We Discovered Self-Reliance on a Maine Island

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PLANNING STAGES

After a lot of reading and discussing (not to mention hemming and hawing!), we finally quit our jobs, packed our belongings, and headed for the Pine Tree State. Once there, because we didn't have a permanent shelter on our land, we purchased a two-family house in the small harbor town from which the ferry departed to "our" island.

During the first winter, we designed our dream home and ordered the lumber we'd need to build it. Bob worked full time as an energy consultant, and I stayed home to nurse our newborn child, Seth. And, to bring in additional income, we divided the rickety dwelling we were living in—as well as another old duplex we had bought nearby—into comfortable, quaint rental apartments.

Then, in June (taking along a tent, garden supplies, and a new beehive), the three of us moved over to Long Island, ready to begin work on the house. Bob was sure he could continue his job on the mainland and still have plenty of time left over-primarily during the weekends-to put up a winter-resistant structure by fall.

However, by midsummer we hadn't even gotten a pump hooked up to the well we'd had drilled . . . let alone begun work on the ac tual house! So, after a long and somewhat disheartening talk, my husband and I decided that the best thing to do was just relax, enjoy the rest of the "tourist" season on the island with Seth, and then—come fall—move back to the mainland for another winter. That way, by the following summer (when Bob would be ready to quit his job anyway and devote full attention to construction), we'd be all set to get an early start, and could—with luck—be settled into our farmstead before the first nip of fall hit the air!

CONSTRUCTION: ISLAND STYLE

Building a house under ordinary circumstances is difficult enough, I'm sure, but when you add an "island flavor" to the project, it can turn into a real ordeal! For instance, when that second spring rolled around, we found ourselves faced with the monumental problem of having to somehow transport 5,000 board feet of lumber . . . 62 panes of Thermopane glass . . . and countless batts of insulation (not to mention all the other building materials we needed) first across the channel to Long Island, and then over the island to our property!

It ended up taking us most of May to make the necessary arrangements to coordinate suppliers, truckers, and ferry services in order to make this feat possible. But—at the last minute—all our plans disintegrated, because the day before the trucks (loaded with the components of our future home) were scheduled to board the boat . . . the city condemned the ferry dock!

Well, our frantic searching finally turned up a contractor with a barge, and he was willing to float our supplies, but not the trucks that had hauled them, across the water. Then, when everything had been unloaded from the barge, it took us six whole days, with a jeep and trailer, to haul all the material to our three acres . . . (which, of course, was located at the far end of the island from the boat landing)!

Once our building materials were on hand (at last!), we worked furiously all summer, and most of the fall, in an effort to complete some sort of an enclosed shelter by winter. But, as Bob said, his scheduling "just didn't take into consideration how many trips we'd make up and down the ladder!" . . . and, again, we ran out of time. It was a gloomy day in late autumn when we packed up the tent and headed back to town. Surely, we thought, this will be our final winter as city folk!

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