Category: Living Off The Land

Building A House In Maine (Saving Money Construction Tips)

Building a house in Maine.

Saving money during construction tips to lower the cost building a new Maine home. Steps to take to stretch your dollars. To just shy of the breaking point to save the most money possible to get what you want.

This blog post highlights the best cost cutting and top money saving house building tips to follow.

Everything from finding the perfect Maine land to the step by step build from scratch dance steps. It’s all about timing and for most of us remembering that money and time are limited. Pouring your hard earned money into home construction is expensive, scary and exciting all rolled up into one.

So, let’s hop to it. Where to begin? Your location, the land in Maine where you chose to build a house.

Watch the buying land in Maine video.

Is the land level or sloping, open or wooded? How long a driveway to get to that perfect building spot to capture the view and southern exposure sunshine? Some Maine land listings are easier to develop than others.

The size of the Maine land property is key too.

In rural Maine it is not so hard to have privacy space and elbow room to protect from too many neighbors. Where I live there are just 11 friendly folks per acres in Northern Maine.

Maine Land. More Acres, Wildlife, Less People!

But how much in the house building budget for buying Maine land?

The more you buy, the cheaper per acreage cost but you can’t blow the whole wad on just land right? Unless your new home is just a tent. Or you plan to haul in an old camper trailer and call it good enough.

Is the Maine land now serviced by a municipality town water, sewer and power ?

Home On The Range… Er I Mean In Maine? More Space, Lower Price, Less People!

Or do you have to drill a private water well, septic system and run juice to the building site? Run the numbers, make one of many financial decisions along the way unless money is no object.

Are you going off grid and what extra expense are solar, wind, whatever alternative energy source going to set you back developing the Maine land?

It’s constantly doing the math all along the way from ground work to nailing in the last piece of finish trim. Add and subtract and constant study asking lots of questions. Take very good notes in interviews with other folks who built a house. And what they share that was a smart move or not the steps they would have taken again if ever building another house in Maine.

Best Way To Insulate The Cathedral Ceiling In A Maine Lake Camp?

Talks with contractors who are no stranger to the house building process has to happen until you assemble the team you trust to guide you. Do the math each and every step.

Like with all home building weighing the cost and considerations, be ready to pivot and modify the build the house from scratch plan.

Maybe the Maine land you bought already has utilities to tap into that are modern and up to snuff. Is there the cost of tearing down an existing old home on the building site? Hauling it away rather than burying it on your Maine land?

Calculate the expense and hopefully it was all factored in before you even buy the Maine land.

Maine Land, Are You Building A Home With A Major View In Your Lap?

There are a lot of moving parts and costly variable to navigate when you start fresh building a house in Maine.

Instead of buying a house to undo, redo and then make do that is not quite what you had in mind. Building on Maine land can be cheaper in the long run if you plan your work and work your plan. What house design did you set on and was it cost saving because the kitchen and bathroom plumbing is back to back in close proximity?

Land To Build A Home On, Sometimes It Is Waterfront Property in Maine.

Spreading out the blue prints to see lots of open living space not rooms combined to avoid extra walls, halls and doors?

Pick a house plan that efficiently uses dimensional lumber the way it is sold. In the lengths it comes out of the warehouse. Or better yet, there is lumber on the Maine land and a nearby sawmill to process it?

How else to reduce your house building expenses costs?

Put the floor plan home square footage on a diet. Less home inside, more outdoor living. Keep it simple and less is more thinking if you open up and combine the living areas. Smaller home, less materials, easier to heat, less to clean, kinda cozy. It all saves costs.

Outdoors, Maine Is All About Being Outdoors Any Chance You Get All Year Round! Kids Play Outside, Adults Don’t Forget To Do The Same In Maine!

Also, building a second floor and go up or a daylight basement to walk out can be extra living space.

Instead of a bigger footprint and higher basement wall and floor expansion costs, a two-story house design is cheaper. An attached garage saves one wall and reduces the costs. Stay away from custom designs and lots of “jogs” in the cellar foundation.

Each two feet in and so many feet out bay window or recessed front porch basement wall twist and turn adds thousands to the cost.

A simple rectangle or square is cheaper and easier to build on. Do you even need a full basement and the older we all get, stairs become more and more less fun to navigate right? Crawl space, insulated slab with radiant heat, or a full walk out daylight basement to save on the foundation cost square footage?

Small Maine Towns Are Closer To The Wildlife, The Recreational Trails. Less People, More Space, Clear Air, Fresh Water Make It Unspoiled Special!

It’s all about calculating time, materials, labor costs and your enjoyment with the finished product Maine house design at this stage of your life.

Maybe you are using a local Maine log home make for the building materials? If they are local, no extra cost of trucking the logs in from far away when they grow up and harvested all around you. The best price on the cost of materials, who’s available to star in your house building dream that you don’t want to turn into a nightmare.

Getting the labor team lined up and keeping them working on house construction.

So no one is standing around killing precious time. Being paid to only push a clean up broom to look busy while waiting for material deliveries or other MIA tradesmen to show up to work.

