Harpswell Maine Vacation Rentals

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We so enjoyed staying at your house this summer. We had many wonderful nights as a family there. Special memories for us include walking down to the community dock, walking on all the rocks there, going for ice cream on the road toward Bailey Island, and barbecuing at your place. It was such a nice place.

-- 2007 renter

The house was GREAT -- clean, well supplied, plenty of room, peace and quiet, and relaxed atmosphere; as described. An easy drive to sights and good restaurants in Brunswick, Bath, and Harpswell. We especially enjoyed Maine Maritime Museum, Holbrooks in Cundy's Harbor, shopping in Freeport, and Reid State Park. We give this house our "thumbs up."

-- 2009 renter

If you're looking for...

A private, peaceful Maine summer vacation house rental on ocean waterfront, yet very close to the amenities of the quaint towns of Brunswick, Bath, and Freeport -- and less than 3 hours from Boston?

An alternative to Brunswick hotels or Bath hotels for Bowdoin College Commencement, Reunion, Homecoming or Parents weekends?

Long weekend or weekly rentals for Spring 2010 or Fall 2010? (We rent by the week during the peak summer season.)

A nearby place for the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival in September?

We have a Maine coastal home rental in East Harpswell, less then 3 miles from the working fishing village of Cundy's Harbor, yet conveniently located an enjoyable 10 to 15 minutes from Bath and Brunswick, which are delightful towns full of interesting shops, museums, and excellent restaurants. This Harpswell oceanfront house rental is available for weekly summer vacation house rentals, off-season long weekend rentals, and for longer term off-season rental.

The seaside rental property location is in Cundy's Harbor on Sebascodegan Island, also known as Great Island -- much easier to pronounce. (You will often see the village spelled without the apostrophe: Cundys Harbor.) Our 2-acre oceanfront property is in a quiet, private location with year-round resident homes along a private road. Great Island is one of three islands, along with Orr's Island and Bailey Island, that form one "arm" of Harpswell. Don't worry. You don't need to boat to get here. All these island are connected by bridges, including the unique and famed cribstone bridge. But you could take a boat trip to Admiral Peary's Eagle Island.

The other half of Harpswell features South Harpswell and Harpswell Neck. The town, which has several town beaches, has the longest shoreland of any town in Maine with its numerous inlets, coves, and islands. Drives through Harpswell are a delight by themselves, and at our house you will definitely feel away from it all. Right out your door you can dig your own clam dinner -- after getting a permit from the town -- or rent a kayak to explore the coves along the coast. We are in an excellent location for day trips along mid-coastal or Down East Maine -- or for just relaxing.

Harpswell is located in mid-coastal Maine of Down East Maine, in the Bath-Brunswick area, less than 3 hours from Boston and about 45 minutes north of Portland. For those flying in, Portland's airport (PWM) is the most convenient, the airport in Manchester, NH (MHT) and Boston's Logan airport (BOS) are 2-3 hours away and may offer better flight schedules and prices.

Cundy's Harbor, while the lesser known of the Harpswell villages (and thus far more peaceful), is the most convenient village in Harpswell, a very easy 10 minutes (6 miles) from Cooks Corner (junction of US Route 1) with all its shopping -- Shaws supermarket, CVS pharmacy, Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Sears, Big Lots, Starbucks, McD's, Applebees, and lots more. Cooks Corner area also has Thomas Point Beach, which hosts a Bluegrass Festival every Labor Day weekend. Cooks Corner is part of Brunswick and 5 minutes farther is downtown Brunswick, which has boutique shops, an antique mall, and some truly excellent but casual restaurants.

Downtown Brunswick is complemented with historic, handsome Bowdoin College at one end of downtown. (Full disclouse: the house owner is a Bowdoin alum.) In summer, the Bowdoin campus features its Maine State Music Theatre and International Music Festival. Yes, you do a night on the town in Brunswick. Bowdoin has two fine museums -- Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and newly renovated Art Museum. For civil war history buffs, the Joshua Chamberlain Museum is located across the street, and town has its own historical museums. While you may not come to Maine for museums, they're great for a rainy day.

Maine Street is filled with interesting shops and has become known as a restaurant haven. (Our House Guide provides a list of restaurants -- with our experiences -- along with local information and ideas to help you with your visit.) Our location is perfect for those coming up for one of Bowdoin's special event weekends. We do long weekend rentals to accommodate people coming for those Bowdoin events.

Another 10 minutes south from Brunswick brings you to Freeport with LL Beans and extensive outlet shopping. Since LL Beans is open 24-hours a day, it's an interesting place to visit on odd hours. Portland, a delightful small city features its Old Port Exchange, many fine restaurants several of whose chefs now run restaurants in Brunswick, and the Sea Dogs, the Red Sox AA affiliate. The city is an easy 45-minute drive in total from the house.

