So 2 years ago a good friend of mine and I purchased some land in Maine. We are nearing the final decisions to start building. We bought 12 acres, so in a few years we are allowed to split the lot into two, so we each get 6 acres.

Its on Moosehead lake. Its remote, the town is cosy, not a single chain business in the town, closest walmart is 90 minutes, not a single starbucks, mcdonalds, nothing, its incredible.

This is a drone view of the land from above. fully wooded, the cleared part in the middle was cleared by a previous owner o open a view of the lake from a home. so I will be building in the lower left corner of that clearing.

this is the view of the lake from the drone, the land view is directly below this.

this is the model we are building i think they are doing the same, just changing colors and some minor details.

there is a ski mountain that JUST reopened last year across the street maybe 500 yards south, so it appears during ski season we can rent for about $800-900/nt, and right now about $400/nt. so we will rent it most of the year and I will spend maybe 2 months a year there, maybe try to do xmas there as a family or something.

The site that sells the house plans offers building estimates based on zip code, they project $370k, looking it over i think i can get it down to $300k if I do a bit of the general contractor work myself and just pay a project manager $20k instead of a GC $50-60k to handle it all.

I also wouldnt mind wiring it myself, i dont do plumbing, electrical is easy, i have done my garages, my basement from scratch, and 2 of the retail stores at work.

I dont know if i can time getting up there exactly when its needed and take 2-3 days off work in that perfect window, So we will see.

Dealing with the contractors and subs there is interesting, like there are nice honest locals id love to hire, but theyve seen the boom in new homes coming to the area, and realize people are coming from expensive places, and jacking up prices..

For example, driveway guy, (currently just a ditch off the road, so need culvert pipe, etc) quoted us $15,000 for a 80 ft gravel driveway.. we go a quote for $5-6k, went back to him and he agreed to do it for $3,000-3500. so I have a feeling im going to have to do that for every single sub i use, grading, foundation, framing, plumbing, etc etc etc.. which is a nightmare and a hassle, but we have the benefit of doing identical homes at the same time 200 yards away from each other. so double the work/pay and half the travel for double the work.

The other oddity is licensing and everything, we arent in Greenville, but the township office are in greenville and run by greenville, so everyone we talk to gives us answers for greenville, and we ask if that is the same outside of greenville, and they say yes, and we ask who is issuing the license, they say greenville, and we say well we arent in greenville, and then we dont need the license at all half the time... like for the driveway.. its a shit show.

They have rules on splitting land, can split land 1 time every 5 years.. so we have to wait to 5 years to split it. it prevent someone from buying 20 acres and building 40 1/2 acre homes on it in a year. so i can dig that..

There is a train track near the water it runs twice a day, like 11am and 5-6pm, for a logging company like 50 miles north of there. when they are done and they decomission the track, the easement defaults to our ownership and we can remove it, i think thats projected 6-7 years out.

anyone built from scratch before? any advice or ideas? things to think about?

im planning on going overboard on power at the box so i can go nuts with outlets and never have issues tripping breakers, sadly no gas, so doing propane tank buried in the yard, septic tank and well water is also the only options.. essentially everything i grew up with in warren county ohio from age 8-21, so nothing too new there.

pretty excited about it, need to work out a build loan so we can get started, probably in the spring, sadly, a little late to get too much rolling right now.

in early january it gets a high of like -10 degrees for a week or two.. so you wont catch my ass up there in january..

moose everywhere. local food is wonderful, people are nice, such a relaxing place to be. Visited 5 times so far since buying the land and twice before buying it.

Looks & sounds awesome, dude. I live around 90 minutes from the nearest WalMart, grocery store, etc now.. It's a pain in the ass sometimes but I dig it. Mule deer wandering through the yard all day. Listening to the coyotes & owls at night, cougar every once in awhile but they know to stay clear of the houses. Hearing one growl back at barking dogs still puts the wind up ya.

Anyway.. Pops built this place, same deal with propane & septic. Gas companies often own the tanks but IDK if that's a requirement with their regs or what. We changed companies a couple of years ago & they came out with a crane to get their old one, so worth mentioning. I'd like to install a transfer switch & auto-start gennie. Would also swap our old style water heater for on-demand, heating a bigass tank 24/7 with propane is wasteful as hell. Doubt irrigation is a big concern there but I wish we had a graywater system since we're already careful about what goes down the drains due to the septic (no bleach etc). Setting up a rainwater catchment in the meantime is on the list.

Think you've got the right idea using pre-planned blueprints & all that. This place is kind of screwy because they were winging a lot of it & got "creative" with things that weren't necessarily communicated well to various contractors, so we've got weird light switch locations and a doorbell in the wrong place, little shit but it can get away from you in a hurry and it makes fixing things a pain in the ass. Got an outdoor spigot that I'm not convinced ever got connected to anything but I sure as hell can't find a valve for it! They had to make other adjustments due to a granite seam running across the property so IDK what happened there.