Maine Fall Colors, See Them Shine Brightly Four Wheeling On An ATV Seat. Plan To Build Home Or Camp In Maine?

People are different, the combination of who builds your home can go smooth or have rough edges causing friction.

When they house building crew gets along and works together, harmony happens. If they don’t there can be back biting, wasted time, cost over runs, the blame game as tempers flare.

Resale of whatever you build, that 3rd bedroom you use as a den that has a closet will add appeal. To the couple with Jimmy and Julie who need the extra bedroom you don’t.

Also building a house in Maine. Consider what if you needed to add on for a loved one to be close but living independently. That door off the kitchen would work fine for future construction for you or the next real estate buyer. The septic and well were not in the way and purposely put elsewhere just in case adding on to the house had to happen.

Buying land, building slowly is the slow cooked smart way to build a house in Maine.

Buy Maine Land, Build Slowly

Lots to consider and here to help in your exciting build a house on your own Maine land.

As a local native I know the lay of the land and have personal experience with lots of construction projects over the years. Here to help your Maine land buying, to guide your house building desire to get exactly what you want for “home sweet new home”.

Maine, The Way Life Should Be. One Big State, Lots Of Special Hidden Areas To Discover.

I know a recent Maine land buyer who purchased 15 acres to build a new home on.

Instead of going head over heels in debt with a construction loan and lots of bank interest payments and fees piled high to carry, this couple is going a different route. The Maine land purchased for cash. The buyer’s Dad has a dooryard with lots of excavation road building and wood timbering equipment. The site prep work already done and the land cleared.

The long driveway installed with drainage culverts and turn around. The start for the septic system prep work in place and the couple knows exactly where the private water well will go on the Maine land.

Building On Land In Maine Ground Work Takes Money And Planning.

Living in the full concrete cellar is the plan. Month to month adding money from their income stream slow but sure put a roof over their head.

Their existing Maine home is on the market. Neat, clean, priced attractively to sell. Once it does, the profit from that Maine house sale will be funneled into the new home being built in Southern Aroostook County.

Smart, careful, frugal and doing just as much of the house construction, building a home work themselves. Rather than hiring it all out because they have the tools, equipment, skills and determination to pull off the build a house in Maine from scratch. Mainers have common sense and a wide skill set to do more than survive. Building your own home in Maine is not such a nerve wracking ordeal when you grow up helping doing all kinds of building maintenance and construction.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

February 14, 2024
Buy Maine Land, Build Slowly

Buy Maine land, build very slowly.

Maine real estate property listing inventory continues to be in short supply. The tight housing market in Maine makes some think why not buy Maine land, build slowly? Many in the home buying audience consider why not buy land in Maine first? Then tackle the building a house one board at a time very carefully.

Home On The Range… Er I Mean In Maine? More Space, Lower Price, Less People!

This blog post is for folks sick, sore and tired waiting for the right new property housing to get listed.

Bare inventory homes for sale shelves mean consider buying Maine land. Challenged, frustrated Maine home buyers are slipping on the tool belt and strapping on the construction helmet. Not thinking McMansion but just a simple Maine house of their own to enjoy.

Here is an option for those with lots of patience that have a few building skills.

For folks sitting on the sidelines waiting around while the flow of Maine house listings to increase, building on Maine land is another route to consider some.

Maine’s rural nature and “money does not grow on trees” simple way of living causes a more robust skill set. Growing up, as a kid, you did help Dad shingle the garage roof, put on the new house addition.

Your Own House In Maine Built From Scratch. Could You, Would You Do It?

Your uncle is a plumber, a niece can get you a 20% percent family discount at the hardware store. Your lumber can come direct from your own woodlot milled at a local outlet.

Calling in favors from say your brother in law the electrician helps short circuit the high cost of building a house in Maine. Buying Maine land and then the one by one improvements takes delicate baby steps when talking finish work.

Buy Maine land.

BYOB, bring your own building. Start from scratch. Involve your family and friends who are willing to help. These “helpers” are like construction worker trainees learning from your project to down the road start their own. Join forces to “slow cook” and build a house.

A land property acreage listing in Maine with drilled well and septic system already in place is a four leaf clover.

It is a bonus when you don’t have to do the Earth work for a driveway and culvert. Or if the lawn is already established. Maine land where a mobile home was sold off or hauled away after a fire create these kind of listings.

Land in Maine to build your own house, here’s another option for home construction.

When a house was torn down and hauled away , this is another value added land listing to consider. But check to see what the well and septic system are. A dug well with low supply of water and a cesspool sewer or small metal tank is not designed for today’s household demands.

Why don’t more folks build a house rather than buy an existing Maine home?

Country Home, Your Outbuildings On The Maine Farmstead. Could You Build Your Own Slowly?

Expense, the size of a mortgage or difficulty getting a construction loan with tight deadlines. Just not knowing anyone to help with carpentry skills and not so handy themselves doing repairs.

The whatever you build might not be perfect but it it yours and paid for as you go. That lifestyle in Maine of building in a rural setting and living off the land as much as possible appeals to many today.

Maine Land, Lots Of Property Acreage To Build Your Own Home On In Maine!

Another incentive to buy Maine land and build slowly is stop bleeding rent.