Heading north on Route 1 brings you quickly to Bath, an historic shipbuilding city, perhaps best known for its Bath Iron Works. As with Brunswick, Bath is known for its quaint downtown. The Maine Maritime Museum is located there. From Bath you can head to the coast to Reid State Park in Georgetown or to Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg, both great places with beaches. Fort Popham is a civil war era fort, located near the first colonial site in New England, established in 1607. Beyond Bath lies all of Mid Coastal Maine -- Boothbay Harbor (with lovely Maine Botanical Gardens), Wiscasset, Damriscotta, Thomaston, Cushing, Pemaquid, Rockport, Camden, etc. These are comfortable day trips from our house.

If a relaxing, peaceful oceanfront vacation is your goal, great! Please contact us or submit your information through our secure form. You'll greatly enjoy our home. If you want to be surrounded by fellow vacationers and party outdoors until all hours of the night, then please continue your search. (We're not asking you to be stoic vacationers -- after all, it is your vacation! -- but we want people appropriate to the setting.)

See our calendar of availability from our VRBO listing or HomeAway listing. We are currently taking inquiries for Summer 2010 and beyond.

Keep reading for details about the house's features, loads of photos, and a map showing the general location of the house, and rental details for the property, including pricing):

Key features of the Maine seaside rental property

1500 sq feet of living space.

Over 300 feet of ocean waterfront on a tidal basin of the broad New Meadows River, which is an "embayment" or a very large oceanic cove, only a few miles to the open ocean of Casco Bay.

Association dock and common property about 500 feet from the property. Renters do not have "docking privileges." That is, you cannot dock a motor boat. But you're welcome to enjoy the dock or launch a kayak from it, at your own risk. Seaspray Kayaking is located on Route 1 where it crosses the New Meadows River, less than 15 minutes drive from the house. There's not what we would call a beach, but you could swim off the dock when the tide is in. (A late afternoon high tide means the water won't be "Maine cold".)

Full water views from the house and deck. Lobster boats are frequently in view.

Stunning sun rises (though they're best in the fall and winter).

Lots of bird life at the shore and in the yard in good part due to the nature of the water frontage. Pileated woodpeckers, wild turkeys, bald eagles, and osprey are visitors to our yard, and the shore birds feature herons, egrets, and many others.

3 bedrooms. Sleeps 6 comfortably. Can accommodate slightly more.

1 3/4 baths. (one bathroom has tub w/shower, the other shower only)

Open-floor concept with cathedral ceiling over the living and dining room areas.

Large wrap-around deck.

Gas stove in living room.

Very large yard. Partially wooded, 2 acre lot. Very private. (only one neighbor's house can be seen)

Washer & dryer in basement.

Detached oversized 2-car garage.

Wireless internet access via cable modem. (Bring your own laptop.) Cable TV (roughly 50 channels). Two TVs. One DVD. Stereo with iPod cradles.

Pet friendly. See our pet policy below.

Linen service and at least a starter supply of other basic household consumables - e.g., dish soap, laundry detergent, paper goods. (We've rented homes where we immediately had to go shopping for basic, but critical goods. We don't want you to have that experience; it's such a bad first impression. Given the short turnover time for our cleaner to ready the house, we can't be 100% certain everything will be stocked, but we do try.)

Automatic backup generator all wired in and waiting for a power outage. This is a real nice-to-have in coastal Maine.

Photos of the property and the house are below. Please note that photos of interior rooms are difficult to take even with a 28 mm lens! We're not trying to hide anything. Really.

The House front, which faces southeast.	Note the large yard and extensive wrap-around deck.
Views of the water from the deck. Photo taken from the main entry door area.	Note the two deck tables with umbrellas.
View of the deck along front of the house.	Water views from the deck and house.
Association Dock near high tide with low morning fog obscuring Three Islands.	Waterfrontage near the dock looking toward the property's waterfrontage. Lots of tidal pools to explore.
The property's waterfrontage.	Holbrook's Seafood Restaurant in Cundy's Harbor
November Sunrise from the Living Room	Outhouse near the Association Dock.
Moonrise at the dock	Water views from the end of the driveway, yes, in winter.
Master Bedroom	Master Bedroom
Second Bedroom	Second Bedroom
Den with Sleeper Couch	Den with Sleeper Couch
	The photo to the left is the small bedroom on the 2nd floor. We have a twin bed in there, which is a trundle bed. That is, a 2nd twin bed rolls out from under the single bed. To the left as you enter is a small closet. If a pair of kids who use this room should be good friends! Below are wild turkeys in our front yard (hopefully eating ticks).
Living Room, looking toward the garage.	Living Room, looking towards garage.
Living Room - looking over the back of the couch out to the water	Living Room & Gas Stove - looking toward back of the house
Dining Area -- kitchen is to the left. Photo taken from the living room area.	Kitchen. Photo taken from the dining area.
Water views from the dining room table.	A kayaker in Laurel Cove.
	Alvin enjoys the water views from the living room too! (left photo)... And the views from the 2nd floor hallway looking down on the living room
A pair of pileated woodpeckers on a tree near the garage. The 2nd one is behind some leaves.	Two pileated woodpecker chicks in a tree on the edge of the property, waiting for a meal.
A heron in flight in the tidal basin at mid tide.
Egrets feeding as the tide recedes.	Egret coming in for a landing.
A raptor in flight over our property.	A heron in flight over our property.
House Location in Harpswell
An aerial map...
The bigger view of our location...
Bowdoin College Chapel at Sunset.	Osprey nest at Bowdoin Coastal Studies Ctr on Orr's Island

