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I recently retired and got bored, took a job working part time, and that work has taken me all the way up to places like Presque Isle, Van Buren and Madawaska. I like it up there, and previously in life I have been exposed to extreme weather for extended periods of time (Alaska in winter and Liberia/Sierra Leone/Somalia in Summer). Most of the houses I've looked at are very reasonably priced. Almost all of them have oil fueled baseboard heating - usually with a pellet/wood stove to help heat common areas in the house or the work shed. I can't get much in the way out of a straight answer from the Realtor about heating costs. I understand why, with oil prices going up and down and the weather being fickle, it's tough to put a number to it. But maybe just compile how many gallons of heating oil you use each year and do that for several years could give me a ball park figure. I've given some thought to geothermal heating/cooling. Maybe using solar to power some of it. I have a pension and the part time gig pays pretty good. I like playing baseball, hunting and fishing when I'm not working. I'd consider other places in Maine - I've been down to Calais and Baileyville, for example, and am heading to Millinocket for a few days of work. I lived in Brooklyn and Queens much of my adult life, and any advice from Mainers is very much appreciated. I have a beautiful dog - and I'd like to build a fence so that she can enjoy the yard without getting hit by a lifted Ford truck with studded tires. Something that can withstand the elements.
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May 19, 2018 01:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:02 |
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I'm a bit south of that area. I prefer fuel oil/pellets because if things go south with your provider anyone will refill - propane is a bit trickier especially if you rent the tank. This past winter there was unusually cold weather (ran through a tank, 200+ gal., in about two weeks) and it was good that I was able to put diesel in the tank until the delivery schedule got unfucked. I use around 1k gallons per year, but that's heating a 1k SF super-insulated home, a 2k SF storage building with minimal insulation, and a 500 SF apartment. Storage building set to 50F, other buildings roughly 65F. It's really going to depend on how old and lovely the house is - Maine has a couple of really good super-insulated architects/builders if you can afford to build. You can get eastern white cedar locally, especially up north. It's a cheap, durable, no-paint required fencing material. Ticks are a constant issue if you're outside a lot. It's a solvable issue, but learn how to tick-check yourself and your dog.
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May 20, 2018 03:26
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That's quite a heating bill. I found a house with 3 acres around it, there's not much in the way of trees or bushes. I hunted a lot upstate New York and have seen my share of ticks. Good advice, though. The house I'm looking at has a private well and septic. It's a flagstone looking foundation with an oil baseboard heating system. The windows are replaced vinyl and it's been house wrapped with Tyvek with vinyl insulated siding. I'm wondering how effective solar is up here, especially when I'd need it to run the geothermal system if I go that route. The house has a metal roof and a one car garage. Will I need a block heater since I have two cars? I was told to get a good snow blower and a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I do own a 2011 Subaru Legacy and a 1972 Corvette that I restored. How bad are some of the towns down south of the County, like Millinocket and Rumford? I can pretty much live anywhere and started considering places south of Baxter. I was told that Rumford stinks to high hell because of the paper mills. I also looked at houses in Washington County, in Baileyville and Calais. I was sort of surprised the way Calais became a shibboleth. Nice towns. though. Lots of houses for sale in that area.
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May 20, 2018 08:07
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I'm not far from that area. Castine. This winter I went thru about 1250 gallons. It was a cold, and long winter. I have backup heat via pellets. 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 horses.
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May 20, 2018 08:23
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GarbageCop posted:Will I need a block heater since I have two cars? I was told to get a good snow blower and a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I do own a 2011 Subaru Legacy and a 1972 Corvette that I restored. You won't need a block heater, but it's not a bad idea since sometimes we can get a week or two of sub-zero continuous. I don't have one in my diesel vehicle, and every winter there's a couple of mornings I regret it. If you're looking to live in one of the small towns, consider what you like doing outside (I assume that's the point). You can get very different access to different outdoor amenities - lake/river fishing, hiking, national parks, coast, etc. and that's probably the driving decision for where you want to end up. Rumford - It does have a stink. Beautiful housing stock, a lot of it got built by the mill back in the day. Uncertain economic future. Farmington - has a university campus so it isn't going anywhere Millinocket - they're really trying to reinvent themselves, which is cool. A lot of commerce is driven by proximity to Baxter State Park. At least their mill has already shut down, so you won't need to live through the impact of that. Other small towns you might want to look at that are reasonably healthy: Dover-Foxcroft, Skowhegan, Belfast (the most affordable of the towns on that section of the coast, 'big' compared to the rest of these towns).
