Central Aroostook Questions (Presque Isle, Caribou, Limestone: apartment, rentals, buying a home)

[dfreysinger]

Hello folks,

This is my first post on the forum and I have several questions for the Aroostook residents. I am a government contractor in Colorado and have recently been offered a civil service job at DFAS in Limestone. I am in my mid 40's and will be bringing my wife of the same age with me. As we look at homes online, we have many questions that just can't be answered by Wikipedia. I would greatly appreciate any input from the folks here on City Data. We hope to make this our last move, so I want to make sure I do it right. Being surrounded by 500,000 people is getting becoming harder and harder as we get older. Ideally, we would like to be in one of the towns or cities in the area. It is a little tough to comprehend drive time without being there. Where we are at now, it takes 30 minutes to get across town because of traffic.

1. My biggest concern is travel. Are all of the roads maintained well throughout the winter? If not, should we be looking at homes on certain routes only?

2. Is an all wheel drive vehicle necessary, or will a small front wheel drive car with studded tires work in the winter?

3. My wife has lots of tattoos, large gauge earrings, and a tongue ring. Will looking like an old punk rocker cause her problems when interacting with people in the area? Please forgive me if this is a silly question.

4. Ideally, we would like to rent a place for a few months before buying a home. Is this realistic? It appears rentals are few and far between.

5. Do most incorporated towns in the area have broadband?

6. I know this is a tough question to answer, but I would be interested to hear ballpark figures. What is a reasonable expectation for heating costs for an older small home? By small I mean 800 sq ft to no more than 1400 sq ft. Most likely, we will be heating with heating oil, propane, or electric. I love wood stoves, but I don't want to have to depend on one for heat if I can help it.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by dfreysinger

3. My wife has lots of tattoos, large gauge earrings, and a tongue ring. Will looking like an old punk rocker cause her problems when interacting with people in the area? Please forgive me if this is a silly question.

That's great. My kinda person. My impression is that you'll be very welcome though in the heavy minority. People seem less concerned with looks and more concerned about a person being genuine. So you're good there. On my frequent visits I'm often seen running on Route 1A. I know I get odd looks but I always felt welcomed. Be yourself. How exciting to be moving to Maine. Good luck.

[dfreysinger]

Thanks Zalewskimm. We are looking forward to the move.

[maineguy8888]

Originally Posted by dfreysinger

Hello folks,

This is my first post on the forum and I have several questions for the Aroostook residents. I am a government contractor in Colorado and have recently been offered a civil service job at DFAS in Limestone. I am in my mid 40's and will be bringing my wife of the same age with me. As we look at homes online, we have many questions that just can't be answered by Wikipedia. I would greatly appreciate any input from the folks here on City Data. We hope to make this our last move, so I want to make sure I do it right. Being surrounded by 500,000 people is getting becoming harder and harder as we get older. Ideally, we would like to be in one of the towns or cities in the area. It is a little tough to comprehend drive time without being there. Where we are at now, it takes 30 minutes to get across town because of traffic.

1. My biggest concern is travel. Are all of the roads maintained well throughout the winter? If not, should we be looking at homes on certain routes only?

2. Is an all wheel drive vehicle necessary, or will a small front wheel drive car with studded tires work in the winter?

3. My wife has lots of tattoos, large gauge earrings, and a tongue ring. Will looking like an old punk rocker cause her problems when interacting with people in the area? Please forgive me if this is a silly question.

4. Ideally, we would like to rent a place for a few months before buying a home. Is this realistic? It appears rentals are few and far between.

5. Do most incorporated towns in the area have broadband?

6. I know this is a tough question to answer, but I would be interested to hear ballpark figures. What is a reasonable expectation for heating costs for an older small home? By small I mean 800 sq ft to no more than 1400 sq ft. Most likely, we will be heating with heating oil, propane, or electric. I love wood stoves, but I don't want to have to depend on one for heat if I can help it.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Let's see if I can help you.
All roads are well-maintained. On crazy winter storm days (there are a handful of those every winter), everybody just stays home.
That said, living on a remote, minor, back road, miles from town, could result in a few problems during the winter, if you don't have excellent tires and/or four wheel drive. So if someone wants to live in that kind of location, I definitely recommend four wheel drive and studded snow tires. Then you would be all set, no matter what.
All wheel drive is better than just front wheel drive, but I find the tires is what really makes the difference. And like I said, if there is a day or two where you just can't make it to work even with great tires, then chances are everything is closed anyways.
People here don't judge too much based on appearances. And she would be far from the only one with those fashion accessories.
House rentals are not uncommon; if you look you can usually find something, especially if you're willing to commute a little bit.
Most towns do have broadband. Even some of the really tiny, rural towns.
The costs to heat vary wildly, depending on the house and your comfort level. Electric heat for that sized house could be $200-400 a month if the house is not insulated. Or it could be half that. Heating oil is currently pretty cheap, so it could be anywhere from $100-300 a month, again depending on insulation. Pellet stoves or heat pumps would be even less than that.
Hope that helps!

[dfreysinger]

Thanks Maineguy8888. The information will be very helpful when we make the move.

[Brodels]

I agree with the previous advice about 4WD and having it outside of town. I can tell you that I lived in Presque Isle for most of my life and rarely had a vehicle with 4WD. You'll have to drive to DFAS, which will require a journey on rural roads, but if you live in Limestone or Caribou, you could get by without a 4WD vehicle. I guess what I'm saying is that if you already have a front wheel drive car, you could get snow tires and give it a whirl for a winter instead of buying a new vehicle right away. Unless you plan to live in the middle of nowhere.

The roads are well maintained.

I think that Maineguy's thoughts about heating fuel are pretty spot on as well, but I will say that my experience with electric heat is that it can be extremely expensive. Several years ago I lived in a place with electric heat and I absolutely froze spending around $200/month. My living room never got warmer than 45 degrees, and usually it was closer to 40, because I just couldn't bear to spend the amount of money it would have taken to be warm. My bedroom was 60 at night and much colder during the day. This was in an apartment. This is just one perspective and your mileage may vary, but I think there is a good reason why electric heat is relatively rare in that part of the world.

You may be able to find something to rent, but it helps to have connections locally or to make a few calls. While you may be able to find something on Craigslist, it is my experience that in the smaller towns these sorts of things spread by word of mouth, a posting on the bulletin board at the local convenience store, grocery store, or library, etc.

I think there are people who may look at your wife funny, but people are accepting and nice for the most part, so I don't think it would be something to worry about unless she is worried about standing out a little bit.

[maineguy8888]

There are a few good Facebook pages for finding rentals in the County.

[dfreysinger]

I just wanted to jump back on and thank everyone for the input. It looks like we will be headed that way in late February if everything works out as planned. It shall be an interesting crash course in winter. We are spoiled here in Colorado Springs. The snow goes away a couple of days after it arrives.