greatest liberators for your average person is when the mortgage is paid off.  Getting the final statement from your mortgage is always an amazing feeling, one I dream about.  Owning a property outright is a great way to free up monthly income and protect your family against possible future economic events.  As nice as all of the above would be, ultimately I’d sell many of them to help pay down/eliminate my mortgage if they were gifted to me.

Except for the Minivan.  We need that.