Category: Mooers Realty

What’s It Like Living In A Small Maine Town?

Life in a small Maine town.

Too slow for some, just a dream never realized to others. What’s important in your life has constants. No matter where you live. But there is a shift in how much of this, how little of that we desire. To improve the life experience.

The Joy Of Young Children, Youth To Make Life, Holidays Bright.

Maine is outdoor living all four seasons. It’s all the missing things too. Like rush hour traffic, over the top crime, high cost of living that don’t roost here. Maine is the 46th lowest state for crime.

Raising kids outside of Maine was not something I wanted to do.

Known far back into time as a young grass hopper. I believed a small Maine town would work best. Shaping the shoots or is it chutes? No matter, you get the drift.

But travel to show the kids there is life beyond the village is important. To know you can not see the World from your kitchen window. To spread those wings. And for perspective to know how lucky you really are when you are lucky enough to be involved in the day to day of small town living.

The small things are the big things.

People are less in number but way friendlier. Hands go up instinctively when driving or walking a small town side walk. Eye contact made, hello is uttered. People smile in small Maine towns. Well unless instead of talking about the local sports team or family, the topic swings to politics or pushing a certain brand of religion.

The Home Made Goodies Feasted On After A Maine Youth Game Or Performance. Your Sense Of Smell. Is The Oldest, Quickest, Sharpest Of Them All?

When a car battery goes dead, look at your watch. With an engine compartment hood raised, it won’t be long for a jump start to arrive quickly.

Using your set or the good Samaritan’s red and black jumper cables to connect the battery terminals. And if that is not the problem, sticking around to try other roadside remedies. Or make sure help arrives to take the problem to the next step of resolution.

Does everyone in a small Maine town know each other?

They would like to. Give it enough time and yes, they pretty much do. There is a connection and the strong sense of we need to row the boat together. To survive, prosper and knowing all of us get out more than we put in when volunteerism becomes automatic. Whether helping set up or tear down for a benefit church supper, a school dance, coaching a little league baseball or whatever sport’s team.

Find Yourself At The Maine Coast, Hiking To Lighthouses!

Smaller circles cause the people who live in a small Maine town to come into contact too.

There is overlap because you and I are not on one board, or in just one group.

Everyone has a big or small part, but some role in a slew of things.

Kinda like needing a certain number of credits in a variety of educational disciplines to get the life diploma. To graduate to the next level.

Families, Outdoor Fun, Maine Fresh Air. Priceless.

Home grown and closer to the action is part of it living in a small Maine town. Not so much store bought or hired out happens. When the pockets are not bottomless deep but the heart’s are full to bursting with pride.

Wanting to help in whatever way possible drives the machinery. That’s the way life should be. Hey, that would be a great slogan for Maine huh?

Rich history in our families, over lap in who’s related to who and how closely or distantly.

And once a person steps up in a small Maine town to fit a role that does not usually have a long line of replacements for the task, you’re in. For life. Or as long as you can ride shot gun and oversee the event.

The people are the small town. Not the wood and brick structures, town hall or other municipal buildings all arranged just so within the grid work. Of old streets designed before the horseless carriages or tin lizzies plied them. And horses were king.

What makes a small Maine town great?

It’s the little things that all of them have but that just does not always get the four color glossy treatment or catchy sound bite coverage. Downeast Magazine has their opinion of which of the 450 small

Maine Is Small, Friendly, Glad To Be In Vacationland Full Time Or At All!

Maine town’s stand out brightest. Depending on the benchmarks used. It just seems many of them are the tourist traps we don’t mind falling into when you have a license plate stamped with “Vacationland” above the bottom rim.

I think it is the unsung heroes in a small Maine town. The Pansy Burton’s, Win Dow’s who step up year after year. To make home made fudge or chocolate creme filled “logs”, whatever is their signature to die for dish.

Or Ken Wetmore working hours to create a lap strap cedar canoe. Or pegs by Porter, cribbage boards by Sylvester. For the local rotary auction fund raiser that pipelines money into the long list of much needed projects in a small Maine town.

This past weekend was tackling the job at a Maine farmstead with vim, vigor, gusto.

I picked up some gutter pipe, the securing elbows from SW Collins hardware store. A tool from Tractor Supply. Then tooled into store #1974, our local Walmart this past weekend to buy a can of red paint.

