Guilford Maine Area (Bangor, Orono, Old Town: mortgage, houses, neighborhood)

[bignhfamily]

Hello to all.
I mostly lurk around when I am visiting this forum but like to come out and say hi once in awhile. We are a family of 6 from a small town in NH. We raise kids, pets and livestock and crops here in the hills. We also work off the farm.

I am a carpenter with a small contracting company and my wife is a self employed LNA with many years experience with geriatrics. We both have and do work ouside our fields too. DW acts as a personal assistant, cleans houses, cooks, babysits, etc. I have landscaped, been a farmhand, have a degree in electrical manufacturing (though I probablly would sooner die then go back into a tin can) and more.

When we have a spare minute you might catch my wife spinning some new blend of wool from her sheep (what a waste of perfectly good lamb chops, huh?) or building a new pen for the hogs or chickens. Me you would probably find out in the shop with the wood stove going and carving a big cherry burl bowl or a lilac root spoon.

Our search for a home in Maine has been an exhausting several years. We fell in love with Machias (where my family was originally from) and spent a lot of time looking in the Down East area. Though we found many very nice homesteads we abandoned the idea of the area due to lack of job opportunities.

The last year or so we started searching outside of Bangor to the North and West. Again we have looked at several potential properties. Levant, Bradford, Corinth, Bradford, Milo are all towns we have looked at and around.
We are looking now in Sangerville, Guilford and Parkman area. Found some great farmland in these areas with just what we are looking for. A larger tract of property with a nice mix of open field/pasture and wooded.
My biggest concern is being able to make a living in these areas. It's new territory for us and it isn't really a commutable distance to Bangor (where we have had job offers before).

We have lived like the frugal Yankees that we are and have managed to save a decent nest egg. We hope to have no or little mortgage payments. Our needs are minimal so we don't require a lot of money but we still have to pay the basic bills. We have no problem living off the grid and we try to be fairly self sufficient.

We are also are involved in our community here in NH and hope to find a similar lifestyle in Maine. We attend a Christian Church (UCC or similar) and the kids look forward to Sunday School. We are a 4H family and hope that where we move has an active club. We send our kids to public school so hopefully it would be a decent one. Smaller size classes, art, music, sports, etc.

Thanks so much for any info about these areas or any others that might sound like what we are looking for.

[KiddinAroundFarm]

My advice to you would be to go back to the areas you previously mentioned, Corinth, Levant, Bradford, etc. and look again. There are some nice properties there. I know because we moved from Bradford in April. We looked all around that area, and found several nice homesteads. The only reason we bought where we are (Old Town area) was because my husband got a job closer to this area. The commute from Bradford to Bangor was only about 35 minutes. If you buy further out, the prices of land will fall accordingly, but that's because of the commute. With gas prices the way they are, I'd be willing to be that the cost of houses/land per month far outweighs the cost of gas per month of moving farther away for less money. In other words, our home here was about $20,000 more than we really were looking at. That equated to about $20 a month or so, and the taxes were less, enabling us to buy more house/land for our money. I understand the no mortgage part, but a small mortgage would again outweigh the cost of the gas I'd bet. And those outlying areas have more to offer in terms of community as well. Bradford for instance just built a new community center last year, and has the latest in fire fighting apparatus.

[bignhfamily]

Thanks for the great advice KAF. I guess I was hoping that if I got out to Guilford area I would not have to commute to make a living. DW would much rather be in your neighborhood. We have also looked in Old Town, Orono and surrounding areas. There seems to be better oppertunity for work there too.
I'm holding out for that 100+ acre farm land.

[bignhfamily]

Wow - this seems like a tough thread to get moving.
Anybody? Anybody? Maybe I should just let the lack of response be the answer to my questions about the Guilford, Sangerville area

[dmyankee]

The area has just about everything you need. You have several grocery and hardware stores nearby. The largest employer is Interface. Dover-Foxcroft is 5 minutes away. It is the county seat complete with hospital. The school systems in the surrounding area are fine. Plenty of carpentry work if you beat the bushes. Greenville is 1/2 hour to the north. It offers plenty of seasonal work. I take it, an LNA is what we know as a CNA up here. There are opportunities at several nursing facilities. Bangor is about an hour away as the raven flies. Not bad, unless you have to commute.

