Think globally, take no action locally. I believe that is the saying.

Maybe I’m thinking of: Think globally, protect property values locally because I forgot to save for retirement and my house is my only asset

Lincoln has a good Obashawns though

Did not disappoint

Have power but have to make an early morning emergency run to the Husqvarna dealer. The traction belt on my snowblower snapped after the first pass so the blower is sitting out in the driveway. Looking forward to doing a belt change out in the driveway

I think you’re being fooled a bit by the drone shot into thinking this is a kingdom lot camp on a remote trout pond or something. Eskatassis is a decent little pond, but I do not believe it has electricity on the Burlington side, and it is not particularly desirable real estate wise. Most of the camps are on the other end in Lowell where there is power. Cold Stream Pond is the big draw for the area. A house on Cold Stream in Webb Cove could run you 500k.

A few camps in Burlington sold during the Covid real estate boom on a nearby Pond (Saponic) for less than 100k.

I think you’d be surprised how inexpensive land is in Burlington and other remote Penobscot county areas

That is probably the best thing you can do. Just let natural plants take hold.

The gross numbers of people moving here are quite small.

My plan is to enjoy every snow day thoroughly, and adapt to the changes. I don’t buy that our state is going to be filled in climate refugees, I am starting to worry we will be the first ones to be heavily effected. This recent massive rain wind storm is a sign of what is to come.

It isn’t government assistance though is it. It is funded by a budget surplus, thus it is basically a tax return

Okay so let’s assume your state income tax rate is 7% of your gross income.

If you make $30,000 you would pay $2100 in taxes. If you receive $450 back, you just received 21% of your taxes back. To do the calculation:

0.07 x 30000 = 2100

450/2100=0.21

0.21x100= 21

Now your homework assignment is to repeat that for 100,000

Also your point about people of different incomes not being equally in need of $450 is irrelevant. The state is returning money that both people paid in. It feels nice to say “you make 100k you don’t need $450!”. But consider the other side, “ I make 100k, I paid more taxes than you, so I deserve a larger payout” and suddenly the equal $450 seems very fair

The cap makes sense in my opinion because it is a tax return where they slapped “heating assistance” on the label. It is fundamentally the same as the check this past summer.

Calling it heating assistance is more to make it seem like the state government is doing something about high heating costs, which they can’t really control.

On a return of taxes the constant amount among the tax brackets most benefits those in the lowest bracket. Someone making 30,000 is getting like 20% of their state taxes back. Whereas someone making 100k is getting roughly 5% of their taxes back.

Wtf an educated reply to a post on housing?

You’re exactly right though. It was rates + QE + real estate as an investment. The whole thing is a feedback loop straight out of “Irrational Exuberance”.

Green or red chamois shirt is a must

I see too much siding here. Needs to be all typar for the next 10 years

Just going to throw this here:

If you have an old house with barn board sheathing you might want to consider using tarpaper over typar. I read an article about it recently in Fine Homebuilding, it boils down to vapor permeability. You basically don’t want to trap moisture in the sheathing. If it’s plywood you need to use typar

Your best option is going to buy a tank off Craigslist or FB marketplace. It’s a gamble, but use your best judgement on the condition relative to yours. Also get a wood stove, and some wood for next season. Alternative, find a friendly inspector to okay the tank.

I’ve been in the same boat as you, as recently as October, and the best advice I can give is you’re going to have to do as many things yourself as possible, or be very very assertive with people you hire. Don’t assume that anyone is competent, or won’t cut as many corners as possible. Your best interest and theirs do not necessarily align.

In Maine fortunately DIY everything is possible. Fixing a leak is very easy, running new wire is very easy. It’s just confusing and time consuming. Take a step back and think it through for awhile and it will seem less challenging. If you go DIY the only way to justify it is if you cross the ts and dot the Is. Cutting corners on the previous owner’s end is likely how you needed up where you are.

I’ve tackled projects from a full bathroom rehab to reroofing, insulating a crawlspace, installing a wood stove. Running wire, and doing the plumbing for a bathroom. Fortunately I have a very good job and paid for everything except the bathroom from cash flow. The bathroom demolished my savings. So did the roof and the stove

The emergencies do slow down. I’ve been in my place since 2019, the first 2 years were nothing but non stop crisis from plumbing leaks to substantial roof leaks to basement flooding.

Northern Maine is woods and potatoes. Most of the snow occurs here, but it is pretty flat. western Maine contains mountain towns and gets a reasonable amount of snow.

Maine, like California, has a number of very distinct regions. Western, Central, Coastal, Northern, Eastern, the Portland area, the Bangor area, and then the southern beach areas are all different

Yeah they definitely don’t have the best environmental record in the PNW, and the south is pretty abysmal. Unfortunately anything “wrong” they have ever done was well within the law. Unfortunately forestry is regulated locally.

Fortunately here in Maine we have pretty good forestry regulations. No mono cropping and no plantations. Whereas in the south it’s all mono crop pine plantations.

Monocrop Douglas Fir is biting British Columbia bad right now. There is a beetle that is decimating those trees, and a massive amount of North American lumber comes from those trees in BC

I don’t believe they were in that business before they acquired Plum Creek. Plum Creek was big time into it. Almost all of those subdivisions are in the south, which is where Plum creek primarily operated. Pre merger Weyerhaeuser was almost exclusively in the PNW.

A little history here. Plum Creek Timber had plans to build a resort and sell lots for homes. It was an enormously profitable business for them in other parts of the country pre 08. Plum Creek was acquired by the timber giant Weyerhaeuser around 2016. Weyerhaeuser scrapped those plans as they are not in the business of developing resorts and subdivisions. Since then the state has been working to rezone the land that Plum creek had zoned for subdivisions

I grew up in that area and Howland isn’t great. I probably wouldn’t live there. Passadumkeag also isn’t great. Enfield, Lowell, even Burlington would be better towns in my opinion. You are off route 2 so there is less traffic. The landscape is just prettier because you have lakes and less developed rivers. People out there are interesting, but if you need to see normal civilization it is only about 30 minutes to old town Orono.

I’ll also add that I know for certain that Enfield, Lowell, Burlington, Lincoln have high speed internet on route 155 and 188

It is in Howland I believe.

You don’t tip at a retail store though

Just to add to this, the police always talk to the dog owner first. So be prepared to have to debunk some serious BS. If you yourself are a reasonable person, ask yourself “what kind of person would I need to call animal control against”.

I’ve called animal control on someone who left their dog in their yard just screaming at the wind for hours, when it was extremely obvious it just wanted to go inside, and the owner claimed I had threatened them and their dog. Complete piece of shit person