When you have enough money to build a foundation to hunker down in until able to build up, you say good bye to a landlord. No more helping whoever you rent from send their kids to college or make the apartment house mortgage payments.

Getting a small mortgage to create the bare bones for living and being a cellar dweller for as long as it takes.

Lots of discipline needed but monthly what you would have shelled out for rent gets redirected into home improvements.

When you “slow cook” and build your own house on Maine land, there is no snap your fingers quick decision making done. Instead, you take lots of time to shop for materials and wait for a sale. More thought is put into what the end product will look like. There is no haste makes waste.

Not everyone builds a house because they can not find one that checks off all the boxes either.

Some just want to once in their life time to walk into a home that is totally them. Filled with what they liked in previous house features and none of what they did not enjoy.

Having Your own Maine House, Two Cats In The Yard. Priceless. (Now You Humming The Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Song “Our House”?)

Have a couple who just bought Aroostook County land in the New Limerick , Maine.

His family has backhoes, dump trucks and other construction equipment. The long driveway is already in for free and not hired out for a fee. Where they will slowly build a country home has been cleared and stumps removed by themselves.

The hole for the house cellar will be done weekends and nights.

There is a little ledge but that they may hire out to be ripped. But any expenses is eagle eye balled and house building money is spent very frugally.

Getting estimates from bids for the lowest price for anything. It just makes you being your own general contractor thrifty.

Camp Or Cabin Starter House In Maine. Some Go This Route Before The Main House.

Buy Maine land, build slowly means having lots of patience and determination.

It pays off big time. Not everyone can do it due to family and wallet size or lack of savings constraints. But it is an option for some to buy land and build if an existing Maine home to consider is missing.

Once you get the building “buttoned up and weather tight” it is liking camping out in the Maine home.

Small Maine towns don’t have the restrictive codes and time deadlines to complete the projects. Contractors and tradesmen are looking for inside work in the winter months.

Getting the work done you don’t have the expertise to do means stretching your dollars. Hiring out as little as possible. Or waiting until the house building kitty grows enough to afford bring in the professionals.

Building a house in Maine means you make some sacrifices along the way and will have a table saw in your living room.

Construction projects happening around the house you build slowly on your Maine land. What to do first and back up projects in case the Maine weather throws you a curve. You juggle your real job that pays the bills. While moonlight on the house that reflects your needs, family size and personal desires.

The hardwood floors for the Maine house?

They come last because no one wants scratches from metal stage being pulled over to help joint compound the walls or ceilings. Four walls, a floor and a roof is the basic box you start out with and then slow but slow add to the finishing it off just so. Buying Maine land tips for the dream house in your head.

What To Consider, Buying Maine Land To Build Your Own House!

That big closet off the living room is a future bath that is all plumbed in but no fixtures brought in for the down the road intended purpose. The plumbing in your Maine house is back to back with the kitchen waterworks to save money. The cost building a house in Maine on your own land depends an awful lot on the home design. Considering a log home design? The exterior walls are complete and so are the inside ones.

But a true log house design means the insurance costs is going to tap your wallet or purse harder.

A fire means those spruce purloins overhead have to be totally replaced. Not just a section of the home is damaged to repair.

Dimensional lumber comes in only so many widths and lengths for your affordable house construction hammer and nails.

Not having to make unneeded cuts that waste time or being able to use the left over waste to cross bridge the floor or close in the insulated box sills. Plan your work or plan to fail. You gotta have a system is what my Dad caught be growing up on the Maine farmstead. A lot too this buy Maine land, building slowly.

I asked the couple who bought the Maine land in Aroostook County about a basement kitchen.

Reasons To Call Maine Your Home. Why To Consider Building A House in Maine! The Four Season Outdoor Recreation Surrounds You!

Instead of wasting money on cabinets, they will have a set tub to wash dishes, use a hot plate and microwave for cooking. Go outside to flip up the lid on the gas grill for the ‘what’s for dinner” routine.

They don’t want to spend money needlessly on a full blown kitchen. Both are on the same page for waiting until the first floor is framed in for the real deal and all the cupboards just the way they want. To install the permanent kitchen set up for once and done “upstairs” above the ground floor, not duplicate the effort in the cellar. That’s the house plan to economize.

Any small discomfort living in the basement only fuels and speeds up the process to keep the house building moving faster.

Tightening up the everyday spending to the maximum. Less eating out, keeping the car or truck and extra year because it is all paid for and not a financial drain that siphons from the house building effort.

Where You Build Your House Starts With The Where You End Up Constructing A Maine Home. Waterfront Has Shoreland Zoning To Protect The What’s Out Front.

Your lot , the Maine land spot makes a big difference on the house building construction costs too.

Drainage for water, is there ledge that messes up the daylight basement, is there a slope enough to have a daylight cellar?

You have a blank white parchment to paint a house on that does not exist yet. But it’s not something many of us do everyday so go slow, bone up on the knowledge that is all over the Internet. Talk to folks who bought Maine land, built. Ask them what they regret and the building points they are grateful for during the house building project. Mistakes are learning lessons to share and avoid.

