I'm thinking of becoming a Maniac. Any Suggestions?

My wife and I have an opportunity to purchase a cottage in Castine, Maine . Near the Maine Maritime Academy. The problem is we live and work in Connecticut. I’m going to need some convincing about this one. My wife has seen it in person on several occasions, (an old college buddy is selling it) and loves it. It’s about a stones throw from the water, and is resting on 5 acres. I said why don’t we buy it and sublet it out or cut the land up and turn a profit. She says it’s old and the land has been the same since the turn of the century.

Oh Geez, I hate situations like this. We bought a home in AZ when we lived there and now we rent it out, it’s paid for itself three fold in just under 10 years because we sublet it to corporations. Then again there are no corporations in Castine to speak of that we could do this with. I love to fish, and I love Maine…

Anyone been to Castine, or anywhere on the Maine Coastline? Now you see my problem, its a tough decision. Bibliophage I bet could help convince me.

Anyone own more than one home? What are the pros and cons for you?

And I opened this thread thinking you needed some hints as to how to behave like a loon.

I’m disappointed, only 'cos I could’ve helped in THAT way, but unfortunately, I have no experience of REAL Maniacs*.
*Except for a bloke from Maine who was my English teacher in Year 12. And geeeeeeez, he WAS a complete loon now I think about it.

:smiley:

Ok, I’ll allow it. If you have no suggestions to the OP, you can suggest to me varying methods of derangement and or lunacy.

As a psych instructor I’d be particularly interested. *

**Even further into the depths of off-topicness: I give a standard disclaimer before I teach abnormal psychology, and psych 101. Stating that it is not uncommon for students to feel symptoms of some of the disorders we are reading about during the length of the semester. I mean pick up a copy of the DSM-IV and read thoroughly about seasonal affective disorder…then do it again in late November and see how you feel. :slight_smile:

I thought this was going to be about the number from Flashdance. You can imagine my disappointment.

I have found that watching the moon move through the sky is helpful. If you can remain watching the moon for long enough that you can see that it has moved you start to see it in motion and can soon believe its movement is quite rapid. At this point you either decide that staring at the moon for so long was a bad idea, or maybe you can go crazy and get used to it, and perhapse experiment with a little howling or barking.

First of all, if you think you’re going to be spending time in Maine, don’t refer to yourself as a Maniac, or even a Mainiac. That’s not what we call ourselves here. If you have to label yourself, use Mainer. As for Castine, I spent a week at Maine Maritime Academy a couple years ago; the town seemed pretty nice. If you want to use the cottage as a peaceful retreat on the coast, go for it. If you want to divide up the land and sell it, let someone who can appreciate it for what it is have the place.

Aren’t all the Stephen King stories set in Main?
Do you really want to live there?

Someone needs to have a long talk with my in-laws, then.
As to the OP:
Dunno if I can help. It sounds like you’re trying to talk yourself into this, rather than just weighing the pros and cons. If your biggest concern is the location itself (rather than travel times or price range, or what-have-you), take a long weekend, and find a hotel/B&B in the area you’re looking at, and try it on for size. Go wander around the closest “downtown” to your prospective new place for a couple days, meet some folks, and see some sights.

Bottom line, you’ll like the place, or ya won’t, I think.

I work in MA, and live in NH, and Every. Freaking. Friday. Evening, I have to wait in line on I-93 for all the people that are going to their weekend homes in northern NH, Vermont, or Maine, coming from MA, when I’m just trying to get home.

Based on that, I’d say that if you get to Castine by going up I-93, don’t buy it, but if you get there by going up I-95 (which is more likely), then I don’t care.

(Yes, I know that was totally useless, but it will help drive you to being a maniac, even if it doesn’t help you decide if you want to be a Mainer.)

Actually, I know quite a few people at work and in my neighborhood who own land in Maine and go up there for the weekends, so you’d be in good company. You could probably be pretty successful renting it out to vacationers during the summer, too. Personally, I would say consider it if you would use it significantly yourself, and worry about the rental income only as a cost offset to the place.

