Re-Intro and Question :)

Cait1008

Hey there, ladies!  My name is Cait and I was on here super briefly about a year ago.  I think I posted only two or three times!  Anyway, I'm back because my husband and I are currently looking for our first home and I am looking for some advice, and I thought you guys might be able to help!  We both work in downtown Portland, and are pretty open to different areas.  I'm thinking anything in about a 40 minute drive max commute area.  We found a house in Kennebunk that we love, but it seems kind of far away, and I don't really know much about the area.  Anybody live there?  If so, what do you like/dislike about it?  Also, I'd love to hear about other areas in that range, and what you think of where you live.  This is such a big decision!  I'd appreciate any help/insight that you can give.  Thanks in advance gals, and maybe I'll stick around this time!  ; )

jd72878

Lots of great houses on the market!  Where are you now?  I grew up in South Portland and really enjoyed the school system.  We live in Cape Elizabeth now and LOVE where we are.  Again, great school system.  I actually prefer Cape because it's more open, and feels a bit more suburban but we're not that far from Portland.  I think ultimately it depends on what you really want.  Ocean, land, garage, close neighbors, size of home, etc.  What you can get in Portland might be smaller than what you can get in Windham or Gray cost wise, which are about 40 minutes from down town.  You can't go wrong with any city or town in Maine. 

Tamzin418

You might want to consider Brunswick if you're willing to be north of Portland.  It's at the outer edge of the commute time that you want, but there is a wonderful community here.  Small town feel, but we have lots of very good restaurants, places to hike, close to the beach, good schools. Can you tell I'm a fan?  We just bought our first home here and couldn't be happier about it.

AMM101108

My husband and I live in Cumberland, and we love it here. Great school system, great town, great people. When we were looking at buying we were looking in Falmouth, Yarmouth, and Cumberland. All are very close to Portland, and great places to live and have a family.

mjellison81

I second the Brunswick area- I grew up around there, and DH and I are looking to settle there once we move back. As PPs said, there is a lot of great stuff in the area, really good restaurants, easy access to other areas,  and with Bowdoin in town, there's a good influx of events, plays and music coming through as well. 

Good luck with your search!  

MA&CB

Tamzin418:

You might want to consider Brunswick if you're willing to be north of Portland.  It's at the outer edge of the commute time that you want, but there is a wonderful community here.  Small town feel, but we have lots of very good restaurants, places to hike, close to the beach, good schools. Can you tell I'm a fan?  We just bought our first home here and couldn't be happier about it.

Another vote for Brunswick   My husband commutes to S. Portland it's about 40 minutes.  We're very happy here.  It is a great community but with everything else you need restaurants, Target, outdoors etc.  We had looked at some of the outlying towns like Windham, Standish, which would take us just as long to get to, but don't offer all the extra stuff that Brunswick does.  Plus the commute on 295 is better than those smaller roads especially in winter.

angeliza

DH and I are going through the process of buying a short sale house in Portland. We've been looking for years and I feel like I've gotten a lot of insight into what there is out there. Our search parameters were a little narrower than yours, we both work in downtown Portland and wanted to be a 20 minute or less commute. We found you can get a lot for your money in Westbrook but there are definitely some less nice areas around there. There are tons of places in Windham and some waterfront possibilities if that interests you. Gorham is definitely a good area and we love South Portland. If you like, you can send me a private message with some more specifics and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have! (Although we didn't look in the Kennebunk area, I've heard lots of good things about it from friends and co-workers who live or have lived there.)

Cait1008

Wow, thanks for the responses!  I should have mentioned that we're currently renting a great house in Cape Elizabeth now and really like it.  The nice thing about our situation is that our lease is up in August, but it's month-to-month after that. So we've got time, plus, we'll be able to spend all our summer close to the beach.  I have also been looking in the Brunswick and Cumberland areas, so it's nice to hear nice things about both of those areas.  I'm pretty sure I've looked at every single house that's online between Kennebunk and Brunswick! lol  As much as I love living in our house, I am SO ready to have a house of our own.  Days like yesterday and the long weekend make me so happy to live in Maine, too.  Thanks for the input!!

Bre42

Lyman Lyman!!! ;-)

BTW we are SO creative with our names

You should stick around this time, I promise to not "vent" about my BFF on the page (side note to anyone else reading this, Cait and I have been BFF since 7th grade!)