Buy Maine land, build slowly.

Low cost Maine land is everywhere. The best perfect location to build on, there is the hard part in your Maine real estate search. On your wish list, where is view, waterfront, distance to the essentials? Does the house you plan to build match the lot and what’s the neighborhood like or is there anyone around you? Lots to consider going in, during and wrapping up the building a house on your own Maine land exercise.

Eating, breathing, sleeping the all consuming build a home mission that takes over their life.

But knowing the sacrifice is self-inflicted and so so worth it in the end to create a home sweet home. Taking your time, getting what you want and not living in someone else’s house plan? Could you do it, buy Maine land and build a house slowly? Here to help find you the perfect spot for your new Maine home!

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton Maine 04730 USA

January 13, 2024
Flowers On Maine Farms

Flowers on Maine Farms on autopilot.

Flowers On Maine Farms. Some Tended, Many Come Up On Their Own.

I grew up on a Maine farm and the flowers around the 7 buildings pop up like clockwork.

My Dad orchestrated the field planting. My Mom wrangled the flower beds around the farmstead.

Years ago, bought the same family farm in Maine from my three older brothers. The rich fertile Maine farm dirt getss tilled, planted and cultivated tended with crops of organic produce of all kinds. There are sheep in the fenced pasture behind the second storage barn on the Maine farm. The chicken house had egg laying operations producing way way more than any family could possible consume.

You have to protect the chickens and ducks from predators like a fox. The fox has a family that likes chicken or duck dinners.

Mom and Dad are gone and relieved from the Maine family farm chores.

The farm field fields need yearly managing by others but Mom’s flower beds pop up right on schedule each year. While mowing the large farm lawns one early evening this past week, I noticed Mom’s and Mother Nature’s tag team handiwork.

This is pair of images of one flower bed closer to the road at the set of farm buildings that are set back off US RT 2, Houlton Maine.

Flowers On A Maine Farm Pop Up On Auto Pilot, On Their Own. See The Old Hand Pump Water Well Painted White?

Careful Mowing Grass Around The Maine Farm Flower Beds! My Mom On Her Knees Planting And Tending Those Beds Is A Fond Memory.

The simple, fragile beauty of flowers hit me as I carefully mowed around the many Maine farm beds.

Mom had many and enjoyed the beauty the Maine farm flower beds produced. I miss and appreciate my Mom in many ways but realize the flowers returning year after year is a comfort reminder of her handiwork. I can see her being industrious and on her needs planting, weeding, tending the farm flower beds. Looking back, knowing the hectic schedule of farming in Maine year round, I wonder how she made time for her flower beds.

On her knees, digging and transplanting in the Maine farm dirt.

That is one recurring strong memory of many about my hardworking and loving Mom. Both Mom and Dad grew up on Maine farms and instilled in all four boys the love and beauty of the soil’s bounty.

Get On Your Knees, Smell The Flowers, Digging In The Dirt. My Flower Bed At Drews Lake Reminds Me Of My Mom.

Do you have a garden?

How green is your thumb? Would you like to own a Maine farm? A small scale truck garden with a roadside stand to peddle the produce is a wonderful thing. Locally sourced, farm to table home grown produce and a relationship with your local grower is key to good health. Yours and everyone in the community that trades with you.

At the local Maine farmer’s market, lots of your “sales” are bartering this for that with other local community agriculture vendors.

Where your food came from, what it was not sprayed with this growing seasons.

How the local Maine foodstuffs were raised from seed to final harvest to served up on your family meal time table.

Family Farm Owned, Enjoyed By Me In Maine Author Andrew Mooers. Potatoes, Grains, Strawberries, Roadside Stand Veggies, Even Sugar Beets Grown.

When you reduce it all down, what you eat and in what quantities matters most to your health right?

How your food is prepared. It all determines your focus on you and your family’s personal health. Too much salt, sugar, fat. Not good. Easy does it. I am glad I was raised on a family farm in Maine and my four children learned valuable lessons from the raised around the career / lifestyle choice.

Watch another farmer’s market in Maine video for inspiration.

Please support local Maine agriculture.

Consider scratching, tilling, planting, tending, fertilizing, watering and harvesting local produce on a Maine farm. Even wild flowers like lupine grace the Earth on the Maine landscape.

Maine Wildflowers. The Natural Beauty Of What’s Around Us Enjoyed Daily!

Watch a video of a small Maine farm for sale in Aroostook County.

Off to bush hog the farm pasture sections around the crop fields and along the roadways that define the boundaries.

The practice around the 4th of July is something my Dad would appreciate me doing to carry on the tradition. Keeping the Maine farm ship shape and presentable. Pride in your farm fields, keeping buildings in top repair. But also fragile, fragrant flowers on the Maine farm. It’s all part of the managing a farm property in Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 5, 2023
History Of The Maine Home, What Was The Original Builder Thinking?

History of the Maine home, what was the original house builder thinking?

Maine has plenty of older housing stock. And along the way as a home owner sold and moved along, the new house buyer often adds his or her own “stamp” to the original floor plan. Colors change, landscaping updates happen or everything stays steady as she goes for the status quo. You would never know the house had changed hands or that there was a real estate sale that just happened.

