Vacation Home Week: Pick Your Heart’s Desire of Blueberries in Rockport, Maine

Since summer, my very favorite season, is almost over, and since some kiddos are already heading back to school, we wanted to wring one last summer breeze for you. We decided to christen this week “Vacation Home Week” at CandysDirt. Every day we will bring you a marvelous vacation home to make your summer last through eternity. I’m heading to our beach house in Maine later — my husband is already there — where they have been doing some (ugh) remodeling. So we begin the week with an amazing home north of Portland, and north of our place down near Kennebunkport: Rockport on Penobscot Bay. How much more Maine can you get than this: the home is a blueberry farm a stone’s throw from the Atlantic. Listed by Dallas agent Angela Downes, with Virginia Cook. Yes, she lives in Dallas but is from spent a lot of time in Maine and is one of the best go-getters in town. Of course our Maine connections drew us close — Angela is the only woman I know who drives on the Maine turnpike, meets a random couple who happen to be from Texas, and sells them a home in Maine all with 48 hours. That’s the way they do things up there!

By the way, Penobscot Bay is known as where the Rockefellers summered — they own half of Long Island (Me.).  A whole lot of celebrities summer in Maine — from Martha Stewart to John Travolta to Patrick Dempsey (a native) to Susan Sarandon. Is it far? Yes, but totally worth it. Fly to Boston for southern Maine, or Portland. Read the comments on the BDN Living story and get a chuckle: that pretty much tells you what the people of Maine are like. Totally un-fluffed, no nonsense, down to earth. I leave my Jimmy Choos at home and wear flip flops and let the hair curl/frizz because dampness is a part of life up there, as is cold, clean fresh ocean water and in some areas, great swaths of beach.

176 Mill Street in Rockport is a 7656 square foot home so you will have plenty of room for guests or family — four bedrooms, four full baths, four living areas, a half bath, two fireplaces — you will need them and use them! There is also a guest house. The home was built in 1999 of rock and stone, a John Calvin Stevens-influenced shingle-style custom-built hilltop estate. It was  designed as a period home to blend in with the landscape, with a very classic Maine look & feel from the building materials to the curved windows and eaves. Inside you get 360-degree views of Penobscot Bay, mountains & sunsets, and winter views of the Northern Lights.

Like blueberry picking? This place is blueberry heaven! The property is on 30 acres of income-producing blueberry fields, which generates about 100,000 lbs of blueberries per year. Can you imagine? Blueberries and lobster, that’s your diet up here. The acreage includes a pond. Of course there are porches — this is Maine!

I am a little amazed at the price of this home: $2,250,000, which is just under $300 a square foot. We’ll have to ask Angela if those blueberries produce any income. Surely there’s an ag exemption. Doesn’t this home just take you away to a very peaceful place on a steamy Monday morning?

I’ll be up there soon — let me know if you want me to check this baby out for you! Or give Angela a shout.  Maybe I’ll even get a bushel or two of blueberries…

By the way, here is a nice little movie depicting your perfect life at 176 Mill Street. I love the way it shows off the home and property, and you can get a taste, so to speak, of what you can do living up here. There’s a little drama with a happy ending…  see if you can guess what’s going to happen!