The last item for the cedar shingled dog house roof dying, longing, way over due for a drink of the oil based elixir. And in line at the check out, talking to the one in front, behind me and the cashier part of the conversation too. And then proceeded to walk out missing the can of barn red protective covering.

Exercised, Disciplined Maine Youth. Leave It All Out On The Sheet Of Ice Players.

To hit Dunkin’ Donuts for muffins only to find as I headed for the Jeep in the parking lot that there’s Leo Hogan. In line behind me all Wally World, that retrieved the paint, ready to deliver with a smile.

Waiting beside my unlocked SUV, with unrolled window and passing me the forgotten loot. Thanks Leo.

You appreciate the small things in Maine towns.

The behind the scenes, other side of the curtain little gestures that go a long way. The helping hand not done for attention but because it’s the right thing to do. And the reward of joy inside because you didn’t have to but you did anyway.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton ME 04730

October 18, 2016
The Bigger The Maine Garage, Outbuildings, The More Hiding Spots.

You might need it someday.

That hang on to it, depression baby thinking can fly in the face of those who subscribe to the travel light. If it doesn’t fit in the back pack you carry, it is too much and just bogging you down. Where do you weigh in?

In small rural Maine, when you are in business, or make your living off the land, from the woods, there are steep spikes up and then down.

Maine Family, The Jewels Of The Local Community. The Life Coaches, Mentors To Guide And Shape The Little Ones.

Break even years are considered some of the best ones because you keep going. Get to tear off another December from the calendar that seems to flip and fly off faster.

Falling back on what you saved up.

You might need it some day. And getting rid of stuff at the transfer station is harder and expensive. But that piece of angle iron, that just right length board or left over bracket from some door yard mechanics or carpentry. It could make the difference. If you remember where you stashed it.

Always impressed with the workshop where in a row of Gerber’s baby food jars, there are brads, nails, fasteners of all types. The small glass re-purposed jar lids one by one screwed to an overhead board to quickly twist, tilt, shake, pour out what you need for the job.

Tools where you can find them and the repair nerve center of the family home is ready to serve and protect the small household, farmstead way of life. Next year’s pile of wood for burning cut, split and air drying. While this winter’s BTU generator is all set.

The Winter Run Off Of Snow Makes The Faster Paced Spring Canoe & Kayak Races

The five hardwood cords or more and a a big pile of softwood fire starting kindling is high and dry. In the cellar along with the shelf after shelf of canned preserves, other home grown provisions socked away neatly in the impressively stocked root cellar.

The family is not going to be cold, not going hungry and the HBO channel is outdoors, unplugged and ready to tap into when chores are done. We make our own outdoor four season fun.

Take what you need and pass along the rest.

Gratitude is riches and not falling into the trap of enough is never enough. Boundaries, limits, moderation. Again. Repeat. And do more than survive but savor all that life offers if you are not too busy. To anxious or nervous or just full of a feeling that something is missing.

In my real day job for the past 36 years listing and peddling properties, it seems to be a common theme. Heard louder by someone who has been living in the city and road weary from protect your self and your property from crime.

Take The Picture. I Want. Need To Go For A Walk Okay?

Personal injury from gangs, senseless drive by shootings and locking everything up tighter than a drum is not something you worry about in small population, vast expanse of land Maine.

Money is not the end all and resourcefulness rides herd, tugs the reins on the day to day approach to living.

If it is to be it is up to me and not thinking someone will catch me, help me, take care of the small stuff. Independence feels good and living without debt is like removing a ball and chain.

Many we talk to have had the merry go round of mountains of debt and just want to carve out a simple life. To buy a simple home, a modest priced chunk of land to create what they have dreamed about for decades or even since childhood.

Often they remember grandparents who lived in small town USA and want to stand next to that fire.

Year Round, Maine Lakes, Ponds Get Enjoyed. Used Like The Outdoor Living Room.

To warm their bones, to soothe their soul. To take a break and have more control over their own life. Rather than too many someone elses running the show in the Candy Land game.

But even in small Maine towns, over spending and not pulling back on the expenditures to work on centralizing services, automation and creative new ways to live within your means threaten the small population clusters. Small town Maine pride can be a wonderful and at the same time destructive blinding light.

Trust fun babies, where the adult kid attends a two hour share holder’s meeting once a month to receive the $50,000 stipend.

And try to make that corporate allowance stretch while you scheme for ways to break the chains of the trust. That is ruling you from the grave and protecting yourself from yourself. There is nothing like making it on your own, living within your means and managing your resources. Teaching your kids the same approach to life where you pull yourself up by the bootstraps.