So yeah, think long & hard about how you're going to maintain shit, or potentially even expand/upgrade as you go & it'll make your (or your kid's 😅) life much easier. Oh & if you're in the woods definitely look into "fire-wise" landscaping. Even with plenty of rain most of the time up there and a lake too.. it can happen, see there are several burning up in New Brunswick right now. Basically its just keeping fuel sources away from the house, particularly with exposed wood (we've got a deck around 3/4). People here do more rock garden type shit close to any structure & put the rose bushes (or more likely mesquite) out by the fence or driveway or whatever.

Good luck man! If you're like me you'd probably be chill with a shack and a wood stove out there so I'm sure you'll be thrilled with however it turns out.

ps - also this is probably obvious but introduce yourself to volunteer fire/ems or whatever you've got there along with the "neighbors" because you want them knowing who you are & how to get to you should you need them... which vehicles don't belong, too.

2 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Looks & sounds awesome, dude. I live around 90 minutes from the nearest WalMart, grocery store, etc now.. It's a pain in the ass sometimes but I dig it. Mule deer wandering through the yard all day. Listening to the coyotes & owls at night, cougar every once in awhile but they know to stay clear of the houses. Hearing one growl back at barking dogs still puts the wind up ya.

Anyway.. Pops built this place, same deal with propane & septic. Gas companies often own the tanks but IDK if that's a requirement with their regs or what. We changed companies a couple of years ago & they came out with a crane to get their old one, so worth mentioning. I'd like to install a transfer switch & auto-start gennie. Would also swap our old style water heater for on-demand, heating a bigass tank 24/7 with propane is wasteful as hell. Doubt irrigation is a big concern there but I wish we had a graywater system since we're already careful about what goes down the drains due to the septic (no bleach etc). Setting up a rainwater catchment in the meantime is on the list.

Think you've got the right idea using pre-planned blueprints & all that. This place is kind of screwy because they were winging a lot of it & got "creative" with things that weren't necessarily communicated well to various contractors, so we've got weird light switch locations and a doorbell in the wrong place, little shit but it can get away from you in a hurry and it makes fixing things a pain in the ass. Got an outdoor spigot that I'm not convinced ever got connected to anything but I sure as hell can't find a valve for it! They had to make other adjustments due to a granite seam running across the property so IDK what happened there.

So yeah, think long & hard about how you're going to maintain shit, or potentially even expand/upgrade as you go & it'll make your (or your kid's 😅) life much easier. Oh & if you're in the woods definitely look into "fire-wise" landscaping. Even with plenty of rain most of the time up there and a lake too.. it can happen, see there are several burning up in New Brunswick right now. Basically its just keeping fuel sources away from the house, particularly with exposed wood (we've got a deck around 3/4). People here do more rock garden type shit close to any structure & put the rose bushes (or more likely mesquite) out by the fence or driveway or whatever.

Good luck man! If you're like me you'd probably be chill with a shack and a wood stove out there so I'm sure you'll be thrilled with however it turns out.

ps - also this is probably obvious but introduce yourself to volunteer fire/ems or whatever you've got there along with the "neighbors" because you want them knowing who you are & how to get to you should you need them... which vehicles don't belong, too.

I had forgotten about the propane rental. My dad bought his. I vaguely recall it being discussed. It was above ground at first. The. It got buried. The. Gas came 15 years later so it was dug up and sold or give. Away. It was huge. Like the size of a Honda civic but round.

We certainly try to make friends with those we come across. Have t met the neighbors yet. I almost bought the 10 acres next to this 12 acre lot. It would be worth 5x and paid for my house build. Haven’t met those neighbors yet. They put in a tiny prefab house. Not sure if they have bigger plans or not. Next neighbors are probably 3 miles. Probably worth stopping to say hello at some point.

I’ll have to look into the fire safe idea. Seems wild being on a lake but it makes sense.

The buildings site gives you the CAD files for like $2000. So probably split that with my friends and pay someone to alter it to our final specs.

Most people don’t do AC up there. I’m going to. It gets to 80-85 in the summer and still cool at night. But if I need to work from there I’m going to need AC.

Got to look into proper winter proofing for an inactive home. Plumbing placement in basement for frozen pipes etc.

Should be an interesting path. Thanks for the thoughts and info!

3 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

I had forgotten about the propane rental. My dad bought his. I vaguely recall it being discussed. It was above ground at first. The. It got buried. The. Gas came 15 years later so it was dug up and sold or give. Away. It was huge. Like the size of a Honda civic but round.

