Thoughts On Going It 'Alone' In Maine (Searsport, Hope: hotels, homes)

[amacop]

One good book to read on Downeast Maine is called " Down East Maine A World Apart" you can find it at Barnes and Noble dot com under used books fairly cheap.
Yes those of us in Downeast Maine and Aroostock County are a different breed of people from the I 95 Corridor and Southern Maine we live a more simple life and pretty much keep to ourself so no we are no snobs we just like to wit and see what our new neighbors are like within the community and if they are looking to change our way of life to meet their standards. Mistake one a new comer can make in either county is post land and prohibit hunting as the locals may have been hunting that land for generations and that is one fast way to make for bad feelings within the town you chose to live.

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

Hi Everyone,

New poster here. Just read threads for the last two hours on all of you moving to Maine and now many of you posting whether you're happy or not with your decision.

I've had a love affair with the downeast coast of Maine since 1984. I live on Cape Cod and have owned my home here for 30 years. I've watched the property along the coast go from next to nothing to now being higher priced than the Cape. Blows my mind! lol

I found a beautiful home in Searsport that hadn't had any activity on it in two years. I put an offer in and the next thing you know, there's a bidding war. It was the week the government decided to tell us we were in a he** of a financial pickle and then the stock market crashed. lol Talk about timing, 'ey? haha Well, because of the economic situation and my financial picture in the short term, I wouldn't go over the 2nd bid I put in, so I lost the house. Now I'm sad that I lost it as it's a magnificent setting and had about 99.9% of what I'd like to have in Maine.

I just found another one tonight through the net, but it's in Steuben. Steuben isn't quite the end of the world, but you can see it from there! lol I'm wondering what those of you from out that way think of living so far out in the hinterlands... do you get good tv and internet reception? Do you experience long power outages in the winter? Do you have generators?

As beautiful as the countryside in Maine is, I have a love of the coast and I can't imagine moving up there to enjoy the beauty of the water and ending up sad about it, but I am questioning my sanity a little. lol I'll be 52 in a few more weeks and I wonder if I'm crazy to buy a house up there and have to worry about plowing etc. What say all of you?

Thanks for any and all of your input in advance! Looking forward to getting to know some of you!

[CoastalMaine]

Mike,

As you know from our DM traffic, that certainly isn't my aim. I miss that spirit on the Cape. It got sliced away in the mid-80's bit by bit as the people who grew up around Boston moved down here, took over our schools, our ways of town government, our beaches, our woods, and our shoreline.

The Cape was asleep at the switch and ill prepared for what happened to each and every town down here. Now, many of those same people who moved here and fed their kids through our school systems - in many if not all towns necessitating new schools for every grade - moved away! We're stuck here in Brewster with an extra school we don't need and we can't change it because the state funded part of the building expenses and we're bound to their agreement.

If anything, I'd be fighting loud and hard to keep things the way they are and pointing with all my fingers to look at what's happened down here. I hope to God the beauty of downeast Maine never gets destroyed the way it has here.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I'll go look for it now. Hope to meet you next weekend when I'm up in your neck of the woods!

Gale

[moughie]

I remember going to the Cape back in the 60's and 70's as a youngster!

Haven't been back since and have no desire to see how it is today! Prefer to let my memories reign supreme It was so beautiful back then.....

I sure do understand your frustration Coastal and hope you make it permanently to your dream location Downeast soon!

[msina]

I lived and worked in Carver for many years. It went from a tiny town to a "bedroom community". Cranberry bogs have been filled to build mcmansions. It has changed so much I don't recognize it when I visit family.

[CoastalMaine]

Well I still have no grocery store in my town, but there are a few smaller mom and pop markets for necessities... but the whole place is suburbanized now. Not the same place at all.

[CoastalMaine]

haha Carver!!! I used to take my daughter there every year for Edaville Railroad at Christmas time. The decorations were wonderful and the amazement on her face as we rode through at dusk was always just wonderful!!!

[CoastalMaine]

I recently read in the Cape Cod Times... within the last month, there is some italian conglomerate trying to get approval in Washington county for a McMansion development and there's little on the books to stop it... do any of you know about this and what is happening with it? I gasped when I read it. It was a week before the financial meltdown occurred. I hope to God they can keep them from moving forward. They already own the land, so it's got to be zoning or something that they use as a means of stopping it. Terrible!!!!

[amacop]

You read right as far as a combined Italian, German, and one other European country that did buy a large parcel of land but it is not in Downeast Maine it is in Hancock County just the other side of Steuben which is where Downeast Maine starts. At one time Downeast Maine began just after what was called the singing bridge in Sullivan but the trust fund crowd moved into these towns and now are moving further east on the coast so they lost their Downeast way of life. They bought a parcel on the Arcadia Penninsula in Prospect Harbor. I will not say that we do not have that problem here Downeast as the old Cutler Naval Base was bought by a group of which one of the members was the State Rep for Washington County then there is Dollyhead which is in Steuben owned by a group and that is all water front land and to drive down the road and see some of the names that have already bought land (some of which I could not pronounce drunk let alone sobber) so before you know it will not be long before all of this coastline is owned by someone and the way of life will be changed forever,

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

I recently read in the Cape Cod Times... within the last month, there is some italian conglomerate trying to get approval in Washington county for a McMansion development and there's little on the books to stop it... do any of you know about this and what is happening with it? I gasped when I read it. It was a week before the financial meltdown occurred. I hope to God they can keep them from moving forward. They already own the land, so it's got to be zoning or something that they use as a means of stopping it. Terrible!!!!

[boonelsewhere]

i hope they get approve, the italian developer bring the real estate up and busy at the time that the american developers could not see the future for the real estate in the Brickell avenue and South Beach area in the '80 during the real estate market crisis. those developments bring buyers from Europe and South America. that may or may not happen in Washington county, but it is a shot. it is a global economy meltdown, the US still the safer investment compare to the other. china will get hit the hardest unless they can find the comsumer country like the US to help keep thire growth pattern as in the last decade. i believe they has an eyes on Africa and South America for thier future growth.

Originally Posted by CoastalMaine

I recently read in the Cape Cod Times... within the last month, there is some italian conglomerate trying to get approval in Washington county for a McMansion development and there's little on the books to stop it... do any of you know about this and what is happening with it? I gasped when I read it. It was a week before the financial meltdown occurred. I hope to God they can keep them from moving forward. They already own the land, so it's got to be zoning or something that they use as a means of stopping it. Terrible!!!!

[palval1]

Hullo, Fellow Frustrated Cape Codder!

I've just joined the forum and I, too, am frustrated with life here on the Cape. Had my house in East Sandwich for sale for 7 months because I wanted very much to move to Searsport. The market/economy being what it is these days, I've decided to take down my For Sale sign and wait a bit til the market picks up again....may be quite a wait, but I still have a very strong desire to head to Searsport.

How about you? Are you still feeling the urge to get up there? I've been drooling over a particular property up there, too. Do you go up there often?

Hey, at least we have rooves over our heads! I know it could be a lot worse, but I'm craving to get to Maine with my small farm menagerie.

Let's chat. Val