Maine is my main goal
June 3, 2011 3:10 PM Subscribe
My dream is to move to Maine. Help me realize it.
I would like to move to Maine, buy a home, and work just enough to pay my electric bill, home owners insurance and assorted sundries. I have money saved. I would like to purchase a tiny home for around 30k. I would love to live I an extremely rural area. I do need obviously a town with people, stores and enough civilization to stay connected.
Help me find the town.
I would like to move to Maine, buy a home, and work just enough to pay my electric bill, home owners insurance and assorted sundries. I have money saved. I would like to purchase a tiny home for around 30k. I would love to live I an extremely rural area. I do need obviously a town with people, stores and enough civilization to stay connected.
Help me find the town.
Do you want to be on the coast? Or in central or northern Maine? Southern Maine is out -- too many people, too expensive.
How big of a town do you want? What type of work can you or do you want to do? How old are you and is this a retirement/forever thing? There are way too many places that meet your criteria as presently stated.
posted by J. Wilson at 3:27 PM on June 3, 2011
How big of a town do you want? What type of work can you or do you want to do? How old are you and is this a retirement/forever thing? There are way too many places that meet your criteria as presently stated.
posted by J. Wilson at 3:27 PM on June 3, 2011
Response by poster: I have stayed in bar harbor and loved everything about it. Town size was perfect. Enough modernization to feel comfortable and still had that Maine isolation. Too expensive though.
I'm late 40's, and this will be a forever thing. As for work, Im thinking something virtual.
posted by TLCplz at 3:44 PM on June 3, 2011
I'm late 40's, and this will be a forever thing. As for work, Im thinking something virtual.
posted by TLCplz at 3:44 PM on June 3, 2011
You wont be able to afford Bar Harbor (I know you mentioned it)
I FUCKING LOVE BAR HARBOR! Seriously, I would live there in a second.
Maybe save some more, or look off the island close to the area. You could get some land with a trailer I'm sure if you keep your eyes out.
I'm trying to think of where a relative lives close to therem but I'm drawing a blank. I'll post when i think of the town (plus its close to Bar Harbor)
(Side note, i can't believe how many people love that place, its truly amazing with the mountains, hiking and everything else)
posted by handbanana at 4:01 PM on June 3, 2011
I FUCKING LOVE BAR HARBOR! Seriously, I would live there in a second.
Maybe save some more, or look off the island close to the area. You could get some land with a trailer I'm sure if you keep your eyes out.
I'm trying to think of where a relative lives close to therem but I'm drawing a blank. I'll post when i think of the town (plus its close to Bar Harbor)
(Side note, i can't believe how many people love that place, its truly amazing with the mountains, hiking and everything else)
posted by handbanana at 4:01 PM on June 3, 2011
When I think Bar Harbor, I also think Camden and Rockland/Rockport. They might be too expensive (not sure), but I'd wager they're less expensive than Bar Harbor. Worth checking out.
I'd look into Blue Hill, Bucksport, and Ellsworth for sure. Maybe also Belfast and Searsport.
It could also be worth looking into towns surrounding Bangor. More inland, and closer to a (very small) city, but also still having some modernization as well as some of that "Maine isolation," depending on your comparison point.
posted by J. Wilson at 4:04 PM on June 3, 2011
I'd look into Blue Hill, Bucksport, and Ellsworth for sure. Maybe also Belfast and Searsport.
It could also be worth looking into towns surrounding Bangor. More inland, and closer to a (very small) city, but also still having some modernization as well as some of that "Maine isolation," depending on your comparison point.
posted by J. Wilson at 4:04 PM on June 3, 2011
If you're serious about a very rural area, try some of the small towns near Augusta. Winthrop, Fayette, Readfield, Mount Vernon. Hallowell is nice, has a little downtown. These towns are further from the coast, but near beautiful lakes and mountains. Great hiking. Most of them are a 20-30 minute drive to Augusta. Many have general stores, but no supermarkets.
If you want to telecommute, you will probably need to get satellite internet. As far as I know, most of rural Maine is not wired for broadband.
Also, unless you are living in an area with a lot of other transplants (look for Massachusetts license plates), be prepared to be the Person From Away for the next twenty years. They may or may not hold it against you, but it is likely that at least at first they'll see you as an outsider.
posted by Adridne at 4:29 PM on June 3, 2011
If you want to telecommute, you will probably need to get satellite internet. As far as I know, most of rural Maine is not wired for broadband.