We certainly try to make friends with those we come across. Have t met the neighbors yet. I almost bought the 10 acres next to this 12 acre lot. It would be worth 5x and paid for my house build. Haven’t met those neighbors yet. They put in a tiny prefab house. Not sure if they have bigger plans or not. Next neighbors are probably 3 miles. Probably worth stopping to say hello at some point.

I’ll have to look into the fire safe idea. Seems wild being on a lake but it makes sense.

The buildings site gives you the CAD files for like $2000. So probably split that with my friends and pay someone to alter it to our final specs.

Most people don’t do AC up there. I’m going to. It gets to 80-85 in the summer and still cool at night. But if I need to work from there I’m going to need AC.

Got to look into proper winter proofing for an inactive home. Plumbing placement in basement for frozen pipes etc.

Should be an interesting path. Thanks for the thoughts and info!

yeah man i am envious that place looks amazing... at least 6 months out of the year, but with a snowcat and some x-country skis it'd sure be an experience.

hiccup #1... the spot for the driveway.... has a phone/electic pole in the way...

the yellow stick is the dead center of the land, so if my homie and I wanna split evenly later the double driveway on dead center would hit the pole... so now we gotta nudge it south more onto his future part of the land..

soon as you pop through those front couple of trees...

this is the view..

weeds are out of control, lol.

so youll be able to see way more of the lake height wise as the patio on the back will be about 12 feet higher than this pic.. and further in so youll see a lot left to right.

4 hours ago, GoBengals said:

soon as you pop through those front couple of trees...

this is the view..

weeds are out of control, lol.

so youll be able to see way more of the lake height wise as the patio on the back will be about 12 feet higher than this pic.. and further in so youll see a lot left to right.

those aren't "weeds" that is native under-canopy and rare otter habitat. probably some berries hiding in there idk.

but seriously folks if you want to clear some of that out without a bush hog or a lot of blood, sweat & tears: GOATS. you can even rent-a-herd a lot of places, they'll put in some temp fencing and turn 'em loose. they'll eat poison ivy, they'd clear that out in a couple of days.

they got motor restrictions on that lake? looks plenty big enough for a catamaran. sometimes i miss living on the water.

17 hours ago, T-Dub said:

those aren't "weeds" that is native under-canopy and rare otter habitat. probably some berries hiding in there idk.

but seriously folks if you want to clear some of that out without a bush hog or a lot of blood, sweat & tears: GOATS. you can even rent-a-herd a lot of places, they'll put in some temp fencing and turn 'em loose. they'll eat poison ivy, they'd clear that out in a couple of days.

they got motor restrictions on that lake? looks plenty big enough for a catamaran. sometimes i miss living on the water.

yeah there are speed restrictions, not 100% sure on motor size speciically, but sea planes are all over the place.. its HUGE and tons of neighboring lakes.

I am at the Heart icon on the left. "town" is the grey square at the south point of the lake.. there are two paved roads in the enile area.. im on one of them.so the lake looks huge from my view but thats a drop in the bucket..

here is the view from the grocery store as you enter town and see the lakes for the first time.

the livestream of that same view of that lake im on. sometimes i put this on in the bacground of my office to have a zen background noise.

1 hour ago, GoBengals said:

the livestream of that same view of that lake im on. sometimes i put this on in the bacground of my office to have a zen background noise.

Always nice to have a reminder handy when work's a mf

Sea planes are the shit, like "get out the lake, aircraft! you're drunk!"

they flew this thiccie into Lake Pleasant a few months ago. It's even bigger in person, they had those heavy duty cranes you see for overturned semis parked under the wings to remove the engines. it was headed overland to Pima Air Museum down in Tucson. Well worth a visit if you're into looking at old planes.

thats a big ass plane to be landing on water

Here's a shot I took with the engines off. You can compare it to the vehicles in the background, that video doesn't do it justice

18 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

Here's a shot I took with the engines off. You can compare it to the vehicles in the background, that video doesn't do it justice

god damn..

Excuse me while I eat my heart out.

Off the scale cool.

Bet (hope) you get the Northern Lights periodically.

When's the house warming?

btw... too infrequent poster Lawshark lives in Maine.

Friend of MOC's and mine from down here and tailgates

gone by. Good people.

On 8/19/2025 at 7:45 AM, High School Harry said:

Excuse me while I eat my heart out.

Off the scale cool.

Bet (hope) you get the Northern Lights periodically.

When's the house warming?

btw... too infrequent poster Lawshark lives in Maine.

