OT: Old House in Belfast, ME

[arashi]

I had the oppurtunity to get to Belfast again today, so I made myself remember to bring the digital camera and get over to take pictures of the house I mentioned in a previous topic somewhere.

I remember driving by this house for the first time, and it's a little around a corner so you start to turn and it starts to come into view. I was like Oh my God! It's the Old House. I really wanted to check out the inside as the place is GIGANTIC, however that would be B&E, and I love you guys but I'm not ready to go to jail.

Much like the Old House in the show, the place is in a sad state of disrepair. However, from the looks of it a few slight repairs to some rotted wood and a new paint job would do the place wonders. Just walking on the property I fell in love with the house. If I had the $$ I would so buy it, turn it into a Bed & Breakfast and name it the Old House, at which I would hold lavish parties every Halloween.

Anyway, on to the pictures:









Enjoy the pics!

[arashi]

Okay, so maybe a more, Old House marries Rose Cottage now that I think about it. Anyway, my Mom found some more information on the house, including the real estate listing:

Listing

The house was built in 1844 and is known as the Joseph Williamson house. It's currently listed at $550,000. It has 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms! The interior photo of the staircase makes me want this house really bad. In my dreams I guess!

[ClaudeNorth]

I was in Belfast, ME last weekend.  Where, exactly, is this house located in relation to the "downtown" area?

[Gerard]

Arashi, that house is magnificent - truly a grand Old House!  And don't be so quick to dismiss a dream about purchasing it and turning it into a bed-and-breakfast (with DS-themed Halloween parties!).  Maybe, just maybe, there's someway, with a lotta determination, you could make that dream come true.  And we'd all be your first guests!  (I like my coffee black with lotsa caffeine for breakfast in the morning, please.)

Gerard

[TERRY308]

Great house.  You could hire Willie for a year so he could tell your foreman exactly what to do.

(I like my coffee with alot of creme)

[onyx_treasure]

     What an elegant old house.  I am surprised to see there is only one chimney.  Houses like that around my area tend to be turned into multi-families and office space.

[Barnabas'sBride]

It does sort of give off the feel of the old house.

[arashi]

I was in Belfast, ME last weekend.  Where, exactly, is this house located in relation to the "downtown" area?

When you're driving down the main street past the movie theater and through the lights, just keep driving straight towards the hospital and it's on your right. It's a few houses down from the White House B&B.

[coterie-mc]

What an awesome looking "Old House"....A lady i chat with on another forum lives up in Unity, Maine and knows exactly where this house is.  i see by the listing that someone bought it...what a buy

[Raineypark]

Only $9500.00 for the annual property taxes?  You HAVE to be kidding me!!!!!

[coterie-mc]

I didn't see that...ouch!!!....and i'm from taxachusetts too...

[Midnite]

Wow.  That beautiful house would probably sell for $2 million in Southern California. 

[Philippe Cordier]

I agree that the price of that house is a steal.  Can't imagine it being priced that low in either of "my" two states here in the Upper Midwest.  I've never heard of Belfast but am guessing it must be very remote ...

It is exciting to see that a house resembling the Old House really was built in the correct location - Maine - in the 1840s.  I wonder if  such a house COULD, theoretically, have been built there during the Revolutionary War, when the Old House was built.  Someone on the forum once described the homes dating from that era in Maine and they didn't seem to be much like what we see on DS.

I remember providing a link to an impressive house of the correct place (Maine) and time (late 1700s).  While lovely and impressive, though, the house didn't look very much like what we see on DS, but it was fun to get a sense of the times.

[onyx_treasure]

Wow.  That beautiful house would probably sell for $2 million in Southern California. 

     I bet it needs a boat load of work done to it.  I have an old house in Maine.  If you can even get a contractor to show up, you get put on a waiting list.  It ends up costing you $2 million in repairs.
     Maine has the fourth highest taxes in the US.  Midnite, we don't have prop 13 here.  Our town just put out its assessments and people with homes in the 3 hundred thousand range have received the estimated taxes to be as much as 6 thousand dollars. .  I shudder to think what Liz's property tax would be.  She would have to sell off the "old house" and "seaview" just to pay them. 

[Midnite]

Maine has the fourth highest taxes in the US.  Midnite, we don't have prop 13 here.  Our town just put out its assessments and people with homes in the 3 hundred thousand range have received the estimated taxes to be as much as 6 thousand dollars.

Oh my goodness.

I shudder to think what Liz's property tax would be.  She would have to sell off the "old house" and "seaview" just to pay them.

I was surprised by that bit about Liz successfully petitioning to have her property taxes reduced due to the fact that half of Collinwood was closed off (which says a lot about the Collins' financial situation, don't you think?).  Do you know if that's really possible there?  I'm about to pay taxes here on an addition that's not even built yet.  :-