Has anyone moved to Maine to follow your dreams? (Portland: 2015, to rent)

[kellym_40]

If you have moved to Maine because you have always wanted to, I wonder if you can tell your story either good or bad?

[Submariner]

Not Maine specifically, but somewhere rural. That was the picture I painted to a couple girls that I courted. They each thought I was crazy, until this one red-headed truckstop waitress. She liked the idea. We got married, saved our money and after a few years we had an opportunity to go rural, so we did. We had a goat dairy, sold cheese. We bartered with goat cheese for our first child's mid-wife. But eventually we had to give up on that, and go back to being wage-slaves.

My career had us traveling a lot, to different locations. 3 years here, 3 years there. At each location I used most of my vacation time searching for a place to start a farm. We just could not find the right location. Our previous failure taught us a few lessons, about things to look for.

24 years after we were married, we bought land in Maine. We never knew that Maine would be our destination. Maine has what we were looking for.

[kellym_40]

Thank you for sharing. I would love to hear others!

[slyfox2]

We did.

We were vacationing here and the person we were renting from said one day(we knew her for years), "You love this place so much, why aren't you retiring here?"

We had never even thought of it. We went home and over four years sold our retirement place in rural western Maryland that we build ourselves from scratch on lots of acreage, our other "city" house, and bought a house in our dream area and moved 650 miles north as the crow flies to 60 miles as the crow flies from the Canadian border, but on the coast.

Have never regretted it one second.

[charolastra00]

It's in my 5 year plan. My younger brother just bought a house outside Portland with his fiance, and I expect them to begin having kids in a few years after their 2015 wedding. The COL in Maine, even Portland, is so much lower than what I'm used to and the people are fantastic. Unfortunately, there are just so few professional jobs in my field.

[kellym_40]

I know about the job situation. My husband is in IT and I am a medical transcriptionist from home (so I can go anywhere). We want to rent for a while. We've been going up there for about 10 years now (Sebago, Portland, boothbay harbor, bar harbor, etc. ). It's really the job situation.

[lovemaine]

We vacationed in Maine for the first time 10 years ago. Fell in love with it, and decided to try to move here. It ended up taking us 6 years to finally get here. (Finding work wasn't easy. Especially work with decent pay and benefits.) We've lived in midcoast Maine for 4 years now and we love it!

[chaosX5]

Yep, we did. We followed our dream, even though everyone said we were crazy. We chose Maine back in 2008 and though it took a while it was worth the wait. We've been here a year now and living here has gone well for us and we don't regret it for a second. I will say that A LOT of research and trips were involved in the decision to move to Maine as we're really not the whimsical type.

[kellym_40]

Chaos - I am still waiting on that detailed report from you! LOL Glad it was everything you imagined and I am glad we were kind of both in the same boat a while ago! Message me when you get a chance!

[LordSquidworth]

Originally Posted by slyfox2

This dude is sadly misinformed on every item, and is probably jealous that s/he has to live in Philadelphia.
And yes, compared to where I lived before, and it was very very nice, Coastal Maine is not utopia, its Brigadoon.

Not on everything.

Originally Posted by slyfox2

1. Tourist restaurant food prices are consistent with normal food restaurant prices in mid atlantic
Grocery prices are actually cheaper than mid atlantic.

There are cheaper New England states for food. We have a growing local movement, but it still has a ways to go.

Originally Posted by slyfox2

5. There is a welfare issue, but its not any worse than many, and its more an indication of Mainers desire to help their fellow man.

We do have serious welfare problems. Has nothing to do with helping out the fellow mainers. One thing you'll notice in Maine is not enough people vote, and those who do vote, vote yes on everything. Maine has a terrible economy, so not surprising.

Originally Posted by RememberMee

It's what struck me - way overpriced food of the most generic corporate variety and people here talk about some unbelievably low COL.

COL of living has too many variables, and usually doesn't include everyone.