The proper label that you’d have to learn to accept is “From Away.” As a seventh-generation Mainer (though now living in Boston) I must warn you that you will never be accepted as a native even if you never set foot outside the state for the rest of your allotted years. Any children wouldn’t stand much of a chance, either; the children’s children, maybe, if they moved to a faraway town where no one knew of their alien origins.

Anyway, my family rented a cottage in Castine for a week last year and we liked it a lot. It was extremely quiet and peaceful with no hordes of tourists, and just enough in the way of amenities so as not to force you to drive to Bucksport (35 min.) every day. But there are lots of places on the Maine coast that are just as nice and might be more to your liking; I’d check out some properties other than your friend’s in different areas if you like the idea.

The cottage that we rented was managed by a real estate company, so it is possible to be an absentee landlord of a vacation property. But rentals would most likely be limited to the late spring, summer, and fall seasons so you wouldn’t receive the income that you would from a year-round rental property.

I’m sad.

I was hoping to give you sage advice in how to act like a stark raving mad grocery cart pushin’ crazy man along the freeway of life.

I was hoping you were in a career crisis and had enough of the new precious kitty - Dim Sum - and tired of the boat, " The Flying Wasp" and you realized that you could never keep up with your nymphomanical wife and decided to cash it all in for a refrigerator box to call your own, where you can hide from The Man.

But, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, you have to ask real estate advice. Money Maniac stuff.

So, here it is: Buy it and host Maine Doper Parties.

I’m not in Maine, but I could be there in a heart beat.

A

Ignore the a

I’m look’in at a nice spacious fridge right now to crash in for, oh say, eternity. Thanks Shirley, you made me smile this morning.

You are very welcome, Phlo . can I call you Phlo? Will you say, "Kiss my grits?’ School’s starting up real soon, ain’t it?

Yeah. I’m supposed to be going to Burning Man at the end of the week and students arrive this weekend. I may have to cancel. My office is all set up and lecture hall but … Bad timing for me to go to THE MAN.

Sure you can call me Phlo. but just remember it reminds me of one of the waitresses from that old show…ALICE. :slight_smile:

I have nothing against Maine in the summer… except black fly season … and nothing against Maine in the not summer except for all the snow. That about sums up Maine IMO :slight_smile:

Traffic can be a bear especially if you have to go through NH and especially if you have to go through NH when something is happening at NHIS! But some people like sitting in traffic.

Oh and I thought you were going to AZ for a while and would be subletting the place in CT? AZ to ME is a looooong trip :slight_smile:

If you would really like to be a maniac though just spend a week trying to reason with my 2 year old. That should kill any sanity you may have left after spending the last few months peeling kitten off the walls.

Oh and ayup… you’ll never be a real Mainer! You could buy a boat and a big truck and some snowmobiles to try and fit in though.

No we decided against subleting the AZ property. We are making more allowing corporations like Honeywell to use it for corporate weekly rentals…

As for reasoning with your 2 year old…I may have my own two year old to philosophize with in the not-to-distant future. :slight_smile:

And I already have a large American made truck and boat. I’d have to work on the Snow machines though…but I will never get the famed “Bumpah Stickah”

Apparently today’s episode of Tanookie’s world is sponsored by the letter C and the number 8. Said 2 year old is counting merrily 1, 2 ,8, 6, 8, 8, C, 2, 6, 8, 4, 8.

Good luck to Mrs. Phlosphr on the munchkin making/carrying/birthing and all the rest. Or is the munchkin already in progress and I missed a thread to say congratulations and welcome to the swollen ankle club??

No thread yet. But soon. My wife has it in her head that she’ll be in the swollen ankle club by 35. She’s 32.

Personally, I’m excited. I’m going to be a great Dad!

Let’s put it this way, I loved the Hypno-birthing thread.

Cat is learing not to climb walls… Soft paws is a crock, we couldn’t get them on the little bugger. I have the track marks on my arm to prove it.

Did you get a good squirt gun? That should keep kitty off the walls :wink: Then of course the munchkin will learn to climb the walls and they think squirtguns are fun. (She can also scale the fridge and get on the counters and over the gates… )

I’m on my last leg of my swollen ankle club membership. 2 is it for us… (not bad for an infertile chick)

Good luck when you go for it… from what I’ve seen of your threads and your tree house you’ll be a fun dad!