Property & Rental Details -- Got more questions?
Rental Fees for 2010	January to May..............$1000/week 10% discount for multiple week rental. June.............................$1400/week 15% discount for rental of 4+ weeks. July 4 to Sept. 11.......... $1600/week Sept. 11 to Oct. 2..........$1400/week Includes linens & at least starter supplies of other October to December.....$1000/week basic household consumables. Above fees for a rental party of 6 or fewer. Additional people are $50 per person per week. Maine sales tax of 7% is added to rental total. Rental period in peak summer season is from Saturday 3 pm to Saturday 10 am. Long weekend rentals are available off season, including Bowdoin event weekends. For long-term rentals from November to May, please contact us. Pets policy below.
Payment Terms	50% deposit required at time of contract to hold the rental period. Balance due 1 month prior to rental. We accept personal checks and MasterCard, Visa, and Amex. 5% surcharge for credit card use.
Damage Security Deposit	$500 security deposit due with final rental payment. This may be paid with a check or credit card. Security deposit refunded pending review of premises upon departure.
Cancellation Policy	Refund of deposit in full if cancellation 60 days prior to rental period. Cancellation less than 60 days prior to rental period will be refunded, less 10%, if we can rent the house for the rental period. However, credit card surcharge fees would not be refunded (if applicable).
Pet Policy	We will consider having your pets as our guest, but we do ask for an extra $100 damage security deposit and a $50 rental fee per week per pet for the extra wear & tear and cleaning requirements. (We're pet lovers -- our cats, Alvin & Murphy, are visitors to the house -- but we know that pets can do damage.) Tell us about your pets, please! If you have serious pet allergies, this may not be the house for you. (We have relatives with mild pet allergies, and they've been fine.) The house is cleaned between visits, but some pet dander is likely to linger. We can tell you the time -- and thus number of cleanings -- since the last pet guest.
Amenities	Washer & Dryer in basement 2 car detached garage Propane stove in living room Large wrap around deck with gas & charcoal grills 2 deck tables with umbrellas, 7 deck chairs. 2 wooden rocking chairs. Automatic backup electric generator all wired up and waiting for a power failure. We try to stock at least starter supplies of basic consumables, e.g., paper towels, tp, dish soap, laundry detergent.
Bedding	1 Queen -- with 4" memory foam cover 1 Double -- with 4" memory foam cover 1 Twin with trundle 1 Sleeper couch with 4" memory foam cover. (We can vouch for it. What a difference from the typical sleeper couch experience.) 1 Futon couch that folds down into a Full size bed Linen service included
Entertainment	Cable TV -- about a 50 channel package -- with DVD player in living room. 2nd TV also in master bedroom. Cable broadband internet with WiFi. No computer provided. Bring your own laptop please. Stereo with iPod cradle adaptors for all recent iPod models.
Kitchen	All appliances: oven, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, coffee maker, toaster, blender, cookware, dishes, glassware, pancake/waffle iron, mixing bowls, all utensils, lobster pot (of course) and lobster picks & crackers. If we're missing something, please tell us.
View & Location	315 feet of ocean frontage on the New Meadows River, an "embayment" or large cove of Casco Bay. Full water views from the east-facing house as shown in the photos. Our frontage is a tidal basin. This makes for changing scenery with the tides and lots of bird life. It is not beachfront. (You won't find many beachfront rentals north of Portland.) But you can swim off the dock at high to mid tide.
Communications	Cell phone coverage varies with network. Verizon and ATT coverages both are very good according to friends, neighbors, and past renters. We have Sprint & ATT. We get an acceptable Sprint signal on the deck, but not in the house. Sprint signal is pretty good at the dock. Cell coverage way down the peninsulas is poor for all services due to the hills. We don't have a landline phone since everyone has cell phones these days.
Other Amenities	Very large yard, good for a challenging croquet game. It has a slight slope that makes volleyball or soccer game a little tougher. Association dock very close by, maybe 500 feet. A great spot just to watch the world go by or launch a kayak. Very private, quiet location.