Do you look into the history of why the original house in Maine on the empty lot turned out the way it did?

Homes, Houses Built In Maine. All Kinds, But Tend To Be On The Older Housing Stock Variety.

I think a lot about the real estate location and who built this Maine home whenever listing one to market online.

Was the house builder copying the layout from someone locally or from experience across the pond? Back before America became an independent small collection of states, a lot of what was built modeled after other country’s popular housing blueprints.

Does the house for sale in Maine fit in with the style, square footage style and auxiliary buildings placed up and down the street or road?

Little Features, Original Style And Flair. Maine Homes Not Cookie Cutter Simple Or Modern As A Rule.

And the design of the Maine home, was it simply from from whatever was popular at the time?

Was what is at the mailing address now what the place always looked like? Or was there a fire in the “L” on the back? What you see added touring it now, is it much different than the original structure wings? Maybe lightning hit the farm barn. Or new too much moisture wet hay stored. Then heated up and caused the blaze that took out a few of the Maine house farmstead buildings. Wild fire may have caused the house design changes through the years.

The 40′, 60, 100′ foot or more center stone of the Maine farm barn is the most precious in the collection. And the hardest to build or get insured. With rural farm property, the emphasis was on the barn, machine shed, storage houses that made your money. The houses were labeled “New England” and call it good. Plain Jane, no fireplaces, no ornate woodwork. You and the rest of the family did not entertain. Were out working the pasture farm fields with crops and critters. Or out in one of the buildings working on machinery or watering, graining the horses, cows and other livestock.

Questions come to mind touring a new property listing in Maine putting the hen scratching details on the clipboard initial tour.

Classic, Attractive, Not So Common Housing Styles. We’re Talking Maine Yesteryear Homes Aren’t We?

Does the house in Maine fit the spot on the lot or could have the site selection been better?

Where it was built on the landscape? Does it fit comfy and well spaced or stand out like a sore throbbing thumb? Maybe the spot had much or not much thought applied. To answer the quandry of where to build and how to make it all blend in with the least amount of visual static or eye sore. Possibly, the extra lot next door was purchased long after the house in Maine was built. There was a house where this house should have been built already hogging space to next door.

So the why didn’t they move it over and place the footprint of the old house in Maine back off more from the street?

Ah, because they did not own that land then. Or streets were not so busy or so wide so that kinda of future consideration did not cross the original builder or house owner’s mind. And what is here now and how much it still mirrors the original house design? Lack of funds or just don’t care about “this old house” like the original owner or builder does impact what we list and sell today in Maine.

Something Modern, Glass, Open Living Concept For A Vacation Home In Maine. Short Stint Stays, Maybe To Rent Out On AirBnB For Profit When Not Used.

With waterfront properties in Maine, there are lots of constraints to fit in and company with shore land zoning regulations.

No one wants to knowingly hurt the Maine lake, pond, stream, river or oceanfront out front. But erosion from too many trees removed combined with a steep incline to water’s edge to improve the view hurts the natural resource. Dirt dumped into a Maine lake by racing water carrying everything into the waterfront delicate wildlife and fish home.Very bad for the Maine environment.

Vacation McMansions and development like big paved parking lots, crew cutting all hilly landscaped hurts the original setting and soil stability.

Bigger, kinda gaudy house designs too may have built along the coastline of Southern Maine if an hour or less from the border are popular and trendy for the time.

But the rest of Maine does not rock and roll that way the further up into Vacationland you point the car or SUV or bike. Or wrapped around the way the builders put them together decades or centuries ago?

Stock plan or developer’s unique model in Maine using an architect, you just don’t see 300 lot subdivisions in a row like “Knot’s Landing”.

Even the brick work is ornate in small Maine town market squares. Made to last and usually to replace the wooden structures. The ones lost in a fire where someone kicked over a lantern in a horse stable out back behind the mercantile outlet.

Small Town Houlton Maine, Walk To Everything Easy! Everyone Waves And Is Neighborly Friendly.

So Victorian Queene Anne in town castle home, cute cape wearing natural graying cedar shingles.

A farmstead home with wrap around open or glassed porch to slurp hot coffee on as the sun rises. Or something colder, bitter like lemons as it sets in the west. Lake shore cottages can be pretty swanky but still dubbed “the camp” for vacation trips uptah Maine. Or often the house is a building or two repurposed. Hauled in on a trailer truck flatbed or pull to the lot by a team of horses or a Maine farm tractor. Or it is a church made into a home or event center to rent out for parties, weddings, graduations or family reunions.

Where I live in Aroostook County Maine, many barrack buildings from Camp Houlton, a German prisoner of war compound out at the airbase became a place to own not rent during peacetime.

Churches that became a home for more than folks working once a week on the condition of their souls. The old Grange Hall that needed a new purpose has been the “home” we listed and sold. Like this one in Weston, Maine in the East Grand Lake region below.

Grand Center Staircase Houses In Small Town Maine. Low Cost, Well Preserved, Loaded With Fine Details.

Renovating older houses in Maine.

