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So I'm a bit nervous about leaving New Orleans for rural Maine. Big differences culturally, environmentally, demographically. I cannot endure another summer here, and it's just going to get worse. I'm not writing with questions about purchasing a home, or public schools.
Has anyone out there moved from such a rich cultural environment to Maine and found a similar/different, but sufficient environment in Maine? I want to live very rural...I'm not expecting 2nd line parades in the forest. I read about the demographics and keep seeing, "conservative" and not a lot of diversity in the numbers. What's it like?
I live in the hills of Pittsburg NH, perhaps 10 miles from western most part of Maine..We had our 2ed frost of the season this morning and have a 40 year average of 174 inches of snow. You can start with that in the back your mind.
So I'm a bit nervous about leaving New Orleans for rural Maine. Big differences culturally, environmentally, demographically. I cannot endure another summer here, and it's just going to get worse. I'm not writing with questions about purchasing a home, or public schools.
Has anyone out there moved from such a rich cultural environment to Maine and found a similar/different, but sufficient environment in Maine? I want to live very rural...I'm not expecting 2nd line parades in the forest. I read about the demographics and keep seeing, "conservative" and not a lot of diversity in the numbers. What's it like?
You could try assimilating or just do your own thing as in live and let live. I think everyone who moves to Maine should have a Plan B in case they discover that Maine is not for them. Some move and stay; others leave. PS An environment of low crime is a rich cultural environment. You are in for an adventure.
So I'm a bit nervous about leaving New Orleans for rural Maine.
Welcome to Maine.
Are you anticipating living in Portland?
Most of Maine is fairly rural, though Portland is the most urban that Maine offers.
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... Big differences culturally, environmentally, demographically. I cannot endure another summer here, and it's just going to get worse. I'm not writing with questions about purchasing a home, or public schools.
Has anyone out there moved from such a rich cultural environment to Maine and found a similar/different, but sufficient environment in Maine?
I am from California. Though I have lived in many other places before settling in Maine.
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... I want to live very rural ...
Maine is a good choice for that. Though to be rural you may need to be a couple hours away from Portland.
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... I read about the demographics and keep seeing, "conservative" and not a lot of diversity in the numbers. What's it like?
Our current governor is a Democrat. So I would not say that Repubs rule, since both of those parties seem to get their share of running things and raising taxes.
Thank you, everybody!
Grew up in Chicago, so cold and many feet of snow not daunting. Dem Gov. good. I plan on being as rural as I can afford. Wading through options, planning a mid-November two-day trip to look at a few possibles! Would still love to hear your thoughts!
What kind of cultural activities are you interested in finding? That might make a difference in the areas you consider. Rural Maine (most of the state) is often thought of as lacking in culture, but it's not. It's different, but it's rich.
Thank you, everybody!
Grew up in Chicago, so cold and many feet of snow not daunting. Dem Gov. good. I plan on being as rural as I can afford. Wading through options, planning a mid-November two-day trip to look at a few possibles! Would still love to hear your thoughts!
Given the kind of contrasts that you've been pointing out between living in a large city on the Gulf of Mexico versus living "in the forest" in "as rural as possible" Maine - I'd suggest renting a year before buying, and experiencing more than 2 days of visiting before even doing that.
I'd also consider not trying to go all out for isolation - which would be in the lands near the Canadian border. Consider how you'll do your basic shopping, get medical and dental care, if you'll be wanting access to cable TV, internet, and cell phone signal - because you can't take those things for granted. Most of the state is fairly low density, and if you don't want to see neighbors from your house on a wooded lot, and don't want to have much traffic around - you actually don't need to look for the end of the earth to find that. I just spent a week visiting Hope, ME for example, which is less than 10 miles from the coast and some sizable towns, and yet the center of town is a general store at a 4-way stop sign.
Urban is more expensive [higher property taxes, higher Cost-of-living, higher land prices], while rural tends to be cheaper.
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... planning a mid-November two-day trip to look at a few possibles!
Maine is a big state.
In 2005, I planned on a one-week trip to Maine, to meet with a realtor, look at his offerings and explore the state.
I was advised to start in the South and gradually expand my search North and more rural.
A one-week trip was exhausting.
I found that most realtors will completely ignore everything you say.
They will try to guess how much debt you can stretch yourself to afford, and then they will make an effort to sell you the most expensive property that they think you can afford, without paying the least attention to anything you have said to them.
They will judge you by the car you drive, your clothes, your shoes. If you say the highest price you can stretch to is $100k, they will only show you properties that start at $1,000,000. I was never able to find any realtor who would actually comply with me saying how much money I am willing to spend.
I tried to remain polite and respectful, as these are professionals and in theory they should know what they are doing. We had X amount of money set aside that we felt comfortable spending, and in each case realtors would try to sell me on properties asking 10X over how much I had to spend.
After a week I drove home exhausted. I would search for other realtors, and make an appointment to meet with another realtor the next month.
