Our Maine Cottage and Newest Family Member

One of mine and Mal's favorite things to do together since we have been married is to 'dream', or pick a location on realtor.com that we can imagine ourselves living, and go house hunting. We've been hunting in Idaho, Utah, California, Washington, Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts...Europe...Alaska...We've been everywhere, man! Some of our dreaming has been within our price range, but plenty of it has not been. Either way, it's fun to dream. We have had our eye on some properties in Bar Harbor for a while now, but our dreaming never became serious until the possibility of moving here became reality. 

The bidding began at the end of January when we found a property we liked that was in town, but that did not work out for us. A few weeks later, we came across a property that was about five miles outside of town. It features a cottage on an acre of land, within a mile of the Atlantic, has a 1200 sq ft green house, and a detached two car garage. The only problem was it's situation. The seller owned two homes on a two acre property and was proposing that they split the properties upon agreeing to terms for selling. We were okay with that because of all that the property had to offer. So we agreed to close on April 30th, and the seller went to work on splitting the properties. 

Step 1: The town of Bar Harbor approved the split, which was a huge step because they had a reputation of not permitting such property splits due to zoning, etc. 

Step 2: The seller went to work on splitting the two properties. The homes water and electricity needed to be split from each other, and this actually didn't get done until April 30th. We moved our closing date to May 6, just to be safe. 

Step 3: Surveying the property didn't get done until about May 6th...hence, our closing date was moved again to May 15. Hopefully, the final time we had to change the date. 

Step 4: Leading up to the closing date, we were on pins and needles. We still had no official word that we would make the May 15 closing date. We got a call on May 14 that we were going to close the next day and to be prepared to sign! We did a final walkthrough that night and got the keys. 

Step 5: We sealed the deal on May 15 and began moving. Good thing too, because our lease for our rental ended on May 18. 

We've already got many plans for the home. We are going to do our best to give it a Coastal Maine Cottage style. Any ideas are welcomed! The seller had a lot of eclectic tastes, some good some odd. But it's so nice to have the assurance that we can make any changes we want. We've already installed a new faucet and ripped the wallpaper out of the kids room. More improvements to come...

 Madie loves our new house. She is being so silly here, getting ready for our walk. Behind her is looking down our driveway. 

Our garage and home. 

Of course Finn is a happy camper in his stroller with blankie in hand, fingers in mouth, sporting his pajamas & booties, and getting love from big sister. 

Madie gave me a great pose for the green house. 

On our Sunday evening walk. This is something we used to do every Sunday when we were in Livermore and we have missed it! Sure, we have been on Sunday walks since we have moved to Maine, but the house we were renting was situated on a busy road that wasn't ideal for a walking family. We had to drive to a trail or path. Not anymore! 

And we are only a ten minute walk from the Atlantic. The ocean breeze smells so good. 

Doing some stretches by the water. 

This boy loves being outside. 

Oh yes, our newest family member? Meet Lemon, our kitten.