Converting buildings to houses that had another purpose when they were first built. Slow cooked, do as much as you can yourself to save on the 2/3rd labor bill for whoever is hired to swing the hammer, run the saw across the boards. Building new houses that have the flair and features of yesteryear tied and tested classic designs and lines.

Grange Hall In Maine Repurposed Into A Home. This One In Weston ME Near East Grand Lake Four Season Vacation Fun.

Colonial, Federal, Green Revival, Mansard, New England, Cape or hip roof style homes in Maine.

It’s fun to list and market them all. Maine is not just the average 5-3-1 basic ranch style show box 24’x40′ starter home getting built and peddled.

Log homes, cottage simple homesteads where the Maine land is the star. Not the sticks and bricks.

Heck a yurt, a sod roof house built into the side hill or a geodesic dome “hippy house” It’s all good in Maine, the way life should be. Less building codes, no HOA’s and common sense still works here in the Pine Tree state. What would you build for a Maine home? Do you consider what the original builder on the house lot and had in mind that you feel obligated to preserve and maintain?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 2, 2023
Small Town Living In Maine

Small town living in Maine.

If you’re a life long native, you’ve known many of those in your daily small Maine town circles for life.

Had a classmate drop in who was looking for a piece of Maine waterfront lake property, land just land.

He and his wife think parked next to a Maine lake and watching the seasons change is direction he wants for quality of life. And in the course of sharing information on where he would like to build a waterfront retirement home on a small Maine lake property acreage, we started childhood flashback experiences.

He had roots in Calais, Downeast Maine and his family rounded up the kids and relocated north.

Downeast Coastal Lobster Boats In Maine.

His Dad worked on the border at a custom’s brokerage house business.

His friends called him Ace. I remember his mom working at Day’s Jewelry Store where I bought black and white Poloroid film in expensive packages of only eight exposures each. Small town living in Maine is like that. You don’t just know the person but everything, anything about his or her family connections. In small Maine towns, you bump into each other often several times a day.

Attending St Mary’s catholic school in Houlton ME until high school and said he was a cold lunch bagger.

Some in his Water Street school enjoyed hot lunch. Delivered via bus, created each day at Lambert School, the old high school brick building next to Central.

One day snowballs pummeled at a school lunch bus seemed entertaining for he and a group of his friends.

All fun and games until a sister wearing a habit learned about the activity. Hauling in the crew, using a thick wooden paddle with individual helpings of discipline. Designed to make sure the activity did not occur again.

Early Maine Potato Farm Machinery At Local Littleton ME Museum

Hands extended to receive the one by one down the line punishment.

Remember the spare the rod, spoil the child adage. The punishment dished out down the line leaving no snow ball throwing hand left out from the cure. My friend’s mother reminded him at home he and his crew got just what they deserved. Kids had a lot more responsibilities at school, at home and working to earn their keep.

We moved on to Maine fall harvest picking potato experiences, making your own spending money.

Kenny’s first day was almost his last picking potatoes.

The field boss on the Maine farm had assigned him an end section in the potato field. All by himself at the end of the row.

If you have never picked barrels of newly dug potatoes laid out in two rows by a mechanical digger pulled by a Maine farm tractor, you wonder what’s the big whoop?

Early Maine Farm Life At The Homestead, Surrounded With All The Wooded And Pasture Field Land To Scratch Out A Living.

An end section extends and contracts with the surrounding tree line defining the Maine land potato field shape.

Not only do you get behind as your potato picking field section grows larger. But you get discouraged with fewer potatoes and wrestling to find them under large dirt clods where they are hidden.

It truly is one potato, two potato pick ’em up and put them in the woven basket and your barrel production suffers greatly with an end row section.

It takes four big heaping baskets made of brown ash and dumped in a plywood or cedar stave wooded potato barrel for the 25, 60 cents or whatever unit payment. Mark that barrel with your ticket number for the daily count back in the farmer’s house kitchen tally.

Agriculture, Farm Food Grown Close To Home, Locally Sourced Is The Best Tasting.

If your end section shrinks row by row of unearthed potatoes to pick, low barrel count for you that day in the hot harvest fall sun or rain, maybe spitting snow.

Kenny had enough and slipped away, hiding in the woods to avoid detection on this way walking home.

Potato picking was not for me he surmised. The was a potato field MIA loose, sound the air raid alarm. His Dad got wind of the news, found him, put him in a car, delivering him back to the field with a stern warning. Don’t do it again.

Small Town Public Suppers! Great Meal, Friendly Servers, Good Causes. Win, Win, Win!

The beauty of potato picking besides making your own money to manage as a kid, no one leaves the field until everyone is picked up is a valuable lesson.

We are all in this together to clean up before we can go home. The money you make in the potato field used to buy your fall school clothes. Kids helped shoulder some of the household expenses and learned to shop wisely, develop spending impulse control. To take care of whatever they “earned” with their own money a potato barrel at a time.

Meet Neighbors, New Friends, See Family Members. Local Public Suppers That Kind Of Experience.

No one is abandoned and left behind alone in the Maine potato field.

No rows and rows behind discouragement howling at the moon for anyone on the potato picking crew.