Over indulgence, spending high wide and handsome and trying to avoid the easy does it, keep it simple approach to living is not rural small town Maine living. That trust fund baby if not a self starter and motivated to channel the inheritance into improving the area around them, volunteering financial and time resources is missing out.

Bikers Stop To Jaw At The Local Centers In Maine Small Towns.

On the richness of the unspoiled, not store bought but pure and natural four season surroundings Maine offers.

Exploitation has missed the hidden communities where there are not enough people to deem it worth while trying to take economic advantage of the sparse population.

Be yourself, walk in nature, reduce stress, do what you love and the rest of the fifteen ways to live a happy life To smile more, really enjoy life more on a daily basis. That makes Maine one classic location to achieve happiness.

Simple living in Maine.

Explore the nooks and crannies, meet the down to Earth people of Maine. Are you over due for a visit and have you make the leap to beyond just a yearly three day or week long vacation? To full time, dig in and become connected to a small Maine town?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

September 28, 2016
Houses In Maine, The Kind That Are Not The Norm.

Small Maine towns have lots of different housing stock that reflect the walks of life and the size of the pay checks of their owners.

Through the years the shift from many family farm, New England type housing multi story structures with auxiliary barns, chicken houses, machine sheds and barns have shifted to more efficient, modest one floor ranch style homes.

Maine Housing Is Working Farm Houses, Blue Collar Simple Capes, Ranches And Not Swanky, Designed To Impress.

Roam up and town the main streets of most small Maine towns and you see the capes, colonials, federal and bungalow home designs.

Along the coast the grander sea captain homes with the glass widow’s walks on top. To scan the open water for the return of the skipper of the vessel piloting it over the choppy seas beyond the breakwater of the protected Maine harbors. That are dotted with Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Mansard and English Tudor style homes.

County seats have a little more austere housing stock and reflect the center of industry and services provided due to the designation as capital of one of the sixteen counties Maine is brought to have. But … housing that is not the norm and simple, straight forward, functional.

The Tourist Areas Around MDI, Acadia National Park Have Housing That Is A Tad Bigger, Fancier, Higher Price Tagged.

Maine has pockets of that too that are a little out of character with the rest of the designs that you typical find along the highways and byways of small town and rural country living.

Case in point, ski chalets at your bigger mountains like Sugarloaf USA, Sunday River. Compounds around Walker Point in Kennebunkport Maine.

And in Bar Harbor Maine, I have heard seventy five percent of the nation’s wealth was concentrated in vacation homes, estates along the rugged, rocky coastline in that Mount Desert Island community.

What was in Bar Harbor Maine for housing stock of the rich and famous is no longer so historically original though.

Your Cup Of Tea For A Maine Home? Pretty, Ugly, Or In Between?

New homes with larger square footages, more palatial features built by carpenters pushed to out do another neighbor’s housing stock sticks and bricks.

Driven by the size of the wallet or expanse of the ego of the family name behind whatever was framed and embellished for all to envy.

Old money wealth and Nouveau riche explained, the different degrees noted in this link. It is better to be humble and sensitive to the needs of others when you have wealth.

Using it to benefit others and not bring attention to yourself always plays best.

What changed the landscape of Bar Harbor Maine’s earlier housing stock was a fire in 1947.

Winds fanned the flames and quick destruction happened, caused ashes to what was because of the Bar Harbor Maine 1947 fire. What once was is captured in a few black and white images,news accounts, magazine reports but essentially lost in a puff of smoke.

Homes On The Coast Of Maine, Along Main Street Of County Seats Are Higher Scaled, More Attention Getting. And Not The Norm.

In a recent coastline tour and after listening to the history and some gossip colored by time, I snapped a few images from the bow of a Bar Harbor Maine sight seeing boat.

These images show cliff top estates, housing stock that is not the typical Maine down to Earth simple or purely functional working homes. And much of what you see does not have much age on it.

Many are uninhabited but highly maintained for when the owners of the estates who have lots of other venues to call a vacation home to pay a visit.

For a tourist that arrives by cruise ship, dropping anchor in the harbor and carried by a smaller tender boat. To walk the gang plank. To land on shore to shop til you drop for nick knacks and momentos stamped with the five letters that mean Vacationland just like the license plate promises.

But not knowing what they see in the highly commercial tourist attractions is not a true reflection of all of Maine.