I say, give it a go. It is a very pretty area of the state and plenty of small farmers around to connect with!

[aslanleon]

I lived in that area for about ten years (Dexter). It is indeed very beautiful and great people. I miss it. Still, check out jobs before you get there, as there is limited employment. Unfortunately, that's why the land is so reasonable.

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

The area has just about everything you need. You have several grocery and hardware stores nearby. The largest employer is Interface. Dover-Foxcroft is 5 minutes away. It is the county seat complete with hospital. The school systems in the surrounding area are fine. Plenty of carpentry work if you beat the bushes. Greenville is 1/2 hour to the north. It offers plenty of seasonal work. I take it, an LNA is what we know as a CNA up here. There are opportunities at several nursing facilities. Bangor is about an hour away as the raven flies. Not bad, unless you have to commute.

I say, give it a go. It is a very pretty area of the state and plenty of small farmers around to connect with!

Thanks! Great post. I think it is definitely worth a good hard look. DW and I decided that we are going to cut our Thanksgiving plans short and load the kids up and drive up to Guilford while we have a couple days off.
We'll take a 2nd look at several properties on the way there from Bangor.
Really looking forward to our scouting trip. We haven't made the drive up from here in NH since July.

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by aslanleon

I lived in that area for about ten years (Dexter). It is indeed very beautiful and great people. I miss it. Still, check out jobs before you get there, as there is limited employment. Unfortunately, that's why the land is so reasonable.

Great advice. The whole job thing is probably the biggest factor as to why we are still here in NH. I think the time is drawing near to just take the plunge and move up to Maine. We have lived in other very recessed parts of the country and always been able to stay afloat by taking whatever is available and making the best of it. Good part is that at the end of the day we get to go home to a place of our own.

[Trailmonkey]

I live in the immediate area, and can tell you that in your line of work, you should have no problems staying busy. There is a shortage of true professional carpenters in the area. No shortage of people who call themselves carpenters, however. We have a short list of reputable contractors, and like to refer the good ones.

Mayo Regional hospital is within 10 miles, in Dover, and they don't seem to have as many qualified nurses, or traveling nurses as the area needs. Charlotte White center would be a good place to look as well.

If you are into horses, there are several stables in the area, of course. My daughter spends an inordinate amount of time at one of the local stables in Dover.

ATV trails abound, as the clubs become more organized, and the riders become better educated and less destructive...

There are some nice schools in the area, both public and private. My wife teaches at a private school in Charleston. Let me know if I can give you more info on them, I just created a new website for them...

[bignhfamily]

Originally Posted by BlueSky Environmental

I live in the immediate area, and can tell you that in your line of work, you should have no problems staying busy. There is a shortage of true professional carpenters in the area. No shortage of people who call themselves carpenters, however. We have a short list of reputable contractors, and like to refer the good ones.

Mayo Regional hospital is within 10 miles, in Dover, and they don't seem to have as many qualified nurses, or traveling nurses as the area needs. Charlotte White center would be a good place to look as well.

If you are into horses, there are several stables in the area, of course. My daughter spends an inordinate amount of time at one of the local stables in Dover.

ATV trails abound, as the clubs become more organized, and the riders become better educated and less destructive...

There are some nice schools in the area, both public and private. My wife teaches at a private school in Charleston. Let me know if I can give you more info on them, I just created a new website for them...

Thanks BlueSky! I specialize in historic renovations but do a fair amount of contemporary work as well. I've been fortunate that I no longer have to advertise due to word of mouth recommendations. So I guess we're doing something right.
My wife has worked as an LNA (CNA in Maine) for better than a decade. She is self employed in the private sector with seniors and really is more of a personal assistant than anything medical. She helps with day to day activities like bathing, house keeping, cooking, errand running and transportation to appointments, etc. Her clients often become part of our extended family and we love them all dearly. It's not unusual for us to pick up and bring several of them to church with us or have them over for Sunday dinner.
Currently sheep are our main farming endeavour but we also have beef critters, hogs, chickens, etc. I grew up on a horse farm here in NH and have no interest in hay burning horses (can't eat them)but the kids and wife have decided that we will need a couple when we get to Maine.
I am definitely always interested to hear about the public schools in the area. I heard that Guilford has good schools that are about the same size as the one kids currently attend.