Planning to be Mainahs! (Portland, Bangor: spring break, movers, house)

[92greenyj]

Hello everyone. First of all I want to thank the posters here. Over the last two weeks I have read back thru every thread of interest on this entire sub forum. Fantastic wealth of information for a family of soon to be Mainahs!

We are a family of 4 California refugees planning to make the big move towards the end of June when my 6 year old daughter finishes first grade. Let me assure you we will not be dragging California politics or ideals with us. We are fleeing the madness that is CA in the hopes and goals of giving our kids a better life and a rural upbringing like I had as a child.

Things are moving quickly as a house we have been eyeing on Zillow just had a large price drop and we are working with an agent to set up a FaceTime showing of said property tomorrow. If it looks as good as it’s pictures and virtual tour we may well put an offer in on it. Most of the properties we really like are in the rural areas surrounding Bangor so that is likely the area we will end up in.

I don’t really have any particular questions right now as reading thru the forums here have answered quite a bit of the things I was curious about, but I’m sure I will have some moving forward so I figured I may as well start a thread now.

[Submariner]

Congratulations

Do you have jobs lined up for when you get here?

We live in the greater Bangor region, about 20 miles North of Bangor in an unorganized township. We enjoy it here.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by 92greenyj

Hello everyone. First of all I want to thank the posters here. Over the last two weeks I have read back thru every thread of interest on this entire sub forum. Fantastic wealth of information for a family of soon to be Mainahs!

We are a family of 4 California refugees planning to make the big move towards the end of June when my 6 year old daughter finishes first grade. Let me assure you we will not be dragging California politics or ideals with us. We are fleeing the madness that is CA in the hopes and goals of giving our kids a better life and a rural upbringing like I had as a child.

Things are moving quickly as a house we have been eyeing on Zillow just had a large price drop and we are working with an agent to set up a FaceTime showing of said property tomorrow. If it looks as good as it’s pictures and virtual tour we may well put an offer in on it. Most of the properties we really like are in the rural areas surrounding Bangor so that is likely the area we will end up in.

I don’t really have any particular questions right now as reading thru the forums here have answered quite a bit of the things I was curious about, but I’m sure I will have some moving forward so I figured I may as well start a thread now.

Welcome to the forum and it's good to see you being creative with your agent. It's what it will take to be successful in 2021.

[92greenyj]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Congratulations

Do you have jobs lined up for when you get here?

We live in the greater Bangor region, about 20 miles North of Bangor in an unorganized township. We enjoy it here.

We do not presently have jobs lined up no. I’m not too worried about that to be honest. My wife is a paralegal and I have 20 years of restaurant and arcade experience. We have honestly been talking about starting our own business when we move there. A few of the properties we have been looking at also would provide a business opportunity as well as a home. But either way, we are in a position to not really need to find work immediately.

I grew up rural on a 32 acre horse farm in upstate New York. I really want my kids to have that kind of childhood experience as I truly loved it growing up. I miss the sense of community and the lifestyle that comes with living in a rural area. The traffic and hustle and bustle of California has really gotten to me the last year or so and we are just over it.

[92greenyj]

Originally Posted by WhoFanMe

Welcome to the forum and it's good to see you being creative with your agent. It's what it will take to be successful in 2021.

Indeed. Especially as we are currently on the other side of the country and it won’t really be possible or realistic with the various COVID restrictions to fly out there and out feet on the ground. We wanted to fly out when my daughter is on her spring break from school, but with the current 14 day quarantine in Maine and California that just won’t be possible. Our agent is going to have to do a fair bit of the leg work for us on the ground there.

Ideally we want to have a home purchased and locked in there before we make the big move across the country. We do have some benefits for this that most people don’t. We have a 32’ class C RV that we will be driving out in. Planning to use the ABF trailer to move our stuff and will either ship two of our cars or have family drive them behind us out there. But with the RV we can transport us, the kids, and the cats and we will be able to stay in the RV itself once we arrive so we can do any prep on the house we want to get done before the furniture and stuff gets delivered. First thing I’ll do on arrival is install a 30 amp shore power plug on the house so we can plug in the coach.

[WhoFanMe]

Originally Posted by 92greenyj

Indeed. Especially as we are currently on the other side of the country and it won’t really be possible or realistic with the various COVID restrictions to fly out there and out feet on the ground. We wanted to fly out when my daughter is on her spring break from school, but with the current 14 day quarantine in Maine and California that just won’t be possible. Our agent is going to have to do a fair bit of the leg work for us on the ground there.