Also, unless you are living in an area with a lot of other transplants (look for Massachusetts license plates), be prepared to be the Person From Away for the next twenty years. They may or may not hold it against you, but it is likely that at least at first they'll see you as an outsider.
posted by Adridne at 4:29 PM on June 3, 2011
What Adridne said. x10. I know I'll get flamed for this, but having lived there for many years, Maine is a difficult place to live in several ways. Remember, a really rural area means not just peace and quiet but driving miles and miles to grocery stores, doctors, etc, in bad weather. It's weirdly both anti-labor AND anti-business. The infrastructure (digital and other) is aging and/or non existent. And the winters are really, REALLY long and depressing. I don't want to pee all over your dream, but Maine can be pretty grim.
However, I've always liked the Belfast area.
posted by pentagoet at 4:52 PM on June 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
However, I've always liked the Belfast area.
posted by pentagoet at 4:52 PM on June 3, 2011 [2 favorites]
This statement I would love to live I an extremely rural area. I do need obviously a town with people, stores and enough civilization to stay connected. seems pretty contradictory for a place like Maine. Would you consider a place with one stop light, a convenience station, a gravel pit, an occasionally occupied auto-body shop and a couple other business to business type places as urban or rural? Because it is far more urban than most of Maine.
I'll second what Aridne said as well, as it relates to Northern New England. The more rural you go, the more likely you'll not be a local for a long long time. In a more urban area (say a village of a few thousand people with a couple stop lights) you'll run into less of it, or it will at least be less isolating. In or near an actual city it won't be nearly so much an issue. In any case you are likely committing yourself to a lot more travel by car.
My suggestion is to go to places you have in mind during the summer so you can camp to save money, and try to imagine living there with several feet of snow on the ground for a third of the year and muddy roads for another third. If you are still excited, go for it!
posted by meinvt at 5:38 PM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'll second what Aridne said as well, as it relates to Northern New England. The more rural you go, the more likely you'll not be a local for a long long time. In a more urban area (say a village of a few thousand people with a couple stop lights) you'll run into less of it, or it will at least be less isolating. In or near an actual city it won't be nearly so much an issue. In any case you are likely committing yourself to a lot more travel by car.
My suggestion is to go to places you have in mind during the summer so you can camp to save money, and try to imagine living there with several feet of snow on the ground for a third of the year and muddy roads for another third. If you are still excited, go for it!
posted by meinvt at 5:38 PM on June 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm originally from the Belfast/Searsport area.
If Bar Harbor was perfect, it actually sounds more like you're looking for a town than a rural area. A lot of the 30K places you're going to find on the midcoast are going to be way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere. (The ones in town are going to be in serious need of repairs.) If you end up in a rural area, plan on lots of car time. Don't forget to factor in money for extra mileage and repairs. (My relatives in Maine put double the mileage I do on their cars each year, and they're not even that far out there.)
Some of the rural areas actually do have DSL now -- my parents live a quarter mile from their nearest neighbor and they now have a faster internet connection than me (alas). But you'd want to check availability; a lot of areas are still satellite-only.
What are your skills? Maine doesn't have a lot in the way of jobs (that's part of why I stayed down in Massachusetts after college). If you have something virtual lined up and you just need an internet connection, that's one thing, but I wouldn't move there expecting to find something once you get there. The job situation is pretty brutal right now (far more so than in Mass), and it has been for a while. The state is laying people off. Hospitals are closing. If you're willing to do call center work, the Bank of America in Belfast is usually hiring (but the reason why is that it isn't pleasant work). The situation is a little better in Portland, but not much, and Portland doesn't sound like the type of place you're looking for.
My biggest suggestion would actually be to stay where you are for a little while and work on building up some sort of freelance practice that you could run remotely or finding a job that would let you telecommute. Once you're making enough money that you could support yourself in Maine, that'd be the time to move.
posted by pie ninja at 7:00 PM on June 3, 2011
If Bar Harbor was perfect, it actually sounds more like you're looking for a town than a rural area. A lot of the 30K places you're going to find on the midcoast are going to be way, way, way out in the middle of nowhere. (The ones in town are going to be in serious need of repairs.) If you end up in a rural area, plan on lots of car time. Don't forget to factor in money for extra mileage and repairs. (My relatives in Maine put double the mileage I do on their cars each year, and they're not even that far out there.)
Some of the rural areas actually do have DSL now -- my parents live a quarter mile from their nearest neighbor and they now have a faster internet connection than me (alas). But you'd want to check availability; a lot of areas are still satellite-only.
What are your skills? Maine doesn't have a lot in the way of jobs (that's part of why I stayed down in Massachusetts after college). If you have something virtual lined up and you just need an internet connection, that's one thing, but I wouldn't move there expecting to find something once you get there. The job situation is pretty brutal right now (far more so than in Mass), and it has been for a while. The state is laying people off. Hospitals are closing. If you're willing to do call center work, the Bank of America in Belfast is usually hiring (but the reason why is that it isn't pleasant work). The situation is a little better in Portland, but not much, and Portland doesn't sound like the type of place you're looking for.