Heading In To Bar Harbor Maine. (Pronounced BAH-HAR-BAR) And Did You Know Humorist Tim Sample Is From Fort Fairfield Maine, Not A Coastal Town Chummy?

To get that you need to paddle your canoe or sea kayak, to tack just so with your sailboat further north.

Up the coast line to places like Lubec, Eastport in Downeast Maine.

Or to the interior sections of central and Northern Maine. That is the still trapped in time, the same as all of Maine once was. Those are not where you find your luxury housing in Maine.

Lower key, a lot of the same, more down to Earth happens with the houses we call home in deeper recesses of Maine.

Hard working folks maintaining, preserving what an earlier generation relative crafted working to make ends meet in small Maine towns.

That is a lot of the housing stock of Maine that is form follows function. And the function is not to impress, no hint of la de da or ooh la la. It was more rural farming, coastal fishing, timber harvesting related uses and housing applications you will find the more time you spend in Maine.

Get to all of Maine.

Family Fun. Make A Splash, Paddle Around A Maine Coastal Community.

Have you been to Maine, do you know what the state looks, feels, smells, sounds like beyond the high points that the path if well worn ? Read her cover to cover. Not just nibble around the edges to experience Maine.

Get to hidden spots that you have to look hard to find. To see the less traveled trails in the nooks and crannies of this drop dead gorgeous state.

Maine, get to sample ME as often, as soon as you can. See what you are missing in Maine, the way life should be. Come for a day, stay a lifetime.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

July 2, 2016
The Beauty Of Maine, Space Is A Big Part Of The Magic.

What is the attraction to a big place like Maine?

Space, lots of it. Not worrying about interfering with any other person’s privacy, happiness, their personal life enjoyment. And likewise, no other of our fellow man or woman bumping into our bubble.

And it snow balls from there. More space, less or no people in an underpopulated rural state like Maine means the local water resources and the land turf is not over used and abused.

It Is The Prettiest Weed I Can Think Of… Lupines.

Like a home where no one is around to clutter it up, there is not so much housekeeping to perform to pick up after yourself, someone else.

And the folks that return to Maine for the solitude have a respect. Developed like the die hard locals. To carry in, pick it up and tread lightly. Leave everything like you found it or in better shape if possible as you become a vigilant, good steward.

And when you have a lot of people to herd like an urban area does, there are layers of players.

Plenty of thickly stacked permits, regulations to apply and slow everything to an expensive crawl. To corral and keep everyone in line with lots of rules.

Clusters Of Lupine, Sometimes They Are More Spaced And Scattered.

Plenty of crowd control applications and lots of little bureaucratic kingdoms to arm wrestle with in the hurry up and take a number, have a seat. To maneuver around to get even the smallest of stuff accomplished in an overbooked life.

In small rural Maine traffic is gone. Replaced with outdoor beauty, scenery, wildlife, wooded sections, waterways, open space. We use the land, create wealth from the dirt in so many versions of farming.

Delays getting cross town to appointments, return to the hardware store for the right wicket, to pick up bread and milk… all the errands are quick, simple, no road rage elevating the temperature under the driver’s collar.

Crime stats peg us at the fourth lowest for breaking the law.

Eye contact made, manners displayed with an extra helping of consideration. There is a small town, intimate connection in Maine communities. A tight wrapped we’re all in this together and aren’t we all lucky to live here the way life should be.

Day Is Done In Maine. Fresh Rain, Sunset Sunshine Combine.

Is it like that where you are now? Do cars get stolen, windows broken to steal the contents? Maine keys in rural areas never leave the ignition, house doors left unlocked too. Because we are far enough away and folks are taught as little grasshoppers to respect other people’s feelings, their personal property too.

Lower cost house and car insurance because the price tag for both types of coverage is lower. Because the real estate prices are closer to the ground.

Like I said, it snowballs. The extras that combine from the long list of what we don’t have that you don’t want but have to grin and bear it, just accept with a bite the bullet by choosing to live in the city.

Combined it all with the natural beauty a place like four seasons Maine is famous for and that word is getting out about thanks to people buzzing on the Internet.

Have you been on the fence about living in a place like Maine?

Or at least investing in a piece of it for the R and R we all need to unplug, recharge? Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog posts and eyeballing the imagery that the copy wraps around as we hunt and peck about the place we all love so much. Maine, it may just be what has been missing in your life.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207/.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

June 21, 2016
Opening Up The Maine Lake Camp, Cottage, Summer Home.