I completed five of those shopping trips.
Every realtor that I met insisted that without their 10X factor I would never be able to purchase property in Maine.
On my fifth shopping trip to Maine, I saw a FSBO sign nailed to a tree. I called that landowner, made arrangements to meet him and I got a copy of his list of properties.
His properties were all an order of magnitude cheaper than the cheapest properties the realtors insisted could possibly exist in Maine.
You can not 'see the possibilities of Maine' on a two-day trip.
Given the kind of contrasts that you've been pointing out between living in a large city on the Gulf of Mexico versus living "in the forest" in "as rural as possible" Maine - I'd suggest renting a year before buying, and experiencing more than 2 days of visiting before even doing that.
This is a good idea.
Pick some small town at random, lease a house and live in it for a year. While living there you can use that as your HeadQuarters from which to explore the state. In a year's time, you will have established a firm idea of what that region of Maine's culture is like, and if you like it.
What do you want to see as 'rural'?
Do you want dirt roads? [in my township, roughly a third of the residences have access to paved road, and two-thirds of the homes do not have paved road access. It makes a big difference in mud season.]
Do you want access to power grid? [we have a lot of friends who live off-grid. In our township, there is grid power along the pavement, but properties away from the pavement do not have access to the power grid. Our power grid is not reliable. We normally expect our grid power to go down at least 2 or 3 times every month. It is normal to expect a week in mid-winter without grid power. Grid power is usually seen as a privilege of urban living, you pay much higher for that privilege]
Do you want phone lines?
Do you want cellphone towers?
[I moved here in 2005. At that time, cellphone companies were focused on providing towers along the interstate corridor, and in the bigger cities. But if you left the interstate and wandered away from that narrow corridor you quickly lost any cellphone signal. Which cellphone carrier you have also makes a big difference.
I remember one time in 2007, we found a 'sweet spot' at a gas station West of Bangor where three different cell towers had overlapping service. If you parked in that one parking lot all cellphones could get a signal. But anywhere else you could only get a signal if you were near one of your carrier's towers.]
We have many friends who get fresh water from a creek from which they haul buckets of water for their drinking, bathing, and livestock.
Do you envision homes spread out over a mile apart? Or are you okay with ten homes 20 yards apart?
Pick some small town at random, lease a house and live in it for a year. While living there you can use that as your HeadQuarters from which to explore the state. In a year's time, you will have established a firm idea of what that region of Maine's culture is like, and if you like it.
What do you want to see as 'rural'?
Do you want dirt roads? [in my township, roughly a third of the residences have access to paved road, and two-thirds of the homes do not have paved road access. It makes a big difference in mud season.]
Do you want access to power grid? [we have a lot of friends who live off-grid. In our township, there is grid power along the pavement, but properties away from the pavement do not have access to the power grid. Our power grid is not reliable. We normally expect our grid power to go down at least 2 or 3 times every month. It is normal to expect a week in mid-winter without grid power. Grid power is usually seen as a privilege of urban living, you pay much higher for that privilege]
Do you want phone lines?
Do you want cellphone towers?
[I moved here in 2005. At that time, cellphone companies were focused on providing towers along the interstate corridor, and in the bigger cities. But if you left the interstate and wandered away from that narrow corridor you quickly lost any cellphone signal. Which cellphone carrier you have also makes a big difference.
I remember one time in 2007, we found a 'sweet spot' at a gas station West of Bangor where three different cell towers had overlapping service. If you parked in that one parking lot all cellphones could get a signal. But anywhere else you could only get a signal if you were near one of your carrier's towers.]
We have many friends who get fresh water from a creek from which they haul buckets of water for their drinking, bathing, and livestock.
Do you envision homes spread out over a mile apart? Or are you okay with ten homes 20 yards apart?
Good advice.
I would add to this that it can be quite gear intensive for, long story short, you are depending on yourself to solve many a problem. Now, if you are living rural have that the room to expand, that's okay....but living like that, being at the end of moving in one's life, and is probably going to find that they acquire A LOT OF stuff. Mine is a life of how to do things better, more, More, MORE!
A lot of it isn't that expensive.....but some of it is massive. For example, I am looking at a 10 Grand well expansion project but it is necessary. All the water on the ranch is self generated, right now from a well. If the well goes dry, the ranch can continue by getting a tank truck in, at cost, to fill the storage tank.....and I am looking at doubling that capacity. Water is life! That is true to the planet, of course, but so many people don't realize it.
The other thing, in this quick summary, is that for one living out in the country, they better be the kind of person who doesn't need the city for entertainment, doesn't use the city for weekly or even daily resupplying. To the former, if that is not the case, then in 6 months, they will be hating this kind of life. To the latter, live under the possibility that conditions (snow, floods, wildfire, Philistines unrest, etc) may cut you off, isolate you from the world for days or even weeks. Learn to stock pile resources, the resources and the means to store them, so in that event, one can continue.
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