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May 20, 2018 15:27
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I just got a call back from the realtor about a house I looked at in Vassalboro. I loved the place - its a pretty nice, 2 bed, 1 bath home with 3 acres of woods around it. I'm also going to look at a house in Farmington, Mexico and take a shot at Rumford. I spent some time in Kennett Square, PA, and talk about a stink. I don't know how it compares to a pulp mill, but miles of mushroom farms really smell freaking horrible. But you get used to it. I saw some amazing brick houses in Rumford on Zillow. Some of them have that Addams family vibe (which I dig) but must be really freaking expensive to heat. I would love to start snowmobiling. I've been ice fishing in Alaska and that was a hoot, too.
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May 21, 2018 01:54
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I've only been to Rumford once, to ski Black Mountain, and I don't remember any particularly memorable smell. If you enjoy skiing, having a location like that right nearby would be very convenient. I personally live in the way way far South of Maine, Southwest of Portland. Winters are plenty hard enough down here, and I would rather not go even further North. Although I suppose I'd adapt. Still, we've moved onto three acres and have really been enjoying raising chickens and getting a big garden going, so we're pretty happy where we are.
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May 21, 2018 02:08
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If you are definitely big into hunting, the Irving woodlands up here are privately owned, but open to hunting with some stricter guidelines. A lot of Guide businesses buy up spots there for bait piles for people without property or non-residents looking to hunt bear with bait. We are going to be starting up a trap line out there soon. The total property Irving owns is 1.4 million acres. But as I said - some stricter guidelines on top of the hunting regulations. Get a hold of someone to get all the info you need before going out there. We are very isolated, but I like isolated. We just moved out here in December, so we are still finding our way. Haven't even looked into fishing yet, so I can't help you much there, but I see people fishing all the time just about anywhere. The closest place to us with any major chain store outside of tractor supply or a tiny walmart is Presque Isle, which is an hour and a half away. Definitely keep in mind distances of stores you frequent if you don't want to deal with those kind of drives. There are a lot of smaller family-owned things around us though, including vehicle mechanics. As far as heating, we primarily use pellets but want to use mostly the wood stove this year. As someone else mentioned, oil is expensive and the delivery can't always be reliable since we have some nasty winters. Especially if you end up like us on a property with a quarter mile long driveway that gets buried. I also recommend getting a back up generator. For us it is a necessity. And something I am not used to being born and raised in AZ - everyone is very nice out here, and a lot of people have been more than willing to help us out with figuring where things are. I don't like people, but I like these people. As far as a fence that can withstand the elements for keeping a dog in, we have harsh weather so all wood fencing is not something I would go with. If you get a few acres, a chain link run might hold up fine as a designated area instead of a full on fenced property. If you want a fenced property, a basic barrier fence with wire running along sturdy posts combined with an invisible fence and some barrier training are an alternative. Depending on the breed or if your dog has a high prey drive, I would not rely on an invisible fence alone. Most people just use long chain tie outs if their dog can't be trusted to not wander. Where we live, I actually don't recall even seeing any real secure fencing near us. It's typically one of the things I listed.
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Jun 2, 2018 06:48
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 01:02 |
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If you're politically involved at all, prepare to re-learn some stuff. Maine does things.. differently, from the local level on up to how it assigns its electoral votes in the presidential election. Also, it might be worth brushing up on some basic french, it comes up now and again. (Grew up in Washington County, but ambled up that way a bunch.)
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Jun 5, 2018 06:10
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