Friend of MOC's and mine from down here and tailgates

gone by. Good people.

thanks!

yeah they have mentioned the northern lights of some sort, i know my dad and i used to see them in minnesota boundry waters on camping trips, and this is further north, and no city lights anywhere nearby.

my biggest hesitation for moving there fulltime is the pure hassle to leave there, its 2 hrs from portland maine, and 4 from boston.. so getting to an airport that has flights to most cities is 4 hrs.. portland doesnt get much regular action, sadly.

so ill have to be all but hanging up my travel and entertainment activities before i ever decide to go there full time... most likely i roll back to ohio and have a closer vacation spot than from colorado...the 4 hr flight then 4 hr drive currently from denver is tough.. 2 entire days wasted on travel

3 hours ago, GoBengals said:

thanks!

yeah they have mentioned the northern lights of some sort, i know my dad and i used to see them in minnesota boundry waters on camping trips, and this is further north, and no city lights anywhere nearby.

my biggest hesitation for moving there fulltime is the pure hassle to leave there, its 2 hrs from portland maine, and 4 from boston.. so getting to an airport that has flights to most cities is 4 hrs.. portland doesnt get much regular action, sadly.

so ill have to be all but hanging up my travel and entertainment activities before i ever decide to go there full time... most likely i roll back to ohio and have a closer vacation spot than from colorado...the 4 hr flight then 4 hr drive currently from denver is tough.. 2 entire days wasted on travel

Embrace the snowbird lifestyle and get a matching spot somewhere warm?

15 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Embrace the snowbird lifestyle and get a matching spot somewhere warm?

would be nice, best friends life in florida.. so thats there plan of course.

South facing….

2 hours ago, GoBengals said:

would be nice, best friends life in florida.. so thats there plan of course.

Obviously partial to the desert Southwest myself but uhh.. sure.. Florida is definitely also a place that people can live. Many do, and it is warm, no question. The only stretch of the Gulf Coast that's not covered in tar balls, I appreciate that. It's not Alabama which is a plus. Yeah Florida is a choice that a person could make. 😆

(I say this knowing that AZ is kind of the Florida of the Southwest.)

5 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Obviously partial to the desert Southwest myself but uhh.. sure.. Florida is definitely also a place that people can live. Many do, and it is warm, no question. The only stretch of the Gulf Coast that's not covered in tar balls, I appreciate that. It's not Alabama which is a plus. Yeah Florida is a choice that a person could make. 😆

(I say this knowing that AZ is kind of the Florida of the Southwest.)

yeah it wouldnt be my choice, but my homie went there for an incredible job and been there for 17 years for that same incredible job.

It's also a good place to not pay taxes & catch fish.

Honestly though I think anywhere that's not straight slum dangerous or downwind of something that's gonna make me grow gills is mostly about what you make it.

Do like having mountains or ocean nearby, though.

37 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

It's also a good place to not pay taxes & catch fish.

Honestly though I think anywhere that's not straight slum dangerous or downwind of something that's gonna make me grow gills is mostly about what you make it.

Do like having mountains or ocean nearby, though.

i got the mountains, not so much the ocean... its a land island here... next real city is like 8 hours in any direction... i miss that about cincinnati, 4-6 hours any direction you have 12+ other cities of entertainment.

ground has been broken on the drivway(s)

26 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

ground has been broken on the drivway(s)

Camped it yet? Be fun to go all Man vs Wild and slap together a lean-to with some of that lumber. Maybe not the piss-drinking but I'm not here to tell you what to do in your own woods.

Nice view, though. How's the fishing?

42 minutes ago, T-Dub said:

Camped it yet? Be fun to go all Man vs Wild and slap together a lean-to with some of that lumber. Maybe not the piss-drinking but I'm not here to tell you what to do in your own woods.

Nice view, though. How's the fishing?

Everyone raves about the fishing, I have not yet fished it. I will, probably once the house is there, I will relocated my gear and inherited gear up there.

I havent camped it yet. I have actually been there a total of 5 times. maybe 4 times..

and often with an agenda of stuff to do, friends we have an air bnb with, so typically running around doing random stuff one day then wilderness averntures at night and every other day.. The ATV trails are INCREDIBLE. and there are many of them, there is an ATV group that takes donations and they spend their time repairing the trails (like from mud slides or toppled trees) they stay pretty rugged, but there are also various levels of rugged you can go. they make maps, detail the trails, add natural-ish looking signs to keep on track.. thats my most enjoyed activity so far. I have done some boating, and id be down to own a boat, but, renting is probably the best option, i could split a $20k boat with my buddy, but then the storage and maintenance would be a drag, sadly a few years ago they passed a law (regulation?) that no more permanent docks on the main lake, so we have to put a temporary dock that can be drug onto land for winter. which eliminates any affordable boat storage of my own, if we could have a dock full time, we could install a winch to raise it for the winter, and pay the guy to come winterize/wrap it.. i was down for that... but full storage.. fuck that.

there are rivers and creeks feeding in and out, tons of fly fishing options, and one of the deepest parts of the lake is right out from my land, so i can fish for just about antthing right off my own dirt if i want.

looking forward to some great relaxation up there, going to be a LOT of work in the meantime though.