The place in Maine on the water, whether it is a river camp, a woods cabin on a stream or a lake vacation home.

Opening it up is a tradition. Sometimes a production. One that reminds the owner of the others in the family before them that did the same routine. Or that this is too much work for one person to shoulder the burden. That sometimes seems to be like batting clean up long after the game ended.

What Happens Under The Sun Another Day In Maine. It Depends On You. Being Here In Vacationland.

To pick up after other far traveling family members who are not so tidy. And steal the joy of using the place that has a job jar before that can be accomplished in the too little time, so much to do.

The opening up of a Maine vacation retreat. Sometimes in the spring or often times in the fall for hunting, leaf peeking. Maybe for winter ice fishing, snow sledding only. But no matter what the season, places on the water in Maine are a sacred investment. Sometimes on leased land in the middle of no where in places “T” this, “R” that.

Many waterfront properties in Maine just idle, waiting, sitting.

Some folks collect second, third and more homes that they don’t get to enjoy but hope to someday. Paying the property tax bills but not darkening their doorways. With no dock out, no boat parked on either side of it.

Time carved out of a busy schedule to make sure the place on the water is enjoyed is a healthy habit. As life ticks by whether you do or don’t.

Big meals, cribbage games, outdoor horseshoe competitions, time napping on a porch swing or dooryard hammock. Family discussions, talking about the fish that got away. The wildlife that sauntered by while enjoying hot coffee or a cold adult beverage.

Wave, Be Friendly, Everyone Is In Maine.

Take your pick, select your poison for fire water. While cooking your food outdoors with a sizzle happens. As kayaks ply the like a bottle smooth, polished lake surfaces.

Or as rain peppers the metal roof that may leak or not depending this opening day season. On what that blow down tree did that let loose over, struck the structure sometime over the winter months.

At least it produces some firewood in the clean up. When processed and cut up in bite size pieces for the parlor stove or end heater.

Everything reduced down to turning up the volume on the greater awareness of what is truly important in life.

You can hear yourself think in Maine. So much of the layers of living in a city are reduced one by one the more reflectorized mile markers that click off on the way up the I-95 pike. When you point whatever you drive north.

And often what is found is missing where the property owner spends most of their time chasing the dollar the bulk of the year. It all shows up right on time. Traveling the many miles that separate the two of you. Many moons distant, down the road from the state of Maine where the property owner chases the dollar where all the people collect.

Come Up For Air To Spy On Lake Campers With Bread Morsels.

The smell of the familiar place on the Maine waterfront is the most powerful.

The sense of smell the oldest of the senses a person uses to navigate in life. Follow your nose like Toucan Sam.

A mixture of damp, moist wood, earth underneath the settling camp structure. Lack of heat and a proper foundation makes a place shift, settle.

The dust, collection of house flies and any other rodent who used the place as the winter home all add to the what you find, what you notice in the beak. Moth balls to protect clothes, wool blankets might be noticed too as you unlock and enter the place in Maine on the waterfront.

The quick throw everything mad dash. From lawn chairs to lawn mowers inside on the screened or glass porch if lucky enough to have one. Underneath a camp if elevated enough or equipped with a hatch door. Maybe into a storage shed for the outdoor toys, cooking and sporting gear.

Or all escorted in to the living area in one big last call type hurry as the bright house lights come on, the music stops. Is what greets you after a long drive north to open up for another six month’s later or more season. Who did this… you did this. Oh yeah.

There is a lot of work involved with a second home in Maine.

Storm damage, regular maintenance, or renter fatigue. Waiting on professionals that don’t want to really fiddle with the little pain in the neck jobs that are piddly. Don’t pay a lot.

Maine. We Stick Together, Like Momma Duck, The Kids In Tow.

Not so much on the to do list, the depth and width of the job jar with a simple woods or Maine lake place that has just bare bone comforts though. When it is not a two or more star lodging.

Maybe that still uses an outhouse and the bath on Saturday night is a ritual out front carrying a bar of Ivory soap, with a towel on shore to dry off after the dip that refreshes. Helps you sleep on a hot summer night at a Maine lake, waterfront place.

Where crickets, loons, honking Canadian geese provide the back ground music that Maine is famous for if you are lucky enough to be parked next to the waterfront.

Do you vacation in Maine on the water?

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | mailto:info@mooersrealty.com|

MOOERS REALTY 69 North Street Houlton Maine 04730

May 24, 2016