My biggest suggestion would actually be to stay where you are for a little while and work on building up some sort of freelance practice that you could run remotely or finding a job that would let you telecommute. Once you're making enough money that you could support yourself in Maine, that'd be the time to move.
posted by pie ninja at 7:00 PM on June 3, 2011
As pie ninja says, Bar Harbor is far from rural by Maine standards (especially if, as is likely, you were there in the summer), and is going to be way out of your price range for anything you really want to live in. Because it's a popular vacation destination, it's expensive. If you were willing to live there in the winter and rent out your home all summer to tourists, you might be able to make it work, but then you'd have to find another place to live in the summer, and you'd be giving up the best time of year.
One question that you might want to consider is how much of your desire to move to Maine has to do with being near the ocean; it'll be much cheaper to live someplace not on the water, but if the water's what you love, then you'll spend lots of time in the car driving to the ocean.
On another note, you've probably noticed that you're getting a fair bit of resistance in this thread, and I suspect that's just a foretaste of the attitude you'll encounter if you do make this happen. Mainers are resistant (and as a result, frequently quite unfriendly) to people from away, especially when they feel like those people have come for the summer, found it beautiful, and moved to Maine with all sorts of naive ideas about how remote and lovely it will be and how friendly the natives are. The thing is: many of them will think that about you whether or not it's true. I was born and raised in Maine and feel from the bottom of my heart that it's where I'm from, but there's no doubt that everyone in my smallish coastal town was well aware that my parents weren't native Mainers, and even that was enough to make me stand out ever so slightly, despite the fact that they'd lived there for almost ten years when I was born.
posted by dizziest at 8:25 PM on June 3, 2011
One question that you might want to consider is how much of your desire to move to Maine has to do with being near the ocean; it'll be much cheaper to live someplace not on the water, but if the water's what you love, then you'll spend lots of time in the car driving to the ocean.
On another note, you've probably noticed that you're getting a fair bit of resistance in this thread, and I suspect that's just a foretaste of the attitude you'll encounter if you do make this happen. Mainers are resistant (and as a result, frequently quite unfriendly) to people from away, especially when they feel like those people have come for the summer, found it beautiful, and moved to Maine with all sorts of naive ideas about how remote and lovely it will be and how friendly the natives are. The thing is: many of them will think that about you whether or not it's true. I was born and raised in Maine and feel from the bottom of my heart that it's where I'm from, but there's no doubt that everyone in my smallish coastal town was well aware that my parents weren't native Mainers, and even that was enough to make me stand out ever so slightly, despite the fact that they'd lived there for almost ten years when I was born.
posted by dizziest at 8:25 PM on June 3, 2011
+1 to Hallowell. I've been there many times visiting the parents of my ex. It's really lovely. It's beautiful, farther inland, but on the Kennebeck river, and there are lots of lakes and such nearby. As I understand it many of the folks that live there are "from away" - so you might not experience quite so much of the frostiness that Mainers can be famous for if you weren't born to people who were born to people who were born there. "If my cat had kittens in the oven, I wouldn't call 'em biscuits" is what I heard someone say once, in reference to whether or not one was a Mainer, even though he was born there.
posted by pazazygeek at 9:43 PM on June 3, 2011
posted by pazazygeek at 9:43 PM on June 3, 2011
2 Beds, 1 Bath
1014 Sqft | Condo
BAR HARBOR - 2 BR, 1 BA, Upstairs Condo. Needs some re-hab including rear deck. Being sold 'as is'. $29,500.
It's away from the center of town but may not be far enough out to qualify as "extremely rural."
posted by Orinda at 11:21 PM on June 3, 2011
1014 Sqft | Condo
BAR HARBOR - 2 BR, 1 BA, Upstairs Condo. Needs some re-hab including rear deck. Being sold 'as is'. $29,500.
It's away from the center of town but may not be far enough out to qualify as "extremely rural."
posted by Orinda at 11:21 PM on June 3, 2011
How tiny of a house are you thinking of? If you are handy, you can build this house for about $20,000 and then roll it right onto a small lot.
Having moved to Maine almost 10 years ago, I've found people to be more friendly/welcoming than not. True, I'll always be considered "from away" but that doesn't bother me.
posted by mikepop at 5:58 AM on June 6, 2011
Having moved to Maine almost 10 years ago, I've found people to be more friendly/welcoming than not. True, I'll always be considered "from away" but that doesn't bother me.
posted by mikepop at 5:58 AM on June 6, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by mkb at 3:14 PM on June 3, 2011 [2 favorites]