Friday, August 07, 2009

Beaucolic Maine

Maine is a beautiful place. This past week we took our second vacation to the New England state, caught up with friends and enjoyed the quiet.

One of the big highlights of our trip this year was that we went to see and stay in friend SLO's new house (she's about 1 1/2 hours north of Portland on one of the coastal peninsulas).



She arrived at the house about a week before we did to move in and start to clean up. The house is 200+ years old and just adorable. She has water access, 5 wooded acres, and the house sits up on a bit of a hill surrounded by wildflowers. It is the most adorable thing ... makes me want to pick up and move to Maine. (Of course I realize I've only seen Maine in July and August and the winter is just a bit different). The ruralness of this part of the state is so appealing to me though ... very relaxing.



That lovely view is the meadow next to her house which she gets to look at outside her kitchen window. Pretty nice hmm?



That's S, another of our friends, and SLO after dinner one night.



Of course, I should disclose that our vacation included a bit of elbow grease too. We offered to help SLO paint the exterior of said 200 year old farmhouse. That picture is after we had finished ripping off the remainder of vinyl siding (the easy parts of which were removed about three years ago), taken down the guttering, and scraped off all the old paint. That scaffolding got moved around a lot and was the best tool we invested in all week!



After filling in all the holes in the wood, caulking all the seams of the house, replacing several clabbards, and priming, the house started coming together. After a good coat of paint, re-screened doors, replaced gutters and several other side projects we ended up with the beauty you see in the top picture. A beautiful home for sure!



Of course, no trip to Maine would be complete without lobster either!

S and I can't wait for our next trip!