Pick ’em clean. Helping the local Maine potato farmer get the crop out experience was part of growing up in Aroostook County.

Hard Work With The Right Tools Is The Most Productive, Rewarding In Small Town Living In Maine.

I think small town living in Maine makes your connection with others in it much stronger for lots of reasons.

One, knowing a person in your class or neighborhood growing up provides a wealth of experiences. We are more connected, have spent more time together through out life so we know each other better.

Second, working on local community events whether coaching a youth hockey team or raising money for a Rotary project just helps strengthen the connection. When you have personal experiences with someone, you understand them better. They accept you too. Each know where the other is coming from, their strengths and weaknesses and why or how they react to anything.

The many Maine small town experiences through out life help the community.

Oh sure, there can be differences and personality clashes. But first hand personal knowledge of all the skills and talents in a small Maine town can be a beautiful thing. Like a team that pulls together and knows what has to happen for success before the buzzer sounds.

Makes for a better working relationship, the quality of life too because nothing is surface or unknown about the others in your small Maine town.

The small town community members understand each other deeply because there are not strangers. Accepting, needing, proud of where we live. Knowing we all have an important role in creating and sustaining the small Maine town living experience.

Simple Survival And Quality Of Living In A Small Maine Town.

My advice for folks relocating to Maine, is get involved.

From day one and never let off the throttle. Be productive rather than petty. No time for personality attacks and everything about pitching in and combining talents.

And for locals to realize all these new fresh ideas from folks who did live somewhere else can be weaved into what we could do to help the small Maine town prosper.

Realize there are community members who have full, rich experiences and will adopt you as one of their own. But not so much if you bitch and complain and find fault constantly. Easy does it as we all get to know each other and divvy up who does what and when.

Outdoors, Do It Yourself More Independent! That’s Living In Small Towns In Maine!

Brand new to the area transplants need to know the lay of the land and for locals to show them the ropes. To explain traditions and the history lessons they missed.

Volunteering is what small Maine town living is all about.. has to be.

No money to hire it done and what would be the fun in that?

Sure there is room for improvement and change is inevitable in a small Maine town. But easy does it on the “back home we always did it this way, that way”. It can get tedious and make locals wonder then why did you leave?

Hard Honest Work, No One Lazy! Expecting Setbacks In Rural Maine.

Something in the where you lived before location exchange before the move to Maine must have made it worth it.

But sharing and comparing what works and why or why not is important in brainstorming. Remind yourself of those reasons you moved to Maine. All this four season drop dead gorgeous beauty.

Maine is smaller sparse spread out populations, vast unspoiled terrain.

Working Outdoors In The Fields. Amish Farmers Produce Quality Local Food.

You daily travel much smaller local circles really getting to know others living in the village size population. Maine is over 450 small towns, plantations and only a handful of cities.

Here’s some reasons why I know, what I love living in a small Maine town.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

February 9, 2023
Maine Shoreland Zoning Waterfront Properties FAQ

Maine shoreland zoning on waterfront property.

Protecting water quality, the Maine wetlands wildlife regulating the use and construction in the shoreland area. Maine shoreland zoning regulations are the do’s and don’ts for the permitted use and new construction along the waterfront today. And Maine’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance is a working document steadily being amended and improved to preserve and protect this precious natural resource.

Crystal Clean And Maine Shoreland Zoning Protected Waterfront Property.

Prior to 1971 when the Maine legislature passed the mandatory shoreland zoning act, there were no statewide standard rules for waterfront use and development.

This blog post about Maine shoreland zoning regulation of waterfront property.

Shoreland zoning in Maine established land use regulations for real estate properties within 250 feet of ponds, freshwater wetlands that are 10 acres or larger. Maine shoreland zoning rules cover development and use of rivers with watersheds 25 miles or more and land within 75 feet of specific streams.

Maine’s many small towns needed help in coming up with a set of rules to follow for new waterfront construction or use and expansion of existing structures.

Soil erosion control, heck a cutting operation many miles away can affect a Maine lake’s quality because of run off and contaminants dumped into from the watershed drainage.

Watch a Maine shoreland zoning regulations video for the do’s and don’ts around waterfront properties.

Maine shoreland zoning regulations are all about controlling erosion in drainage areas, coastal wetlands and tidal water to protect the natural resource.

Prior to 1971’s enactment of shoreland zoning regulations, a Maine lake property owner might not have thought much about a woodlot cutting operation many miles away. But environmental education, best practice workshops, media coverage and shoreland zoning regulation enforcement changed all that. It spelled out clearing your lot, what you had to keep, what could be pruned and opened up or not.

Shoreland zoning defined conforming or non conforming uses and limitations or presented an outright ban on what a property owner thought they could do on their property.

Maine Shoreland Zoning Waterfront Regulations< Check With DEP Before You Buy Existing Or Building. !

The shoreland zoning in Maine statutes increased awareness of what helps or hurts the waterfront environment. It provides constantly update rules each Maine community has to adopt.

The 450 townships, plantations and unorganized areas of Maine not just the handful of Maine cities all have waterfront development and use rules. Some stricter than the Maine shoreland zoning ordinance allows. So check with your local Maine code enforcement official empowered for the area of the big state of Maine you want to develop or are thinking of buying before you do.