Ideally we want to have a home purchased and locked in there before we make the big move across the country. We do have some benefits for this that most people don’t. We have a 32’ class C RV that we will be driving out in. Planning to use the ABF trailer to move our stuff and will either ship two of our cars or have family drive them behind us out there. But with the RV we can transport us, the kids, and the cats and we will be able to stay in the RV itself once we arrive so we can do any prep on the house we want to get done before the furniture and stuff gets delivered. First thing I’ll do on arrival is install a 30 amp shore power plug on the house so we can plug in the coach.

I'm sure your agent will agree, if you are successful in putting a house under contract, you do want to be present for the building inspection and perhaps a visit to town hall to review the file on the property. You do not need to quarantine if you can produce a negative test within 72 hours of your arrival in Maine.

[nm9stheham]

Make sure you read up on ABF and other container movers and understand where they will and won't deliver. One poster here in the last few months here found out the hard way that the container shipper would not quite deliver as far out as his new rural area, and IIRC he had to find a reasonably priced local truck and movers for the last leg of the move.


As for the restaurant biz, make sure you read up on how this has been effecting Maine. The visitor restrictions have, in general, been more limiting and effecting in Maine than in many/most other states. Hopefully that will all be relaxing by the time you get moved.


FWIW, that 14 day visitor quarantine has been reduced to 10 days..... but that won't make a difference for a short visit for house inspections, etc.

[92greenyj]

Originally Posted by nm9stheham

Make sure you read up on ABF and other container movers and understand where they will and won't deliver. One poster here in the last few months here found out the hard way that the container shipper would not quite deliver as far out as his new rural area, and IIRC he had to find a reasonably priced local truck and movers for the last leg of the move.


As for the restaurant biz, make sure you read up on how this has been effecting Maine. The visitor restrictions have, in general, been more limiting and effecting in Maine than in many/most other states. Hopefully that will all be relaxing by the time you get moved.


FWIW, that 14 day visitor quarantine has been reduced to 10 days..... but that won't make a difference for a short visit for house inspections, etc.

Yeah that’s part of the reason we are planning on the ABF trailer. They will deliver rural. Pods won’t deliver anything much outside of Portland as that is where their only hub in Maine is. Should also be cheaper than the others because with the trailer they charge based on how many feet of it you use instead of by weight. Also good because I have a big old garage full of tools and fabrication equipment that will be coming with us. My tool chests alone are big heavy pigs. Never mind my tubing bender, blast cabinet, air compressor, welder, plasma cutter, shop press, etc.

I do have some contacts in the amusement Industry that I’ve made over the years that will put me in touch with some of the FeC and arcade operators out there when we are ready to make the move. I know how tough it’s been on the industry. I haven’t worked since last March. Another part of the reason this is a good time to move since I’m not working and neither is the wife. Just hanging here on my daughters school year as we don’t want to move her mid year.

[CARas2020]

Originally Posted by 92greenyj

Yeah that’s part of the reason we are planning on the ABF trailer. They will deliver rural. Pods won’t deliver anything much outside of Portland as that is where their only hub in Maine is. Should also be cheaper than the others because with the trailer they charge based on how many feet of it you use instead of by weight. Also good because I have a big old garage full of tools and fabrication equipment that will be coming with us. My tool chests alone are big heavy pigs. Never mind my tubing bender, blast cabinet, air compressor, welder, plasma cutter, shop press, etc.

I do have some contacts in the amusement Industry that I’ve made over the years that will put me in touch with some of the FeC and arcade operators out there when we are ready to make the move. I know how tough it’s been on the industry. I haven’t worked since last March. Another part of the reason this is a good time to move since I’m not working and neither is the wife. Just hanging here on my daughters school year as we don’t want to move her mid year.

We used PODS when we moved but it was local. The problem was they could not get the container to our driveway because of the layout. So they had to park it on the side of the street. Made unloading a real pain in the butt. Let us know how the ABF works outs. If we ever did move that is probably what we would use. I am still hopeful we can maybe get out of here by mid/late summer.

I do woodworking and no way I am getting rid of any of that. I just got a really nice table saw for Christmas.
I'm a beginner so it's slow going but I really love it.

[dreamofwinter]

Hi and congratulations on your decision!
We moved to Maine from CA last fall and have been very happy so far. Your plan to use the UBF U-Pack trailers is a good one. We ended up filling ours just a bit more than we'd planned, and it was great to have that extra space (we also have heavy tool chests and machining stuff). The convenience of a few days to load was nice, too; and when it was dropped off in Maine we had more days to unload. They had no problem bringing it all the way up to Calais where our storage unit is.

It sounds like you guys have it made, with an RV to make the trip in! And this is a great age for your daughter to move. Good luck with the house shopping - let us know how that goes.