4 days and counting

My husband Jon and I moved to Maine exactly nine months and 21 days ago. We moved from Providence, RI where we owned a tiny little carriage house on the East Side. Living in Providence spoiled me. We were surrounded on all sides by gorgeous clapboard homes from the 1800s with precious urban gardens and painstaking homeowners. 

My husband worked at Brown University and I worked in Boston at WGBH's FRONTLINE. My commute was the pits, but we were generally very happy in our little life. A job opportunity opened for Jon at Colby College in Waterville and we couldn't pass it up. So, we packed up our things, sold our carriage house, and moved into a 'temporary' rental in Belgrade, Maine. We've aptly begun calling our rental, "the shanty." It's basically a one-room summer cottage on Belgrade Stream. I imagined we'd live in it for 3 months or so before we were able to find a house to buy. 

Obviously, I was wrong. 

The shanty has kept us dry, mostly, and warm, mostly, but the search for a house to buy was long and excruciating. We had our hearts set on an old home south of Augusta and weren't willing to compromise on our aesthetics. There are plenty of old homes up here, but finding one that hasn't been butchered by previous 'renovators' is close to impossible (especially in a 20-something's price range)! 

After nearly 10 months of searching (we began before we moved to the area), we found a fantastic Greek Revival home in Gardiner, Maine. The home was built in 1840 and is known around town as the N.K. Chadwick home. I've tried finding more about N.K. Chadwick, but so far I've only found that he served on the vestry of his church in the 1800s. 

We are due to close and move in on Thursday, June 25th. We learned from the previous owners' children that the house once served as a small orphanage and as the neighborhood dance hall. I'm sure we'll discover more fun history at the closing!