Protecting Maine Precious Natural Resources. Maine Shoreland Zoning Does That.

Protecting the Maine environment through adoption of shoreland zoning rule and regulations.

So current land owners and future generations can appreciate the waterfront that makes Maine such an attractivr state and vacation destination for many.

Before the standardization for the state to follow or elect to beef up with something stricter for shoreland zoning waterfront land use, it was anything goes.

Maine lake loons, fish swimming in the water out front, wildlife around the waterfront has little protection. Development done the wrong way around the Maine waterfront shoreland zones threatened their natural habitat.

You Hear Them, Admire Them And Shoreland Zoning In Maine Protects Them. Maine Lake Loons, Other Wildlife, Fish!

Prior to 1971, creating a land bridge to an island, putting out a gravel pier or altering the shoreland by removing rocks or adding a load or two of sand or gravel.

Anything goes with no boundaries set backs to follow for where you could build. No concern on how many trees you can clear and in what period. Missing enforceable regulations lon size and density limits. Or number of structures you can build what size and where had no regulation.

It was take a bulldozer out into the water to move rocks more to your liking. Bring in a dump truck load of sand or gravel to have it your way along the Maine shoreline. Throw in a 55 gallon drum for a septic system. That no one needed to use disclosing tablets down the toilet or camp kitchen sink. To see what is leaching into the water out front of your crudely built cabin or camp with no water resource protection supervision

Forget what Mother Nature provided and rework the shoreland landscape as you see fit for your own personal enjoyment consideration only.

Maine shoreland zoning standardized regulations were much needed in Maine. To set up procedures, what to do in this case, that one. Plus the penalties for enforcement teeth if you were a renegade. Causing havoc and harm for neighbors, wildlife, fish, loons and anything around or in the Maine waterfront.

Maine’s Waterfront Shoreland Zone Is The Protected 250′ Buffer Strip Of Land Surrounding, Bordering The Wetlands.

Human nature kicks in and removing lots or all of trees to improve the view or ripping out protective shoreline vegetation. That’s not what protects the waterfront natural resources Maine is fortunate to possess.

The septic system to handle sewerage loads of laundry or a swinging door of too many guests next to the delicate Maine shoreland waterfront was up to the property owner. Along with Maine shoreland zoning regulation, much was done to tighten up the state’s plumbing code to protect and preserve the waterfront.

Leachfield designs to handle seasonal or more demanding year round Maine shoreland loads kept the wastewater on shore instead of dumping it into the fragile waterfront.

Maine Waterfront Rules & Regulations. 450 Maine Small Town Communities, The Handful Of Cities All Adopted Shoreland Zoning Regulations To Go By.

More on Maine shoreland zoning and waterfront development now and over the years.

How Many Trees Can You Clear, Which Ones And Where Are Untouchable? Study Maine Shoreland Zoning Regulations.

Maine shoreland zoning helps waterfront property owners know how to protect against erosion while affording scenery and preserving recreation.

Protecting resale value of the Maine waterfront real estate should not be the driving force to do your part to protect the natural resource you are lucky to border. Although the Maine REALTOR’s Shoreland Handbook is a valuble resource.

Being a good steward, passing on the waterfront property to the next person in as good or hopefully better shape than you received it. That is what Maine shoreland zoning is all about… resource protection. Before expanding an existing waterfront property structure, check with the local shoreland zoning officer in your area of Maine.

What Can You Do Around A Maine Waterfront Property?

Don’t just start building. And a seasonal camp needs to go through some inspections and certification to show you are allowed the conversion to a year round residence.

Ever heard of milroil in a Maine lake, pond, watershed?

This is what it looks like and you don’t want it in your waterfront resource. It messes with oxygen levels for the fish, affects the water temperature and enjoyment with the invasive vegetation of a milfoil family plant.

Milfoil Free Lakes In Maine, Go Further North, East, West. Away From Development And Population Centers To Avoid Already Infested ME Waterbodies.

I hope this blog post, video and photos on Maine shoreline zoning is helpful. Please reach out if you have any waterfront development questions about existing or new construction projects you are considering. Here is another excellent state of Maine soil and water erosion protection publication to glean.

Stay tuned for more on Maine shoreland zoning developments and best practices.

For many years I was president of a Northern Maine lake association in Aroostook County. All the camp waterfront owners learned much from the workshops on what causes the harm. We were lucky to get funds to study the entire shoreland of Drews Lake and where to identify problems needing solutions.

Protecting Maine’s Waterfront Shoreline Takes All Of Us. Get Involved! Be A Good Steward To Help Our Natural Resource.

Money from soil and water conservation awards help our lake association from successful grant writing to protect the Maine shoreland.

To address non source point pollution, constructing riparian buffers, how to slow water from racing down a hill, what to do to battle milfoil, etc. It’s our Maine waterfront to protect and if we don’t, it’s gone and wasted. You stuck around to the very end of the blog post. Thank you! See you next time on ME In Maine blog and thank you for being a loyal follower.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

January 6, 2023